Costa Rica FTTH plan to feature fiber, copper integration
A new FTTH program could soon be underway in Costa Rica.
By Max BurkhalterSeptember 4, 2012
Typically, a fiber-to-the-home project involves running optical cabling systems directly from the primary middle-mile backhaul network link out to homes. Once at each individual building, the fiber line is connected to a conversion unit that allows it to interact with internal copper cable systems. In Costa Rica, a few roadblocks in the development of a new FTTH plan is making copper more important in the installation, TeleGeography reported.
According to the news source, the plan began with a deal between Costa Rican telecom Radiografica Costarricense and a Swedish telecom that would build and, at least initially, manage the new network. The program was not going to be a standard FTTH installation, but instead be a fiber-optic access network. The project was scheduled for completion in the early part of 2013.
However, TeleGeography sources discovered that Radiografica Costarricense experienced unknown difficulties with the deal at the last moment, forcing it to scrap the project. However, the Swiss company has decided to install an FTTH network in Costa Rica despite the lack of a defined telecom partnership deal. The report said that there is just one major problem with this strategy - the organization does not have the funds available to build a full-featured FTTH network.
The news source explained that the Swiss telecom will overcome this issue by designing a core FTTH network, but not building it out to every single home. Instead, some parts of the network will use copper connection options to be attached to the fiber line. This will reduce the costs of deploying fiber throughout the setup.
This type of project showcases the potential offered by fiber-to-Ethernet media conversion whether used for internal or external network purposes. The need for fiber-optic cable infrastructure has become a priority in many telecom, data center and even enterprise network setups. However, copper is still dominant outside of backhaul, storage and specialized connectivity options. Because of this, companies have to either spend heavily for fiber and risk having significant amounts of unused cable bandwidth available or restrict themselves to copper and struggle to keep up with emerging demands.
Media conversion circumvents this either/or decision by allowing organizations to identify where fiber makes the most sense and where copper is better and freely switch between the two cabling types based on the specific requirements of the network.
Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.
According to the news source, the plan began with a deal between Costa Rican telecom Radiografica Costarricense and a Swedish telecom that would build and, at least initially, manage the new network. The program was not going to be a standard FTTH installation, but instead be a fiber-optic access network. The project was scheduled for completion in the early part of 2013.
However, TeleGeography sources discovered that Radiografica Costarricense experienced unknown difficulties with the deal at the last moment, forcing it to scrap the project. However, the Swiss company has decided to install an FTTH network in Costa Rica despite the lack of a defined telecom partnership deal. The report said that there is just one major problem with this strategy - the organization does not have the funds available to build a full-featured FTTH network.
The news source explained that the Swiss telecom will overcome this issue by designing a core FTTH network, but not building it out to every single home. Instead, some parts of the network will use copper connection options to be attached to the fiber line. This will reduce the costs of deploying fiber throughout the setup.
This type of project showcases the potential offered by fiber-to-Ethernet media conversion whether used for internal or external network purposes. The need for fiber-optic cable infrastructure has become a priority in many telecom, data center and even enterprise network setups. However, copper is still dominant outside of backhaul, storage and specialized connectivity options. Because of this, companies have to either spend heavily for fiber and risk having significant amounts of unused cable bandwidth available or restrict themselves to copper and struggle to keep up with emerging demands.
Media conversion circumvents this either/or decision by allowing organizations to identify where fiber makes the most sense and where copper is better and freely switch between the two cabling types based on the specific requirements of the network.
Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.
