Study Claims Fiber Fever to Spread Across the Nation

A new method of delivering video, Internet, and telephone services could give cable and DSL vendors a run for their money and create a new revenue stream for ambitious VDV contractors. A study from ABI Research examines the rapidly expanding concept of fiber-to-the-home infrastructure and claims that the major opportunities in the fiber-to-the-home market lie with equipment vendors. Titled “Fiber to the Premises (FTTH/FTTP),” the study examines the FTTP market by looking at the technology issues involved with FTTP platforms and assessing the FTTP market in terms of subscribers, network builds, equipment market, per-subscriber costs, and the services that will drive its adoption. Vamsi Sistla, director of broadband and residential entertainment technologies, explains that real estate developments, municipalities, utilities, and competitive and rural local exchange carries are all optimistic about the chance to compete with dominant cable and DSL providers. “Until now, everybody has been concentrating on the regional Bell operating companies, such as Verizon and SBC,” Sistla says. “They have been seen as the ‘prize bull’ opportunities for vendors, but there are many other branches where equipment and infrastructure vendors can pick the ‘low-hanging fruit.’” Sistla goes on to point out that local and state governments, which have faced losses of tariff income due to the gradual replacement of conventional phone traffic with VoIP calls, are glad to support the new revenue stream. “We've also seen municipalities and local authorities right across the globe grouping together to deploy fiber in highly successful projects,” Sistla says. “Other local organizations look at that success and catch ‘fiber fever,’ too, seeing the chance to make money while benefiting the community.”