Fiber always wins in battle between LTE and FTTH

Fiber will likely remain important despite the rise of LTE solutions.

By Donna Donnawitz
December 6, 2012
NTT East and NTT West in Japan recently rocked the broadband world by slashing their fixed broadband fiber-to-the-home prices in order to compete with growing LTE solutions in the country. This evidence that LTE is taking a stronger hold in the telecom sector is making many people wonder if FTTH and other forms of fixed broadband still have a place in the market, especially in regions like Europe where FTTH deployment and adoption are slow. A recent BroadbandTrends report explained that while LTE is rising, it will probably never replace fixed broadband.

The LTE vs. FTTH debate
LTE is attractive because it is extremely inexpensive to deploy and advanced solutions can meet the needs of most broadband customers, the news source explained. At the same time, FTTH is generally expensive to deploy and goes well beyond the needs of many customers. As a result, many telecoms are simply going mobile to make everything easier and cater to clients who are focused more on smartphones and tablets anyway.

This strategy is becoming more prominent, but it may not be the long-term answer. According to the report, most of the areas where LTE is thriving are regions where regulatory concerns, economic conditions and telecom competition combine to make the wireless solution work. There are still plenty of places where LTE will not provide enough bandwidth to support users, especially considering that most telecoms serve households, not individuals.

Because of this, the debate between LTE and FTTH is not necessarily an either/or discussion. Instead, it is about identifying which solution makes the most sense in any particular market and heading in that direction, the report said. Furthermore, regardless of which technology takes a firmer hold in the telecom sector, fixed broadband networks and fiber-optic cabling infrastructure often act as the backhaul for wireless solutions, making the technology a fundamental part of the LTE landscape.

Fiber always wins
When telecoms build new mobile network capabilities, they have to find a way to provide backhaul that not only connects the signal towers to the telecom network, but also allows for enough bandwidth to support operations. This is creating an environment in which optical cabling and fiber to Ethernet media converters are among the most important parts of a mobile network. As a result, fiber will likely remain an integral part of telecom networks no matter what happens in the LTE vs. FTTH debate.

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.

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