Deployment trends in the rural areas in Europe Aerial and underground solutions for FTTH installation

Jacques Jaillet London, November 5th, 2015

A few words about ACOME

1. The size of the problem

2. The main difficulties

3. The aerial solutions

4. The underground solutions

5. A tentative of conclusion

Agenda

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ACOME in a few words and figures

405M€ 1 520

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•  A French specialist of the telecom networks •  Production sites in France (5 units), China (2

units), Brazil and Tunisia •  Main ranges :

•  Optical fibers and optical cables •  Optical connectivity products (MDF, S/C) •  Copper OSP cables •  Radio frequency systems (feeder line,

FTTA, µcells indoor line)

The size of the problem

  In Europe, all the dense city centers have large broadband services.

o  There is often a competition between infrastructures (FttX, VDSL, CATV).

o  This represents about 1/3 of the 240 M European homes.

  Another third is located in medium density zones   And one third in rural areas, where too often there is

a poor service, sometimes no real internet access. That is 80 millions homes.   The EU commission has launched a digital agenda

including an very ambitious goal : 30 Mbit/s for any European home in 2020.

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The main difficulties

  There is no technical problem.   The problems are : o  Who should invest o  Who should operate o  Where is the competition (if any)   And associated difficulties : o  Who is allowed to reuse the existing infrastructure (ducts,

poles…) and the rights of ways o  The resulting costs differences are enormous   The answers to these questions are the sword of

Damocles and main issue on all these large broadband projects.

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The aerial solutions

Pole : o  Telecom o  Electricity o  Lighting Countries : Spain, Portugal, France,

Germany, Poland, Scandics, Romania… Advantages : costs, easy installation Issues : solidity, maintenance, aesthetic,

competition, swabbing (installation software) Where is it used : more or less everywhere, and we are at the dawn of the massive deployments (except Portugal and Scandics)

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The underground solutions

  Not always as easy as expected   Several technologies depending of : o  The existing duct system o  The soil o  The regulation (depth, protection) The most efficient is generally mini and micro-trenching with non metallic cables Micro-trenching : a few cm depth in the road or the pavement. Mini-trenching : 20 to 25 cm depth

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ç Mini trenching

Micro trenching è

The difficulties

Always the same : •  Which infrastructure can be reused ? •  Who has the rights of ways ? •  Who is ready to pay what ?

And everywhere the technical solutions are the same and they are based on : -  Aerial -  Underground -  Radio

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Conclusions

•  No rule is adapted to all situations,

•  The design office shall always think perennity of

the network, and choose the solution on this base,

and on the budget constraints

•  For better or for worse, the investor will choose

the best solution on the payback law.

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Thank you for your attention!

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