16
CONNECTIVITY
"Europe’s very own Chattanooga,
Luxembourg, recognised the benefits
of fibre broadband as early as 1997
and spent more than a decade laying
the groundwork for nationwide FTTH"
Closer to home
Across the pond, Europe is admittedly a couple of years
behind its American cousin in fibre deployment, but that
shouldn’t slow us down. In fact, as a similar situation
begins to unfold I predict we’ll see an explosion in
investment as soon as 2020. After all, it was recently
announced that FTTx deployment in Europe rose by 19%
over the first nine months of 2015, and now reaches more
than 36 million fibre subscribers.
Europe’s very own Chattanooga, Luxembourg,
recognised the benefits of fibre broadband as early as
1997 and spent more than a decade (literally) laying the
groundwork for nationwide FTTH. And it’s paying off too.
Earlier this year it announced that 50% of homes are
already receiving gigabit broadband through a fibre-optic
network. The result of championing gigabit speeds is that
Luxembourg has significantly improved the capabilities
of its businesses, local government, schools, hospitals and
mobile operators.
Looking at countries like Spain, which suffers
unemployment rates of up to 25%, gigabit broadband is
a rare opportunity to revitalise the economy and inspire
countries to follow in its footsteps. And the country is
taking note, having joined the European FTTH ranking
earlier this year, reaching 2.6 million subscribers with a
phenomenal 65% growth rate over a mere nine months.
As this rollout continues and it becomes increasingly
richer in gigabit speeds, Spain could attract inward
investment from digitally orientated organisations.
This ultimately stimulates entrepreneurship and wider
socioeconomic growth, while reducing the unemployment
rate in the process. However, the status quo is maintained,
Spain and other gigabit-poor countries are at a real risk of
losing out on a generation of development.
France, Romania, Croatia, Poland and Germany have
all followed in Spain’s footsteps with impactful FTTx
deployments from private operators and policy makers
alike, which are likely to continue to grow and gain
momentum over the coming years. That being said, for
every fibre success there are a number of countries holding
Europe back. My home of Ireland, along with Austria,
Belgium and the UK all continue to pursue the FTTH
Council Europe benchmark of a fibre society with just 1%
of households connected. This means that for the time
being, their path to ultrafast broadband lays with existing
copper assets.
Looking to the future
Until we eliminate this divide and reach fibre ubiquity,
where ultrafast broadband is as basic a utility as gas or
electricity, it’s vital that we continue to develop nextgenerational broadband technologies like NG-PON2,
XGS-PON and G.fast. This will ensure we one day create a
more connected, digitally enabled Europe. As technology
continues to advance at an ever-increasing rate, these
technologies will be crucial in leveraging existing
infrastructures and enabling gigabit speeds.
President Obama described Chattanooga’s turnaround
as ‘a tornado of innovation’, hailing the enormous positive
effect gigabit broadband brought not only to the city, but
the US as a whole. While we may be some way off, the
future is certainly in sight, and I’m hopeful that Europe is
due similar winds of change. n
www.networkseuropemagazine.com