Interest in FTTH increases following global investments

Fiber optics a key investment for cities looking to provide higher-quality living to citizens.

By Max Burkhalter
January 9, 2014

More cities are investing in their own FTTH networks, bypassing private providers outright and offering high-speed internet access to citizens, and the effects are having a widespread effect on interest in similar adoptions. According to InfoWorld, Leverett, Mass., and Stockholm, Sweden, are two of the most recent cities to invest in a local government-run FTTH network, and while run very differently, provide the same foundation for improved Internet access to consumers.

In Leverett, the city council decided to invest in FTTH in order to bring a fiber network to isolated communities within its area of influence that previously had no access to high-speed or broadband Internet. According to the news source, the city decided to do this and cut out the middle man - private carriers - in order to keep costs low. This investment has inspired increased interested in FTTH across the United States, and more cities are beginning to consider deploying their own public infrastructure as well.

Stockholm's fiber network is much older, and already live, but runs in a much different way than Leverett's. According to the report, the city leases the infrastructure to carriers to then provider Internet access to consumers and run the maintenance of the network. However, the reason for the investment was much the same - frustration at carriers slow adoption of the low-cost, high-quality solution.

"So it created Stokab, a city-owned entity, that would own just the ducts, rights of way, and dark fiber lines." Susan Crawford, an independent expert, wrote concerning the city's fiber-optic network. "The idea was that the presence of this neutral infrastructure would stimulate investment, competition, and sustainable development."

While Stockholm's deployment of fiber technologies occurred 20 years ago, it is still having an impact on investment decisions across the globe. Some cities are considering a similar deal with their local carriers, driven by the value it provides and also the potential profits. The news source reported that Stockholm has generated nearly $2.3 billion from the city-run fiber-optic network since its construction.

Ultimately, in order to properly deploy a high-quality FTTH solution, cities will need to invest in the right hardware to support the infrastructure and actually bring it into consumers' homes. Fiber to copper media converters will play a critical role in these deployments, and ensure that firms are able to get their networks off the ground and providing the latency-free, high-quality service needed to drive their own value.

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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