On 13 November 2017, Assembly participated in the inaugural Global Broadband Futures event in Sydney, Australia organised jointly by CommsDay and The National Broadband Network (nbn). The conference brought together speakers from Australia (nbn), Germany (DT), South Korea (KT), UK (Openreach) and New Zealand (Chorus), with the aim being to share international experience of the rollout of fibre broadband networks. This piece is a summary of what was discussed at the event.
A reminder to be sympathetic to the characteristics of each country – some things are not portable to other markets
Nbn’s CEO Bill Morrow reminded delegates that countries all around the world have been having the same challenge to bring broadband to everyone. While the models may differ, the end point is the same – to bring high speeds to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, as cost effectively as possible. Each market is likely to experience challenges along the way and these are likely to differ from country-to-country. In some places politics may be the greatest hurdle, in others it’s probably topology. KT’s VP for Global Business Development Byungki Oh reminded delegates that Korea is just 1.5% the size of Australia and most people live in tall apartment buildings, making the rollout that much quicker and cheaper.
We were also reminded that planning restrictions will also affect how the network is deployed. While it might be ok to drop fibre cables from buildings and street corners in Bucharest, you’re unlikely to see this in London. This is hugely important given it’s often estimated that as much as 70% of fibre deployment costs are in the digging of the streets to bury the cables.
Customers buy broadband packages according to their requirements. Does it matter if they buy, copper, fibre or something else?
DT’s CTO Bruno Jacobfeuerborn pointed out that in Germany there has been a realisation that for now, most customers needs will be met with a 50Mbps broadband package. Even where these speeds are available, often only 50% of customers were using this capability. Most speakers stressed that governments have become fixated on technology rather than the core essence of the product. Policymakers around the world are stipulating fibre as opposed to broadband. The reality however is that (even in Korea), a mix of technology is being used to deliver services.
In most countries, given broadband upgrades are being done commercially by the private sector, it’s also important to meet customers need for speed with their willingness to pay. While it may be the case that in some countries customers may be willing to pay more for faster speeds, in others they don’t always see the value, as such a range of products and speeds should be available.
Speed, price and availability should all be considered when measuring success
While governments record on broadband deployment will ultimately be measured against manifesto pledges, what other metrics are important when assessing how developed a country’s infrastructure is? We heard how Increasingly operators are not just incentivised on peak speeds, but also minimum service performances.
Openreach’s chairman Mike McTighe pointed out that ubiquity of broadband networks is also important. France often gets held up as a model nation however at the current rate of deployment and a hesitance to use a multiple technology approach, it’s likely the case that for the last ADSL subscriber there it will take 13 years until they get FTTH. This further illustrated the reason why a mixed technology approach, including using G.Fast to maximise speeds for as many subscribers as possible has value.
