Total Cost of Ownership Ends Guessing Game

How to convince governments, local authorities, housing corporations and others to invest in FTTH? Draka’s Peter Ludin offers his suggestions

Gordon Brown has said it and so has Barrack Obama and Angela Merkel. In fact, across the world, politicians are saying that in order to keep the world economy going governments must invest in next generation infrastructure. Not only will these projects provide a much-needed economic boost, but they will allow countries to position themselves to be ready to take advantage of new opportunities when the economy eventually picks up.

All very well in theory, but infrastructure projects have a notorious habit of running over cost, and few people are brave enough in uncertain financial times to write a blank cheque. So how do you convince the decision-makers to invest in FTTH?

FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY

Peter Ludin believes he has the answer. "Now is the time to help the economy to build new infrastructures as the basis for years to come", he says. "It is opportune to invest in fiber networks. At Draka, we understand that, when it comes to lowering the total cost of ownership, we must take away the guesswork and move the industry to a high level of financial accountability." He admits that there will be those who say that there are not enough applications to warrant the investment in FTTH, and that ADSL-type modems will provide them with all the bandwidth they need for years to come. "To win them over, and make investing in new fiber networks interesting, it is essential to bring down the cost on a per subscriber basis."

Ludin believes that access networks are experiencing a similar cycle that the IT industry went through in the 1980s and wide-area telecommunications networks in the 1990s. He says very little is standardised and everything is proprietary or tailor-made, and that has to change: "If we want to create next-generation networks on a mass scale we have to bring down the cost of deployment. There is room for standardisation to increase value and bring the cost of connection down."

Global Leadership

Recently, Draka unveiled a programme that takes an expansive FTTH passive-deployment approach, composed of smart software, friendly fiber, new duct technology and time-saving connectivity products. According to Peter Ludin, this will enable the company to draw on its position as one of the leading global suppliers of cable and its 25 years experience building telecommunications networks throughout the world.

Software assistance

The new software developed by Draka has already been used in designing multiple FTTH projects and is now available to all of the company's customers and contractors. Ludin says: "If you don't use software solutions, you really have to do a lot of things manually and then you have a lot of guesswork. Our intention, from our experience in the Netherlands, is to roll it out in other areas of the world as well."

Draka's FTTH  software consists of three modules which enable designers to look at the impact of the design, how it is going to be deployed, and its effect on capital expenditure. Material costs and the adaptation of components can also be assessed more effectively. The software makes it possible for networks to be registered so that it is possible to map which way fibers are running and make it easier to reach them for maintenance. Draka's new friendly fibers ( BendBright-XS)are another part of the company's strategy for keeping costs down. Until recently, highly skilled technicians had to be used to bend fibers without causing attenuation and signal loss. Now it is possible to install indoor fibers using electricians and new automated techniques that accelerate installation.

Keeping pace with a new world

Despite the economic downturn, internet and data traffic continue to grow, particularly among home consumers. To keep pace with the growing number of applications in both professional and entertainment services more high bandwidth networks are needed. One day, the economic storm clouds will pass. Draka wants to help its customers be ready to take advantage when the sun comes out again.

Photo caption

Draka Vice President EMEA Telecom Solutions Peter Ludin: " Now is the time to help the economy to build new technology infrastructures as the basis for the years to come."