Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Verizon currently planning few changes in FTTH strategy
Max Burkhalter
While fiber to the home deployments are becoming more popular around the world, Verizon expects to make minimal adjustments to its FTTH strategy, FierceTelecom reported.
At the recent UBS Warburg conference, Lowell McAdam, president and CEO of Verizon, explained that the company has a very specific and defined plan for FTTH and does not anticipate adjusting this strategy. McAdam summarized the company's FTTH goals by pointing out that it still plans to build out the new optical networks it has planned, but does not expect to add to that number, according to the news source.
The report said Verizon currently has approximately 16 million points of presence in their FTTH deployment landscape. The company intends to expand its FTTH network deployment to somewhere between 18 to 21 million points of presence. This will further the organization's FiOS infrastructure, but does not represent a substantial increase in optical network investments.
McAdam explained that current economic conditions dictate that FTTH deployment is not going to create major opportunities for profit. However, there is still significant potential for growth, even if just a few variables change. If this happens, McAdam said the company will seriously consider changing its FTTH strategies, according to the news source.
"We developed a strategy with FiOS whereby if it puts FiOS down the street regardless of the services on the street we're going to move everything over to FiOS and get the copper out of service. That changes the scale and the cost structure associated with FiOS. If I can get some rhythm on that and be more efficient on the optical network terminals and what goes on inside the house, the economics of FiOS becomes better," McAdam told conference attendees, FierceTelecom reported.
McAdam went on to say that the increased ability to reach multi-family dwellings with FTTH infrastructure could have a major positive impact on the telecom industry's ability to affordably invest in new infrastructure, the news source explained.
While Verizon is not particularly enthusiastic about current FTTH conditions in the United States, the market as a whole is still poised for success. According to a recent Pyramid Research study, the number of global FTTH deployments is expected to rise substantially moving forward, with the United States, China, Russia and Western Europe leading the charge toward optical network deployment.
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