1575 Dramatic slowdown in Dutch FTTH - my comment

Yesterday, I reproduced the press release by Telecompaper on the dramatic slowdown in Dutch FTTH. At first sight the figures are dramatic. Despite the roll-outs in 205 municiplaities of the almost 418 municipalities nationwide, the figures are down.  Causes:
- Adverse weather conditions (a lengthy frost period) hit the overall market.
- Reggefiber's roll-out in Amsterdam also saw a dramatic slowdown; connecting homes in metropolitan areas has proven challenging.
- Competitive factors have held back FTTH as well, such as the nationwide availability of Docsis 3.0 (offering speeds up to 120 Mbps) by cable operators such as UPC and Ziggo.
- The absence of well-known brand names on FTTH (such as Tele2 and Online), and KPN's focus on shareholder remuneration forcing Reggefiber (in which KPN is a shareholder) to raise outside debt.

From my home situation I experience the dramatic slowdown in the Amsterdam metropolitan area. Last year I started a sibling blog on fibre to my home in Almere. Initially there was excitement with the activity of rolling out the cables. That was March 2010. By May this year, so more than a year later, the fiber was connected and two months later operational. Can you imagine: you put fibre in the ground and let it rest overthere for more than 16 months doing NOTHING. Of course the story is more complicated.

The fibre was resting in the ground for at least 13 months. During those months nothing happened and as far as I know fibre does not have to settle in the ground. If a bank would not pay rent for 13 months you would have brought your money already somewhere else. It is inconceivable why it took so long. The financing question of Reggefiber and KPN might have been at the root of this postponement.

Secondly, the fibre I am talking about has to enter an appartment building. In an appartment building with working people it is hard to coordinate to get the fibre connected. And as the organising company is only available in working hours, there is a problem. So that explains another month or two.

A third problem is the communication. As house owner you do not get a notice telling you that you are connected now and can have a look at the offerings. In the meantime you see only KPN canvassing the neigfhbourhood and some flyers of Tweak.

So you go to the page of Glashart, an coordinating organisation for the ISP's, type in you ZIP code at the site of Glashart and it says: Congratulations your address has a glass fibre connection; you can now enjoy all the advantages of the new connections and you have a selection out of eight ISP's. In your enthusiasm you start comparing all the offers and want to start ordering. But then something strange happens. So Glashart has told you that you have a glass fibre connection and that you can enjoy the advantages. But closer reading shows that your neighbourhood can not make use of all the offerings!

Time to make a phone call to the ISP you have selected after comparison of the offerings.As my house rule is to avoid any KPN subscriptions, I look for another ISP. BTW The KPN is lousiest offer of the eight ISP's. I get on the phone with one of the candidate ISP's, in my case Solcon. I tell my story: Glashart tells me I can get a glass fibre connection, but when I fill out my ZIP code on the Solcon site, I do not have a connection. The Solcon rep starts to explain.The glass fibre has been laid by Reggefiber. KPN has a majority share in this company. So KPN and its ISP's (Lijbrandt, Tweak) are allowed to canvas the eighbourhood  EXCLUSIVELY for half a year in order to recover its investment in Reggefiber!

Besides all the problems mentioned (frost and finacing problems) the slow uptake of glass fibre can be blamed on: no level playing field fo all the ISPs and the lousy offer of KPN. For th time being I will stay with UPC which has also a  glass fibre infrastructure with speeds up to 120Mb, but not to the home. So I have still to share the cable with my neighbours. When the close-up period for the ISP's in our neighbourhood is over, I will make another phone call. The earlier the level playing field is instituted the faster the subscriptions will come.

