This morning we held the first pre-conference Blandin Webinar on Fiber to the Home Networks. (Two more webniars are scheduled.) David Russell of Calix was the speaker. He knows so much about FTTH and does such a good job of boiling things down to the most salient points and best examples. I particularly enjoyed hearing about various FTTH marketing tactics.
David was kind enough to allow us to his presentation online:
I also did the best I could to take notes on the questions:
Is there a community process for someone looking at FTTH?
- Look for demand. Look for businesses and other employers (such as local schools) who are frustrated with current broadband access and work with them.
- Talk to incumbent about their interest in supporting community need – as defined by the community.
- If they aren’t interested look at a slightly wider scope – are there any providers in the region who might be interested in stepping in to help?
Many communities jump into building their network too easily and too quickly without looking at other options.
There are many options to build a business case now. The community might own the fiber while a provider manages it. One provider might own the fiber and allows others to offer retail services through it.
What are the economies of scale? Is there a minimum size of community that makes sense for FTTH?
If you need to build a video head and voice switch you need about 5,000 subscribers to justify cost.
Providers in Western Minnesota would like to work together because they have a sense of community and would like to provide a community service.
It is fortunate that providers take on the role of providing service as a community good. Often they will provide service beyond an area that will be obviously profitable to reach customers who need broadband.
Finally – is there any research that documents the economic impact of deploying FTTH in a rural community.
We didn’t mention any specific resources during the webinar but scanned previous BoB posts for resources that might be helpful:
- Michael Curri on economic impacts of broadband – it’s not necessarily fiber – but he gives some good hard numbers to quantify ROI
- State of FTTH in US – the report includes a chart of businesses that relocated to FTTH communities.
- Potential Broadband Economy in Minnesota Estimated at $2.7 billion – OK it’s statewide but the equation they used to get to a statewide number may be useful