Fiber future

Hi All, this is more of an open question.

When first looking at BTOR rollout strategy, it made a lot of sense to me i.e. getting the biggest bang per buck with FTTC.

FTTC gets the fibre backhauls in place (especially in more rural locations) and puts fibre close to large numbers of people.

The next step from FTTC would be GFAST, again taking fibre closer to the end user in a cost effective manner.

I then assumed after GFAST, BTOR would be in a position to offer FTTP at a cost effective price to people.

I had thought that the FTTC cabinets would form part of the longer infrastructure i.e. the remote GFAST dslams would connect to these cabinets and traffic then sharing the existing fibre backhaul.

What surprised me was that the current FTTC cabinets are vender specific. Does this not limit what BTOR can put in them? Is the actual plan that all future GFAST dslams & FTTP will use direct fibre connections all the way back to the Exchange? Will the current FTTC cabinets eventually become redundant? I can see the advantages, expensive kit with proper UPS' in fewer exchanges. It just seems a waste to have all this effort for an interm step, I would like to see the FTTC infrastructure maximised e.g. offering ADSL2 to help those on long lines for example.

C

Is the actual plan that all future GFAST dslams & FTTP will use direct fibre connections all the way back to the Exchange?

Future FTTP will be linked into the fibre spines that have been deployed while putting FTTC into place.

These spines have aggregation nodes interspersed along them - rugged housing for fibre splice trays. The spines (almost certainly) include enough fibre for future deployments of FTTP as GPON or X-GPON, and quite likely has some allowance for PTP fibres too.

If G.Fast nodes, or FTTRN nodes for that matter, require fibre all the way back to the exchange, they will (almost certainly) hook into the spine in the same way.

It isn't yet clear whether the new nodes will be deployed with PTP or GPON fibre. And it isn't clear whether they will need to connect to the existing FTTC cabinet at all - that probably depends on whether the network management of the new nodes perceives them to be "remote concentrators" of the existing cabinet or not; I believe Alcatel micronodes are treated that way, but the Huawei and ECI management methods aren't known.

Will the current FTTC cabinets eventually become redundant?

Yes. In perhaps 20-30 years, when the slowest adopters move over.

However, we might find that they get "upgraded" to include a G.fast DSLAM in the interim. Or perhaps they'll be sidelined. Such possibilities can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLpk2dz6nBQ

I would like to see the FTTC infrastructure maximised e.g. offering ADSL2 to help those on long lines for example.

We know that BT have issued test requirements for ADSL2+ modems to be able to work under such circumstances - where line profiles that are suitable for use between 2km and 3km from the cabinet.

However, we have seen nothing from Openreach, even in future roadmaps, that suggests a product is forthcoming. The market will be pretty small - perhaps a couple of percent (though such a fix might be of great benefit if you are one of these people).