How do companies decide where to roll out?

Hi all. I was wondering how infrastructure providers pick where to roll out their products. I ask as there are areas near me which are served by Openreach FTTP, Virgin Media and CityFibre. Whereas other areas very close by, equally as populated, have none of those three. How come certain areas get everything whilst others have none. Not a moan or anything as it doesn't affect me, just curiousity.

Thanks.

They will be using various data points to decide the most advantageous place to roll out. Population is just one piece of data. Ease of rollout will come in as well which could be to do with terrain, ducting, power access, demographics, etc, etc.

I doubt you will ever get anything that tells you what the actual models used by any of the companies are as that information is commercially sensitive.

RoI - Return on Investment. Basically: How much money will it cost, how much money will it generate.

As a general rule, the more densely populated an area is and the more people in that area the better RoI looks. This is why humans invented urbanisation. Almost everything is easier if your customers are packed into a small area.

However the RoI calculation is not that simple. Building infrastructure in an urban area comes with costs that don't exist in a rural area. For instance in theory in a rural area if you want to run 5km of fibre you can just drop it in a road-side ditch or pay a farmer £100 to bury it under a field. Try and run 5km of fibre through Westminster and it becomes a whole lot more expensive. However a 5km run of fibre in the centre of London could provide a service to several thousand people whereas a 5km run of fibre in a rural area might only get you a dozen customers.

Oh and this is not a 'yes'/'no' choice by the CPs. It's a graduated scale. Those areas not currently served may well be served eventually. It's just that businesses have to satisfy their investors and shareholders as quickly as possible. This means they target the areas with the best RoI first.

Edited by Andrue (Wed 14-Oct-20 16:15:13)