BPN 1575 

BPN 1574 Dramatic slowdown in Dutch FTTH

Telecompaper reports:
a. dramatic slowdown in Dutch FTTH in 2010;
b. Household penetration forecast to reach 14% by 2015



The Dutch telecom research organisation Telecompaper has published its fifth annual report on the Dutch FTTH market. A host of new players has entered the market, and FTTH initiatives are underway in no fewer than 205 municipalities, almost half of the nation's 418. However, roll-out is going slower than some may hope. Adverse weather conditions (a lengthy frost period) hit the overall market, and Reggefiber's roll-out in Amsterdam also saw a dramatic slowdown. Connecting homes in metropolitan areas has proven challenging. Competitive factors have held back FTTH as well, such as the nationwide availability of Docsis 3.0 (offering speeds up to 120 Mbps), the absence of well-known brand names on FTTH (such as Tele2 and Online), and^ KPN's focus on shareholder remuneration. The latter forced Reggefiber to raise outside debt from an EIB-led consortium in a much delayed process which took almost a full year.
　
The Telecompaper report distinguishes between fibre-to-the-home and fibre-to-the-building (FTTB, also called Ethernet-to-the-home). By year-end 2010, we estimate the number of homes passed with FTTH or FTTB at 714,600. This compares to a combined 541,600 homes passed at the end of 2009.
　
Telecompaper expects the roll-out of FTTH to accelerate over the next few years. By the end of 2015, these two technologies combined stand to reach almost 2.5 million homes passed and over 1 million subscribers. The report also provides estimates on the market shares of the service providers in the Reggefiber ecosystem. The OnsNet cooperatives in Noord-Brabant lead the market with a combined 41 percent share.
　
For the fifth annual FTTH report, Telecompaper interviewed 17 market participants. The report describes the current state of the market and market dynamics evident in 2010, and provides estimates for the period through 2015. Many of the new and existing players are brought under the spotlight. Buyers of the report receive free access to our Broadband NL 2011 conference on 12 October, as well as a free copy of last year's report. Telecompaper is also preparing a national database of FTTH projects down to the city and borough level, to which access can be acquired on a subscription basis.

Please watch this space. I will have a comment on the slowdown tomorrow!

BPN 1574

BPN 1338 FTMH - Fiber in the ground; next step

During my stay abroad, the laying of fiber in the neighbourhood has continued. In the streets behind the apartment building where we are living, street by street was cabled, by opening up the pavements, laying the cable, branching it to the houses and filling the holes and reconstructing the pavements. But the cable has also been laid for the vintage boats in front of our apartment building, as most of them are used as house boats and people are living on them permanently; so with water, electricity and telephone, they now get fiber to the boat (FTTB). In the meantime also our apartment building has been passed. It is a kind of funny as they had to negotiate a corner with a head to end box of the cable operator UPC (see photograph). Now the circus of linking up to the homes and apartments starts as well as the signing up for subscriptions.

From our offices we can oversee the work in the street at backside of our apartment building. With military discipline, the fiber was laid, street by street.









Also the house boats will be provided with a fiber connection.









This is where fiber crosses the UPC headstation.








In our apartment building the linking up will start after tonight’s meeting of the owners’ association. In order to reach the highest floor, AlmeerNet needs the permission of the people living under the highest floor. As the linking up does not cost anything, it is likely that no one will object to the linking. But after that the battle for subscriptions between UPC and AlmeerNet will start. For the time being there will be a battle between UPC and KPN, as no other provider is yet available on AlmeerNet. The local press even speaks of a moratorium of one year for KPN, as they and Reggefiber, a joint venture with KPN, are financing the network.

Tonight the owners ‘association of our apartment building will meet for the annual meeting. A representative of AlmeerNet will be present. I am eager to hear how he answers questions like:
1. What is the difference between UPC net and AlmeerNet?
2. Is it true that KPN will have the sole right for one year to sign up subscriptions as there are no other providers, while in Amsterdam there are at least five providers.
3. What will be the costs of subscriptions as they have not been published officially and are different from town to town.
4. When will the AlmeerNet be available to new subscribers?
I think I can answer these questions now, but it will be interesting to see how the AlmeerNet representative handles the questions.

Blog Posting Number: 1338

Tag: fiber

BPN 1302 Glassfiber in The Netherlands comes slowly (1)

Glassfiber has been proclaimed as the knowledge promoter in The Netherlands and should be implemented with the assistance of the government and municipalities. In the meantime a mosaic of projects can be seen on the map of The Netherlands. Yet the uptake is meagre in the main cities Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Amsterdam
In the beginning of February the news broke that the municipality of Amsterdam had concluded an agreement with Reggefiber/KPN for 100.000 more glassfiber connections. It looks impressive, but is it?

