INSIGHT
Time to profit from full
fi bre opportunities
Digital Britain is still a work
Steve Mackervoy, Channel Sales Manager at Nextgenaccess, explains how FTTC ‘Superfast’ broadband
frustrations present ripe opportunities for the channel
estates, retail parks and new
housing developments. Another
approach is having an anchor
tenant, such as a data centre, in
place from the outset.
It’s not what you do…
Choosing a provider capable of
deploying bre more quickly and
cost-e ectively than competitors
is key. It will help to use one
already licensed, and with a
proven track record of leveraging
BT Openreach infrastructure
for deploying bre networks
under Duct and Pole Access
(DPA) / Physical Infrastructure
Access (PIA). Nextgenaccess
recently used DPA/PIA to
deliver a new high capacity 432
dark bre route between Bristol
and NGD, a hyperscale facility
in South Wales. It purposely
ensured su cient drop o s
close to BT exchanges along
the route, allowing carriers
and local resellers to quickly
connect up ultrafast broadband
to potentially several thousand
businesses and communities. In
summary, the nancial rewards
available from the promise of
FTTP are much closer than
many resellers might imagine.
Serving strategic business
markets where FTTC is just not
good enough presents attractive
new opportunities to both
specialist bre infrastructure
providers a Steve Mackervoy, Channel Sales Manager at Nextgenaccess nd their partners.
in progress. Consumers,
businesses and public
sector users are waiting
in anticipation, even though the
majority are already connected
to FTTC ‘Superfast’ broadband.
Unlike emerging FTTP ‘Full
Fibre’ broadband, Superfast
setups only take the bre
optic cable as far as the green
cabinet at the end of the street.
Businesses and homes are
connected to those cabinets
via a copper ‘last mile’ link.
is puts a considerable dent
in performance and quality
of service. e facts speak for
themselves: with FTTC, it’s
possible to obtain download
speeds of up to 80Mbit/s and
upload speeds of up to 20Mbit/s.
Actual speeds ultimately
depend on the distance between
the premises and the cabinet,
but average download speeds are
in the region of 60Mbit/s. By
comparison, full bre services
o er up to 1Gbit/s symmetrical
speeds of 1,000Mbit/s on both
the download and upload.
It’s encouraging to know
government funding and BT
Openreach commitments aim
to give every business and
household FTTP by 2033. But
what do we do in the meantime?
e nation’s businesses and
essential public services are
crying out for FTTP to boost
productivity, enable wider-scale
exible mobile working, and
maximise digital services.
Silk purse from a sow’s ear…?
e good news is you can make
an attractive and compelling
business case here. e pentup
demand that exists for
FTTP o ers near-term new
businesses opportunities for
ISPs, Comms and IT VARs…
provided they can nd a full
bre infrastructure provider
prepared to take a long-term
view. is means the provider
investing in the build out of new
dark bre infrastructure and also
willing to take lower margins,
thereby allowing partners the
opportunity of layering marginfriendly
annuity services over the
top. For example, WAN, voice
and data services and high speed
Internet and Cloud access.
To make it viable, the
network route must be carrierneutral
and highly selective,
going where there’s identi able
latent demand and where no or
few other providers have trodden
before. Avoiding overbuild
situations is key, with a need for
su cient underserved businesses
and communities in the vicinity.
at could include industrial
18 | Road to Full Fibre 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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