CASE STUDY
Emtelle, an industry-leading
manufacturer of pre-connectorised
cabling, blown fibre and ducted
network solutions, with manufacturing
facilities across Europe, provides a full
solution offering to its clients across the
industry. This offering ranges from support
from its technical solutions team, to tailored
installation training and certification of
general contractors worldwide.
With the unrivalled growth of emerging
technologies such as 5G and IoT, enduser
expectations have been heightened.
In order to meet the increased demands
of consumers wanting to stream services
easily and quickly, and the growing data
consumption rate, service providers are
turning to fibre to help provide ultrafast
and consistent broadband.
Offering much higher bandwidth, providers
are realising the immense benefits which
Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) and Fibre-To-
The-Building (FTTB) can provide over all
the alternatives. As FTTH rollouts become
more widespread, operators must be sure
to embrace these new technologies or risk
being left behind. This will ensure they are
able to expand their customer offerings
in order to generate new revenue streams.
Harnessing these new technologies and
unlocking the immense benefits is only
possible if their networks can support
and enable them.
Fibre is the answer
Fibre technology is future-proof and the
ideal choice for businesses looking to
ensure consumers can access a platitude
of services and live in a way that is better
for the environment. Reducing the amount
of greenhouse gases omitted into the
atmosphere, fibre networks require much
lower amounts of energy to operate and
fibre has the ability to provide high-speed
Internet access right to a consumer’s
doorstep. However, there remains a shortage
of trained fibre engineers and technicians in
the industry with the skillsets needed to drop
fibre to the home en masse.
While deployment costs and fibre skills
gaps remain problematic hurdles for some
operators, fibre adoption rates are on the
rise. Last year saw an increase of 21% in
the number of FTTH and FTTB subscribers.
Delivering the highest speed of broadband
right to offices, businesses and homes and
eradicating potential bottlenecks in the
network to ensure the greatest efficiency,
fibre is becoming the technology of choice
and replacing cable and copper-based
solutions in the market.
Germany’s fibre mission
Germany’s fibre market continues to grow
and this is forecasted to rise by a 551%
evolution rate of FTTH/B Homes passed and
1006% evolution of FTTH/B subscriptions
by 2025. A growth in government incentives
to migrate to full-fibre solutions has
compounded the need and greater adoption
rate. The coalition agreement of the German
Federal Government saw the goal of a
national expansion of gigabit networks
by 2025 outlined, along with the plan to
expand fibre infrastructure in schools and
local enterprises in each region of Germany.
The German government supports rural
FTTH projects with allocated funding of
up to €30 million and the German funding
programme outlines a special material
concept prescribing a minimum of 10/6mm
microducts for connecting homes.
However, similar to many countries across
Europe, the challenge remains in connecting
rural areas across Germany with full-fibre
technology. In rural areas, it can be difficult
for broadband providers to connect homes
with a fibre-connected street cabinet due
to the vast distance between houses. This
added distance from the cabinet ultimately
means slower Internet speeds. Compared to
cities, the environment of the countryside
may make it challenging to even lay fibre in
the first place. Out-of-date infrastructure and
the high expense needed to rectify this can
also put off service providers from taking
much-needed action.
But it is clear that pre-installed and preconnectorised
fibre solutions are the way
forward and many service operators remain
determined in providing broadband to
rural communities and addressing this
urgent need. In September 2019, Emtelle
and leading FTTH provider, Deutsche
Glasfaser (DGF), entered into a strategic
partnership worth €63 million, establishing
Emtelle as a key player in helping facilitate
Germany’s nationwide FTTH project. The
new 36-month contract builds on their
relationship. Emtelle’s range of solutions
was identified to overcome the challenges
of building complex and large-scale fibre
deployments and enable the rollout of ultrafast
connectivity to the outmost rural areas
of Germany, quickly and cost-effectively.
As Deutsche Glasfaser continues to grow,
the two companies both share the same
objective of targeting rural Germany and
connecting the unconnected.
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