The recent report by Analysys Mason for OFCOM ("Fibre capacity limitations in access networks") shows again that there are some important path dependencies in the choice of fibre plant architectures for access networks. The main stream press focuses on the speed projections but there is a lot more to enjoy.

Each FTTH technology has an upgrade path to support higher capacity for the next five years. However, the fact that TDM GPON solutions require customer premises equipment to operate at a much higher bandwidth than that required for each individual customer, may limit how far it can be upgraded in the medium to long term, especially as the customer premises environment can be challenging. For example the temperature at the customer premises can fluctuate, whereas premises designed to host long-haul network equipment are air conditioned, thereby minimising temperature fluctuation.

The first observation is that more evolution of enabling technologies is required for PON generations than for PTP architecture, which in a way, makes PTP a less risky technology to invest in. In addition, due to the greater bandwidth scalability of PTP systems, the expected life cycle of each generation of PTP is likely to be longer than that associated with TDM PON. This is an important result, as it indicates that operators will have a longer time to get return on their investment with a PTP architecture compared to a TDM PON architecture, despite a slightly more expensive initial deployment costs (PTP are currently 19% more expensive to deploy than TDM PON systems, mainly due to the additional fibre, and therefore duct infrastructure required).

I would add: the one architecture and approach that gives you the highest penetration over the lifespan is by far the most interesting one. Unbundling and flexibility of technology increases penetration so it is a factor you should be more interested in than bandwidth scalability.

So from this analysis, we do not believe that there will be any significant barriers in the evolution of FTTH systems capacity. However, we believe the bottlenecks maybe in the upgrade of one generation of FTTH systems to the next, especially if an operator decide to depart from a TDM PON infrastructure to a WDM PON infrastructure. In the UK for example, if, in the medium term, Openreach was to upgrade its GPON network to a WDM PON network, it would need to prepare for it today by allowing for extra space in the splitter site to be accommodate extra equipment (wavelength demultiplexers for WDM PON).

Why on earth did anyone at Google think this is necessary or effective as a marketing action?

As the ACTA storm is rising (try #ACTA on Twitter) a new report shows what history has taught us many times (as in the Prohibition): don't fight what everybody wants with severe punishments, create a good commercial and competitive alternative instead.

Download Ban will not help industry

A download ban will not affect the purchasing behavior of Internet users.

This would make me order a FttH connection for my mother. She would definitely be able to use it and keep in touch with everyone.  (CES 2010, LG's new Skype embedded TV series).

The next step in FTTH is obvious: FITH (fiber-in-the-home) and just around the corner.

"Genexis' new CPE is the first POF-enabled product to provide a seamless fiber-powered home network. ......With its unlimited bandwidth, our POF-enabled CPE is a logical step for Genexis as it gives customers a solid, reliable, easy to install and very fast in-house infrastructure. "

The design of OptoLock enables the fiber to be cut and terminated to the exact required length on site, enabling even the most novice consumer to quickly and easily terminate the bare optical fiber. This means that OptoLock enables all the advantages of optical fiber to be brought into the home with do-it-yourself simplicity and costs. The benefits of this simple, robust high-speed interface will be significant as high-speed services like 100 Mb IPTV are delivered into the home.

As Nico Baken often says "Mobile bits are desperately seeking the nearest fixed line".

The "newly" discovered interest in offload just reinforces the point that we've all known:  with the exception of mobile satellites, "mobile" networks aren't mobile at all.  

People and devices are mobile (or at least untethered) but the networks are fixed and the sooner the traffic is dumped into the fixed network, the better for optimizing use of the radio access links.  

The reason femto-cells (GSM/HSDPA access point inside a building) interests carriers is that the radio traffic never even leaves the building before it goes into a fixed network.  Same with in building WiFi, etc.  

In addition to facing overload of the radio links, they also are having to deal with inadequately provisioned base stations. If you have multiple users each using multi-MB off the same antenna/base station, a DS3 (let alone T-1s) to the tower won't cut it.  In order to make the entire system scale, they're having to deploy fiber to the base station.

In a previous post I predicted that the Ipad would be the ideal device for digital tourists (wealthy, middle aged or elder) at home, giving access to home systems at large. Great if the apps and icons would work the same on your Iphone as on the Ipad.

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