Nations struggle with FTTH deployment

FTTH deployment is a critical concern for governments, companies and consumers alike, ensuring high-speed Internet access and full support for individual and business needs. However, some nations are struggling with their investments into fiber to Ethernet converters and the other hardware necessary to support wide-scale deployment.

According to TelecomTV, continental Europe's FTTH strategy is suffering from regulatory and government setbacks that could keep the plan from being completed for nearly 92 years. A recent study by a fiber consultancy group, Ventura Team, found that without significant changes in telecom regulations and overall government will to succeed with the project, it will continue moving at a "snails pace," impeding economic growth and sucking up significant portions of the European Union's budget every year.

"In Europe we are still not investing enough money into fiber, and this is not for lack of capital," noted the report's co-author, Stefan Stanislawski. "The industry could fund the switchover itself over a period of 25 years with the right regulations."

The estimated cost of deployment would be around 261 billion Euros, but so far the current investment rate hasn't exceeded 3 billion Euros a year.

In other parts of the globe FTTH efforts have met similar issues. Australia's fiber network investment hit a brick wall with government restructuring and the discovery that the A$44 billion network is already 60 percent over budget. According to TelcoReview, newly appointed communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, replaced the head of the company set to commence construction on the network and ordered a strategy review from the firm. The review discovered that the deployment would take three years longer than initially planned, cost closer to A$73 billion and fail to reach the full number of homes that the government hoped.

"The Government remains committed to completing the National Broadband Network as quickly and cost-effectively as possible and managing this taxpayer-funded project with complete transparency," an official statement noted. However, plans have halted as the strategy is reassessed to reduce cost and increase the effectiveness of the deployment.

These setbacks open up critical opportunities for reduced spending and improved service, should organizations choose to invest in high-quality fiber to copper converter technology to expedite deployment. The right hardware will improve success and ensure high-speed access for residents and businesses alike within the deployment areas.

Perle has an extensive range of Managed and Unmanaged Fiber Media Converters to extended copper-based Ethernet equipment over a fiber optic link, multimode to multimode and multimode to single mode fiber up to 160km.