After a long battle with UPC and the European Commission went ahead with the first phase of Glassfiber Net Amsterdam (GNA), in which the municipality of Amsterdam, the bank ING and KPN/Reggefiber and housing co operations partook. A first batch of 43.000 households would get access to glassfiber connections.

In the meantime glassfiber has laid to 43.000 households, of these only 8 to 9.000 households have glassfiber behind the front door. But only 3.000 households are active clients and have a subscription to the glassfiber and a package for telephone, television and internet. A representative for the network blamed the first strategy for the low uptake. The glassfiber was laid up to the front door and was only linked up when people took out a subscription. This strategy has now been changed. Glassfiber is now connected up to the front door and immediately packages are offered to the potential subscribers. Presently four providers offer packages: Concepts ICT, InterNLnet, Alice (BBned), Qfast and KPN.

Amsterdam started the discussion on glassfiber years ago and was advised to take the lead in laying a glassfiber network. The argument was that glassfiber was still too expensive for commercial parties and that the municipality had to be the leading party. Cable operator UPC disagreed with this discussion and fought the decision up to the European Commission. It did not see a level playing field for network operators. However the European Commission gave the municipality permission to take an equal share as the commercial partners in the glassfiber network project.

In the meantime the glassfiber scene has changed. The projects have become commercial projects as the costs have gone done dramatically. A connection to the household has come down to 800 euro. Did the project managers formerly put down the condition, that 40 percent of the household should participate, now in the new agreement of 100.000 connections Reggefiber/KPN does not request such a clause in the agreement. Now the glassfiber networks are offered with packages offering internet speeds of 60, 80 and 100 Mbps. In the meantime the cable operator UPC is offering speeds up to 120 Mbps over its own cable network.

Blog Posting Number: 1302

Tags: glassfiber

Almere: a broadband living lab

I had written about Almere and glass fibre already. But now the big news in my hometown is offcial: Almere (skyline of thecity on the photograph) will be the first big city with fibre to every home. On October 3, 2007 the telecom incumbent KPN and the cable construction company Reggefiber. KPN will offer the services on the fibre net and Reggefiber will lay the fibre cables. By 2010 all the households and companies will have a fibre connection at their disposal.

Almere is a 30 years old city, a new town, with 180.000 inhabitants and 70.000 households and it is still growing at great speed. The fibre will be a standard facility in all the new homes that will be built in Almere and in all the exiting districts starting this autumn with the Almere Harbour area. After that district by district will be canvassed. The inhabitants will get tv, radio, internet and telephony and get new facilities like video communication with care institutions.

This fibre project has been initiated and executed by the Almere Fiber Consortium, which consists of the municipality, three housing corporations, Reggefiber and a local entrepreneur D. Zantinge. The crucial question in this type of projects is the financing. Municipalities are allowed to invest under very strict rules; for example the municipality of Amsterdam has invested in its fibre project and is now under scrutiny of the European Commission. But the fray for the Almere fibre project will be born by Reggefiber.

The city of Almere wants to be the first digital city in the Netherlands. The objective of the project is promote innovative developments which will strengthen the economy, education, care, living and culture. Having a fibre infrastructure will make the city more attractive for companies in many ways. Employees can work from home. But also network companies can have a direct backbone connection from the Almere Interchange. This was already reason enough for the academic computing centre Sara to come to Almere. Almere ’s fibre network will be an open network. Any supplier of internet services can deliver its services in a level playing field to consumers and companies. In this way Almere will become a living lab in which internet and communication services can be developed and trialled.

The municipality Almere has already a super fast fibre network in use since the summer of 2006; this connects all municipal buildings, schools and social institutions. Also the industrial areas have been connected to the network. Besides these connections a pilot has been executed linking 1700 households and 500 companies to the network. With the experience of these smaller projects, Almere can start its roll-out of the entire network.

I have not seen more details on the roll-out yet. So I do not know when our office will be connected to the network. But to tell you the truth, I can not wait. The speed will always be more than the present UPC speed of 8Mbps; despite the fact that UPC has shown a speed of 100Mbps on the cable, it has not changed its offer of speeds and tariffs. Perhaps for the time being, I still should change to Alice or Telfort (but I do not like their fair use clause) for an ADSL 20Mbps line at 30 euro, including fixed line telephone.

Blog Posting Number: 897

Tags: broadband