Ofcom has published several new reports today that chart the different methods of deploying fibre optic broadband ISP services in the UK and their respective market impacts. The reports place a great deal of focus on BT, IFNL and i3 Group and their use of Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology for UK 100Mbps FTTH / P deployments.

The regulator also wishes to understand whether a regulated GPON unbundling ( LLU ) requirement would prove effective in supporting competition on GPON fibre-to-the-home ( FTTH ) networks. GPON, unlike point-to-point (PTP) fibre architectures, are apparently not well suited to an open unbundled network because of their shared nature.

Ofcom published three reports about super-fast broadband technology:

• Competitive models in Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON) examines the economics of different super-fast broadband technologies.

• GPON Market Review looks at GPON technology and current examples of its deployment around the world.

• Business to Business Interfaces: Meeting the needs of Next Generation Access considers how the way that Communications Providers buy and sell wholesale broadband products, like Local Loop Unbundling and Wholesale Line Rental, may have to develop to meet the needs of super-fast broadband.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/technology/research/emer_tech/sbt/

Sadly it's quite difficult to summaries these somewhat technical reports into a plain English form that everybody can understand. However there are some bits that need little explanation, such as Ofcom's predictions of retail prices.


It's noted that the cost of passing and connecting homes via FTTC / VDSL is significantly less than any of the GPON unbundling scenarios. This is obvious because FTTC uses the existing “last mile” copper infrastructure to reach homes, which saves a lot of money but restricts its best possible speed; 'up to' 40Mbps initially and 60Mbps in the future.

Note the 'up to' aspect because the VDSL / VDSL2 technology used in FTTC is not perfect and suffers from degradation over longer distances, while a direct FTTH fibre optic link to homes and businesses will not be constrained by any old copper wires but this costs a lot more. It's suggested that future enhancements could bring down the cost of FTTH to £7 per month by using lower-cost ‘mature’ WDM PON equipment, though this is not expected to be available before 2015–2016.

UPDATE - 23rd December 2009

Fibre to the home (FTTH) network specialists Fibrecity, part of the i3 Group believes the findings of the recent Ofcom reports¹ that ‘Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON) does not support unbundling due to the high number of end users sharing a single fibre’ to be accurate.