[1st-mile-nm] News from the UK: Fujitsu plans massive rural fibre-to-the-home network

[Richard Lowenberg]

Rights of way and pole line pricing/agreements are a critical matter for viable fiber deployments.
For those of you paying attention to international broadband projects of possible note:


http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/networking/2011/04/13/fujitsu-plans-massive-rural-fibre-to-the-home-network-40092502/

NEWS

Fujitsu is to build a wholesale fibre broadband network in the UK, with the aim of offering next-generation services to five million rural homes.

According to Fujitsu, the "vast majority" of the rural connections will be full fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), which is capable of delivering speeds of up to 1Gbps for both uploads and downloads, with the potential to reach 10Gbps in the future  [J: In contrast to BT which is planning only 16% FTTH ]

Fujitsu's fibre rollout will completely avoid the use of BT's street cabinets and will "actively support the involvement of local community broadband groups, enabling dynamic and flexible solutions in rural communities for the first time", the company said. However, 80 percent of the planned rollout will rely on the use of BT's poles and ducts, Fujitsu told ZDNet UK.

On 4 April, Fujitsu joined Virgin Media, TalkTalk and other ISPs in writing to communications minister Ed Vaizey. In their letter, they complained that BT's terms for allowing access to its poles and ducts are unfair and BT is trying to charge too much for public infrastructure access (PIA).

On Wednesday, Fujitsu made clear that its newly-announced fibre plans will not go ahead unless it gets its way on PIA, which is a key part of the government's strategy to open up the super-fast broadband market.

More: 

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4643-new-collaboration-to-offer-ftth-to-5-million-rural-homes-and-businesses.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13060548


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Richard Lowenberg
P. O. Box 8001,  Santa Fe, NM  87504
505-989-9110 off.; 505-603-5200 cell
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