European telcos talk full-fiber bottlenecks

As more regions commit themselves to supporting full-fiber broadband strategies, some service providers are raising issues with obstructions in their paths.

Two recent reports "commissioned" and "supported" by UK ISPs TalkTalk and BT named concerns with Prime Minister Boris Johnson's ambitious full-fiber-by-2025 timeline, citing unfair rules for fiber builders and last-mile costs and impediments as some concerns.

Speaking on a panel at last week's virtual Broadband World Forum, Branimir Marić, CTIO at T-Mobile Czech Republic and Slovak Telekom, emphasized some of the specific challenges his teams have run into in the central European region.

"A fiber rollout is the most complicated that a telco can do," said Marić. "It's not only about technology. It's a lot about construction law, it's a lot about regulations, it's a lot about relationships with local municipalities ... relationships with the housing and building associations," he said. "It's volatile because if you miss in any one of those chains, you cannot deliver the household and you cannot connect the customer."

Discussing FTTP-build hurdles he's faced in Czech Republic and Slovakia, Marić described the unavailability of ducts in regions where incumbents built aerial networks, combined with telcos being required by local municipalities to tear down those poles and build fiber underground – leading to more expensive and slower builds.

"Digging is more costly, and it also makes it more difficult to reach rural areas with fiber," he said. "If you start digging, it's construction permits, zoning permits, also getting approval from the [land] owner that you can enter their yard and lay a pipe... Many owners of land ask for easements if you want to lay cable," he said, adding that there are often no clear rules about what property owners can charge.

Providing a "wish list" of what would make it easier for telcos to successfully deploy fiber, particularly to rural areas, Marić offered three suggestions: 1. Having "transport fiber readiness in deep rural areas," which he said would cut costs; 2. Getting municipal and government construction offices to allow telcos to use aerial fiber; and 3. "Regulate the whole topic of easements" to determine how much landowners can charge for fiber passing over their properties. "The lower the easements would be, the faster we're able to redirect that money into construction of fiber," said Marić.

Also speaking on the panel, Tony Mitchell, Network Platform Director at Hyperoptic, a London-based FTTP provider, echoed the need for cooperation with regulators, local stakeholders and property owners. But he also highlighted the UK's "barrier busters" program as a potential model for solving these issues. Formed in 2017, the "barrier busters" program was created by the UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) in response to a report about barriers to broadband infrastructure deployments.

"From an industry perspective, the barrier busters program looks at all those issues that slow the pace of deployment in a collaborative way," he said. "There's a real drive to improve those issues ... especially now that the UK government has announced that by 2025 they have a mission to create a gigabit-capable UK."

Cooperation with local municipalities and wish lists aside, the numbers back up the struggles that European ISPs are having with meeting full-fiber goals and targets. As per a report released earlier this year from FTTH Council Europe measuring fiber deployments and subscribers as of September 2019, Czech Republic, Slovakia and the UK all fall below the 20% mark for FTTP penetration, with the UK at just 2.8%.

— Nicole Ferraro, contributing editor, Light Reading