Broadband News
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Belgium to require fibre to new homes
12 Oct 2009 | 11.36 Europe/London
In what appears to be a first for Europe, Belgium has announced that by 2010 all new building permits in the country will require the installation of duct for fibre. This will allow network operators to get fibre connections installed to new homes far more quickly and cheaply.
The announcement was made as Belgium unveiled its digital action plan, which it calls “La Belgique, cœur numérique de l'Europe 2010-2015” ( Belgium, digital heart of Europe 2010-2015). This document sets out the target of connecting 90 percent of Belgian households to broadband by 2015, compared to 64 percent today.
Like the Digital Britain report, Belgium's digital manifesto is beautifully presented... and places a great deal of faith in market forces delivering what policy makers in the country would like to see in terms of next-generation broadband infrastructure. However, Belgium Minister for economy and reform Vincent Van Quickenborne wants has a few concrete ideas to make it easier for them to do so, by cutting down on administrative red tape, and taking measures to minimize the expense of fibre deployment.
The cost of installing fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) can be a showstopper. Last year the Broadband Stakeholder Group put the price tag for rolling out fibre UK-wide at £28.8bn. On the other side of the pond, the Federal Communications Commission has estimated that the bill for rolling out fibre across the US could be as much as $350bn (£221bn).
About 80 percent of the cost of wiring homes with fibre comes down to men with shovels. Given this fact, it is perhaps more than a little surprising that no other country in Europe has yet taken the step of insisting on fibre when new homes are being constructed.
UK regulator Ofcom held a consulation on fibre to new build housing back in 2008, but refrained from mandating fibre deployment. Instead it issued regulatory guidance that any operator of a fibre network would be expected to provide wholesale access to its infrastructure. Ofcom's aim was to encourage service-based competition, which helps to keep broadband prices down for the consumer, but the guidance could also have the effect of discouraging operators that don't want to share their new fibre networks.
Yankee Group analyst Benoit Felten believes that the Belgian announcement is a step in the right direction for fibre. “If every country in Europe imposed for all new buildings to be fibered up and made it mandatory for all roadworks everywhere to include laying down telecom ducts, FTTH would be much cheaper to deploy and much faster to emerge,” he wrote in his blog.
The announcement was made as Belgium unveiled its digital action plan, which it calls “La Belgique, cœur numérique de l'Europe 2010-2015” ( Belgium, digital heart of Europe 2010-2015). This document sets out the target of connecting 90 percent of Belgian households to broadband by 2015, compared to 64 percent today.
Like the Digital Britain report, Belgium's digital manifesto is beautifully presented... and places a great deal of faith in market forces delivering what policy makers in the country would like to see in terms of next-generation broadband infrastructure. However, Belgium Minister for economy and reform Vincent Van Quickenborne wants has a few concrete ideas to make it easier for them to do so, by cutting down on administrative red tape, and taking measures to minimize the expense of fibre deployment.
The cost of installing fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) can be a showstopper. Last year the Broadband Stakeholder Group put the price tag for rolling out fibre UK-wide at £28.8bn. On the other side of the pond, the Federal Communications Commission has estimated that the bill for rolling out fibre across the US could be as much as $350bn (£221bn).
About 80 percent of the cost of wiring homes with fibre comes down to men with shovels. Given this fact, it is perhaps more than a little surprising that no other country in Europe has yet taken the step of insisting on fibre when new homes are being constructed.
UK regulator Ofcom held a consulation on fibre to new build housing back in 2008, but refrained from mandating fibre deployment. Instead it issued regulatory guidance that any operator of a fibre network would be expected to provide wholesale access to its infrastructure. Ofcom's aim was to encourage service-based competition, which helps to keep broadband prices down for the consumer, but the guidance could also have the effect of discouraging operators that don't want to share their new fibre networks.
Yankee Group analyst Benoit Felten believes that the Belgian announcement is a step in the right direction for fibre. “If every country in Europe imposed for all new buildings to be fibered up and made it mandatory for all roadworks everywhere to include laying down telecom ducts, FTTH would be much cheaper to deploy and much faster to emerge,” he wrote in his blog.
BSG must have got the figures wrong, because BT are now stating that it is a lot cheaper if they use existing ducts and poles... time for some joined up thinking, maybe the telcos and their quango advisers are finally getting IT? The more other countries move forward with fibre to the home the sooner this obsolete Victorian phone network will get the upgrade it desperately needs in order for the UK to remain a partner in the global village. Other countries won't visit ours if it is still in the slow lane.
chris
12 Oct 2009 | 12.36 Europe/London
"Victorian phone network" - you should ask Lindsey for a new script to propagate, the first public automatic telephone exchange in the UK opended in Epsom, Surrey (England) in 1912 which was 11 years post Victoria.
Current telephone equipment is all post 1980's digital.
13 Oct 2009 | 08.48 Europe/London