UK Internet Service Providers Stretch Optical Fiber to 3 Million Homes
According to the research of the analytical company IHS Markit, the UK ranks third from the end (among European countries) in the number of fiber-optic connections. Another problem of the United Kingdom is the slow Internet in the countryside, which we recently wrote about in a blog.
England providers are thinking about how to fix the situation with the "bad Internet" across the whole state. Under the cut, read what projects they plan to implement, and what industry representatives and experts think about this.
/ Flickr / groman123 / cc
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British Telecom (BT) has announced the accelerated introduction of broadband Internet for a million homes. Openreach - a subsidiary of BT, which controls the main Internet networks in Britain, has published a plan to connect 3 million buildings to the fiber-optic network (FTTP) until 2020.
As reported in the Times, now only 3% of houses in England are connected to FTTP. For comparison: in Spain such houses are 79%. For most residents of Britain, Internet access is provided by using outdated copper cables that BT laid several decades ago. The average Internet speed in the country is 16.5 Mbit / s, and FTTP connections will provide speeds of up to 1 Gbit / s.
As part of the Fiber First program, Openreach will hire 3,000 people to deploy networks in eight major cities in Britain: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Manchester. Works are scheduled to begin in April 2018.
Clive Selley, executive director of the organization, claims that the project is the first stage for achieving the goal of 10 million connected houses by 2025. On the question of the cost of the project, Selley did not mention the exact amount. Nevertheless, he claims that it will be “very large”: only the starting budget will amount to several hundred million pounds sterling. According to The Register, the final cost will vary from 3 to 6 billion pounds.
Openreach hopes to offset the costs by pulling the fiber to all new customers and disconnecting old copper connections. This decision will increase the monthly bills of consumers by ÂŁ 7, as service providers will pay more for the line rental.
However, Selly said that switching to fiber optic networks would ultimately help cut costs: fiber is easier to maintain than copper. Due to this, there will be fewer failures, and the total cost of using the network for providers will be reduced.
Some operators are worried that they will have to transfer all of their customers to fiber. However, Celli insists that the cost of new cables will be meaningless if the old network continues to work - so after the launch of the project, there will be no alternative to British providers.
The cost of a single fiber-optic connection within the city limits is estimated at 300-400 pounds sterling, and connections in the suburbs will cost even more.
/ Flickr / dennis van Zuijlekom / CC
BT and its Openreach divisions stand out among their rivals are Vodafone, TalkTalk, City Fiber and Virgin Media, which are also building fiber optic networks.
A few days after the publication of the Openreach plan, TalkTalk announced that they would invest a large amount in the fiber-optic infrastructure and deliver the Internet to 3 million homes and organizations. Executive Director Tristia Harrison (Tristia Harrison) stresses that TalkTalk will be occupied by suburban areas and BT by cities, so the plans of the organizations will not overlap.
Another operator, Hyperoptic, which is considered the second (after Openreach) major fiber provider in England, is skeptical about the plans of its main competitor. Hyperoptic states that they have been “leading the transition to optical fiber” for many years (they have already provided access to the fiber-optic network to every seventh resident of London and Manchester). Openreach, according to them, is trying to present the matter as if there were no such initiatives in the country before their project. By the way, Hyperoptic confirms its intention to connect 2 million homes to the fiber-optic network by 2020 and 5 million by 2025.
As for CityFibre, representatives of this company generally consider the behavior of Openreach a desperate step taken in response to the growing competition from other market players. In its official appeal, CityFibre stresses that their partnership with Vodafone plans to provide 5 million homes and businesses (20% of the market) with broadband Internet by 2025 - against the background of these statements, Openreach's plans no longer seem so ambitious.
This competition was approved by Ofcom telecommunications corporation and the government. And the UK's minister of digital technology, culture, media and sports, Matthew Hancock, called these projects a big step towards preparing England for a "fiber-optic future." He also stressed that to achieve this goal, the government works with many operators, including Openreach, Virgin, CityFibre, Gigaclear, TalkTalk.
The development of 4G (as an alternative to the optical fiber network) in the UK is also a priority. According to the Ofcom Connected Nations report for 2017, only 7 out of 10 regions of England have access to 4G. The technology covers 63% of the country, within the city 4G covers 90% of the territory, and in the countryside - 57%. The situation with road coverage is about the same: 4G covers 68% of them. Among the operators are the companies EE, Vodafon, Three and O2.
