Openreach UK Deploys New Air-Blown Ribbon Fibre Optic Cable

Following earlier trials Openreach (BT) has today confirmed that it will proceed to deploy Fujikura’s Air-Blown Wrapping Tube Cable™ (AB-WTC), which they claim could result in a reduction of up to 80% in installation time compared with traditional cables that require fibres to be spliced individually.

At present the operator is currently in the middle of ramping-up their rollout of 1Gbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP technology, which aims to cover 4 million UK premises by March 2021 (so far they’ve already covered 1.51 million premises, adding 20,000+ every week) and then there’s an ambition for 15 million by around 2025.

Meanwhile the new cable “bonds individual ultrafast fibres together in a web-like pattern that allows increased packing density in a cable” and this enables engineers to blow the cables long distances without having to joint. The ribbon format also allows engineers to join up (splice) together 12 fibres simultaneously (i.e. using the Fujikura Mass Fusion Splicer (70R+)), rather than having to do them individually.

The design also creates additional space in the cable, which means they can fit more than 432 fibres into small diameter cable sheaths. These cables can be used to feed large areas from Openreach’s telephone exchanges and they may also be “blown” into underground ducting by using compressed air (utilises duct space more efficiently), which is always faster than manual pulling (note: blown fibre itself is now quite common).

The new deal also includes a contract for the supply of Mass Fusion Splicers and associated accessories.

Openreach Chief Engineer, Andy Whale, said:

“We want to get full fibre broadband to as many homes and businesses across the UK as we can, and as fast as possible.

To do that we need the right conditions to invest, but we also need to reduce our own costs and cut down the time it takes for our engineers to build the network without compromising quality.

We can do that using innovative tools, techniques and network components like Spider Web Ribbon fibre cable. Its small compact size makes it perfect for using space that’s at a premium in our underground ducts. It’s also more flexible and easier to work with – so our engineers can splice multiple fibres at once – saving time and money.

This technology, along with numerous other innovations we’re developing across our network build, will support our plan to reach four million households with full fibre by the end of March 2021.”

Toshitane Nakatsuji, MD of Fujikura Europe, added:

“SpiderWeb Ribbon is a truly innovative technology that has already been proven to deliver important efficiencies and savings for our customers around the world. We are very happy that Openreach has decided to take advantage of this technology. Our new AB-WTC cables and our 70R+ splicer are leading edge products that will help Openreach significantly reduce the cost per home of building its FTTP network.”

The press statements make this sound like it’ll have a huge impact, although Openreach hasn’t provided any like-for-like comparisons with their own existing methods (generalised % figures don’t tell us much) and other aspects of such work (e.g. digging up streets) tend to still be the primary time hogs.

We should point out that other operators are also taking a similar approach. Nevertheless anything that helps to improve the rollout pace of FTTP is to be welcomed.