The FTTH Council Europe acts as a body independent of telecoms regulators
and the various incumbent telco’s around Europe and exists with the simple aim
to promote the building and use of full fibre to the home and premises
networks. The 10th annual conference is coming to the ExCel
London on 19-21st February and we have a 20% discount code that can be used
for those wanting to attend the conference and associated exhibition.
We met up with Hartwig Tauber, Director General of the FTTH Council Europe
to find out some more about the conference and find out why the UK has been
picked as the location for the conference.
One of the key points to come out of the interview was that the UK and other
European countries need to be wary of falling into a FTTPr trap – which is we
need to be careful to avoid Fibre to the Press Release. A common
complaint from consumers from the UK and across Europe is that consumers and
politicians are mislead by the wealth of press releases promoting fibre
products, when in reality they are only slightly more fibre rich than the
previous product e.g. cable broadband (FTTN) has mysteriously morphed into
fibre broadband when in reality it is still a metal cable to the premises and
while FTTC services are rolling out quickly they still do not offer the
symmetry and future proof nature that a full fibre to the home roll-out will.
To many of our visitors this will not be news, but hopefully the presence of
the conference may help to raise awareness in the wider press and public.
“We need to make the decisions now to have everything in place for 2015. I
don’t think national and local banks or investment vehicles get the picture.
One example in Germany had a local investment bank that has took on the roll of
aggregator so they brought together five or six fibre broadband projects and
then merged them into one big one. This makes the projects big enough for
investors and got money from the European Investment bank and other
investors.”Hartwig Tauber, FTTH Council Europe on beyond 2015
The above snippet from our meeting sums up very neatly the UK position, in
that to date attracting investors in FTTH has been difficult, but projects are
starting to find the situation changing with FTTH projects now being approached
as long term investment and the conference will cover this area in some detail,
exploring the various models used across Europe and help to explain to
potential investors that FTTH investment is not just about faster internet
access for the digitally addicted but about ensuring a village, town, city,
region or nation has the infrastructure to compete on the world stage.
From previous fibre and broadband events the focus has often been on the
technical or regulatory environment, this conference seeks to expand this
exciting clique to include those people and groups such as large pension
investment groups who can finance large projects or help the many existing
small community projects in the UK expand to grow and provide true world
leading 21st century levels of connectivity.
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Is it a common complaint? In the UK
What happens in 2015? By then will there be many parts of the UK not covered by VM, FTTC, FOD, BDUK funding and C&W etc.
In 2015 there is the £300m of further funding that becomes available via TV Licence, but no firm plans announced yet as to how it will be spent, and with a General Election in 2015 things may all change.
You just have to look at the TV ad for BT Infinity, all those bright fibre strands of light coming down into our homes……… it must be the light reflecting of the copper pairs!
Fibre to the cabinet…copper to the home!
It’s time for a re- think, was FTTC the right move, should it continue when the hurdle is still the last mile of copper?
Last mile? Last 500m in most peoples cases.
The ASA don’t think its time for a re-think, people lodged complaints about Virgin (who started the trend) branding their service as fibre and they let is pass and people lodged complaints about BT (and the rest) using the same term again the ASA let it pass.
Which I why I asked is this a common complaint, is it common for Virgin and BT fibre customers to get hooked up and the customer says “What??? I thought it was real fibre to my house, I’m going to complain”
Quote “the FTTH Council Europe acts as a body independent of telecoms regulators and the various incumbent telcos”.
Alterntively you could say the FTTH Council Europe is the trade body for FTTH equipment manufactureers. This may colour its views on FTTC vs FTTP!
I was speaking to someone from the FTTH ‘Council’ and they really don’t understand FTTC in the UK.
They are just a trade body, could be called The Society of Fibre Manufacturers and Traders, like the SMMT for the motor industry.
Full Fibre rollout is the only way. Otherwise it’s just a mish mash. Don’t know about 500M, Fibre to my cabinet is about 2Km, copper to my house is about 5.2Km!!!
Don’t even know if VDSL will work at that length. I’d only get about 4 meg if it did. get 1.6 ADSL2 now. Brilliant!
ahockings, unfortuntely for you, you are in a minority. I can’t remember the exact figures but it is something like 90%+ are within 1km of their cab, with something like 70% of those within 500m, they aren’t the exact figures but you get the idea.
The ASA have possibly damaged long term prospects, because from an investor’s point of view if FTTC can be advertised as FTTP, why invest in FTTP?
Why? Speed, reliability, in the long term costs less to maintain, plenty of reasons
Your average joe won’t give a fig about what the physical media is, only about speed, download caps, traffic shaping etc etc
Also… what investors? 🙂
GMAN99, I would be happy to talk to you about investors. FTTP projects with the right profile and strategy are as appealing as any other tech investment. Look at the German example Hartwig gives and then look at Cotswolds Broadband (http://www.cotswoldsbroadband.co.uk/) to see a UK full-fibre project with prospects.
Its not me you need to talk to 🙂
It looks like Costwold is in early stages, I think the main problem is that ROI is very long term with fibre which coupled with our current financial crisis is not a good mix
So a quick look at the prospectus and it looks like they are aiming to double peoples money in 4 yrs or there about.
For me before investing I’d be asking, where else has this been done in the UK and did it work, also how well have other altnet’s done and have to date.
Anyway… I doubt advertising FTTC as fibre will have any impact on their investors