One of the joint projects in this direction is holding a 4G network in the London Underground by 2019. In the summer of 2018, the main operators in Britain tested the technology on the lines of Waterloo and City. As a result of the tests, the suppliers managed to ensure uninterrupted 4G-Internet throughout the trip, 1.5 miles long.
TfL told The Register that the testing (which included the deployment of the relevant infrastructure) was carried out in order to determine the estimated deployment time for 4G. The tunnels in the London Underground are very narrow, so it was so important to launch a test project and assess what difficulties may arise during the work, before embarking on the full-scale deployment of the project.
4G will be the basis for the implementation of another project - Emergency Services Network (ESN). The representative of TfL noted that the organization designs and installs the infrastructure so that it can be used both for providing 4G Internet in the metro and for ESN.
Another 4G solution aims to improve communication in remote areas of the country. EE company plans to install 4G antennas in 580 thousand rural houses in the UK. The device is a small box the size of a shoebox that is attached to the roof, like a normal antenna. This solution is suitable for areas where at the moment it is impossible to stretch a fiber-optic cable. The cost of the antenna will be from 35 to 100 pounds.
The corporation claims that during tests in Cumbria (a county in the north-west of the country), the Internet speed reached 100 Mbps. EE's further plans are to cover 95% of the United Kingdom with a 4G network by 2020.
According to MP Rory Stewart (Rory Stewart), the main difficulty in providing the suburbs and villages with Internet is the remoteness of houses from each other. Pulling the fiber optic cable in this case is not very profitable. And the EE solution will help overcome this difficulty so that people in Cumbria and other areas can access high-speed Internet.
The BBC has argued that for several years, many operators in England, from BT and TalkTalk to CityFibre and Hyperoptic, will work to improve the situation with Internet access throughout the UK. And their competition should lead to significant changes in the country's network infrastructure.
PS Several materials on the topic from our blog on Habré:
Additional articles from our corporate blog on the VAS Experts website:
England providers are thinking about how to fix the situation with the "bad Internet" across the whole state. Under the cut, read what projects they plan to implement, and what industry representatives and experts think about this.
/ Flickr / groman123 / cc
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What is the essence of the project
British Telecom (BT) has announced the accelerated introduction of broadband Internet for a million homes. Openreach - a subsidiary of BT, which controls the main Internet networks in Britain, has published a plan to connect 3 million buildings to the fiber-optic network (FTTP) until 2020.
As reported in the Times, now only 3% of houses in England are connected to FTTP. For comparison: in Spain such houses are 79%. For most residents of Britain, Internet access is provided by using outdated copper cables that BT laid several decades ago. The average Internet speed in the country is 16.5 Mbit / s, and FTTP connections will provide speeds of up to 1 Gbit / s.
As part of the Fiber First program, Openreach will hire 3,000 people to deploy networks in eight major cities in Britain: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Manchester. Works are scheduled to begin in April 2018.
Clive Selley, executive director of the organization, claims that the project is the first stage for achieving the goal of 10 million connected houses by 2025. On the question of the cost of the project, Selley did not mention the exact amount. Nevertheless, he claims that it will be “very large”: only the starting budget will amount to several hundred million pounds sterling. According to The Register, the final cost will vary from 3 to 6 billion pounds.
The complexity of the project
Openreach hopes to offset the costs by pulling the fiber to all new customers and disconnecting old copper connections. This decision will increase the monthly bills of consumers by ÂŁ 7, as service providers will pay more for the line rental.
However, Selly said that switching to fiber optic networks would ultimately help cut costs: fiber is easier to maintain than copper. Due to this, there will be fewer failures, and the total cost of using the network for providers will be reduced.
Some operators are worried that they will have to transfer all of their customers to fiber. However, Celli insists that the cost of new cables will be meaningless if the old network continues to work - so after the launch of the project, there will be no alternative to British providers.
The cost of a single fiber-optic connection within the city limits is estimated at 300-400 pounds sterling, and connections in the suburbs will cost even more.
/ Flickr / dennis van Zuijlekom / CC
What competitors are preparing
BT and its Openreach divisions stand out among their rivals are Vodafone, TalkTalk, City Fiber and Virgin Media, which are also building fiber optic networks.
A few days after the publication of the Openreach plan, TalkTalk announced that they would invest a large amount in the fiber-optic infrastructure and deliver the Internet to 3 million homes and organizations. Executive Director Tristia Harrison (Tristia Harrison) stresses that TalkTalk will be occupied by suburban areas and BT by cities, so the plans of the organizations will not overlap.
Another operator, Hyperoptic, which is considered the second (after Openreach) major fiber provider in England, is skeptical about the plans of its main competitor. Hyperoptic states that they have been “leading the transition to optical fiber” for many years (they have already provided access to the fiber-optic network to every seventh resident of London and Manchester). Openreach, according to them, is trying to present the matter as if there were no such initiatives in the country before their project. By the way, Hyperoptic confirms its intention to connect 2 million homes to the fiber-optic network by 2020 and 5 million by 2025.
As for CityFibre, representatives of this company generally consider the behavior of Openreach a desperate step taken in response to the growing competition from other market players. In its official appeal, CityFibre stresses that their partnership with Vodafone plans to provide 5 million homes and businesses (20% of the market) with broadband Internet by 2025 - against the background of these statements, Openreach's plans no longer seem so ambitious.
This competition was approved by Ofcom telecommunications corporation and the government. And the UK's minister of digital technology, culture, media and sports, Matthew Hancock, called these projects a big step towards preparing England for a "fiber-optic future." He also stressed that to achieve this goal, the government works with many operators, including Openreach, Virgin, CityFibre, Gigaclear, TalkTalk.
Other solutions
The development of 4G (as an alternative to the optical fiber network) in the UK is also a priority. According to the Ofcom Connected Nations report for 2017, only 7 out of 10 regions of England have access to 4G. The technology covers 63% of the country, within the city 4G covers 90% of the territory, and in the countryside - 57%. The situation with road coverage is about the same: 4G covers 68% of them. Among the operators are the companies EE, Vodafon, Three and O2.
One of the joint projects in this direction is holding a 4G network in the London Underground by 2019. In the summer of 2018, the main operators in Britain tested the technology on the lines of Waterloo and City. As a result of the tests, the suppliers managed to ensure uninterrupted 4G-Internet throughout the trip, 1.5 miles long.
TfL told The Register that the testing (which included the deployment of the relevant infrastructure) was carried out in order to determine the estimated deployment time for 4G. The tunnels in the London Underground are very narrow, so it was so important to launch a test project and assess what difficulties may arise during the work, before embarking on the full-scale deployment of the project.
4G will be the basis for the implementation of another project - Emergency Services Network (ESN). The representative of TfL noted that the organization designs and installs the infrastructure so that it can be used both for providing 4G Internet in the metro and for ESN.
Another 4G solution aims to improve communication in remote areas of the country. EE company plans to install 4G antennas in 580 thousand rural houses in the UK. The device is a small box the size of a shoebox that is attached to the roof, like a normal antenna. This solution is suitable for areas where at the moment it is impossible to stretch a fiber-optic cable. The cost of the antenna will be from 35 to 100 pounds.
The corporation claims that during tests in Cumbria (a county in the north-west of the country), the Internet speed reached 100 Mbps. EE's further plans are to cover 95% of the United Kingdom with a 4G network by 2020.
According to MP Rory Stewart (Rory Stewart), the main difficulty in providing the suburbs and villages with Internet is the remoteness of houses from each other. Pulling the fiber optic cable in this case is not very profitable. And the EE solution will help overcome this difficulty so that people in Cumbria and other areas can access high-speed Internet.
The BBC has argued that for several years, many operators in England, from BT and TalkTalk to CityFibre and Hyperoptic, will work to improve the situation with Internet access throughout the UK. And their competition should lead to significant changes in the country's network infrastructure.
PS Several materials on the topic from our blog on Habré:
- “Slow down”: places on the planet with the “slowest internet”
- How to deliver the Internet to remote corners of the planet: GCI, Google and Facebook projects
- Internet content blocking: the situation on the world stage
Additional articles from our corporate blog on the VAS Experts website:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/347048/
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