In the midst of the worst housing market in years, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) continues to be a “bright” spot for developers, builders and telecom companies. The number of homes connected to fiber grew a monumental 45 percent in just the past six months — from 1.48 million homes to 2.1 million homes — and there appears to be no leveling off in the trend. The data was revealed by RVA at the FTTH Conference, presented by the FTTH Council. The growth is even more incredible when you consider that the number of homes passed with has grown from just 29,000 homes to more than 9.5 million homes in six years.
This year’s conference, which topped 2,300 attendees, was entitled, “The Content Revolution: Filling the Pipeline.” It was held in early October at the Disney Dolphin Resort in Orlando. “The landscape for our industry is changing,” said Kathy Harriman, senior vice president of EPB Telecom in Chattanooga, Tenn. and board member of the FTTH Council, during the opening session. “It’s an exciting time to be in our industry. Finally, we have networks that are big enough, fast enough and infinitely expandable. I love Verizon. They are driving innovation and creating new and positive customer experiences with FiOS every day. But the FTTH industry is much more than one company.”
She noted there are currently 340 FTTH providers in North America.
“Should America be satisfied with 2 megabytes of service speed? Not the America I know. The need for speed will continue,” said Harriman.
The keynote for the event was presented by Bret Swanson, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think-tank. Swanson called his speech “The Exaflood” in reference to the amount of speed necessary to handle the Internet, video on demand and other needs. (An exabyte is 1018 power, as compared to a kilobyte, for example, which is 103 power.) Currently, the Internet uses 8.4 exabytes per year. By 2011, Swanson estimates it will require 72 exabytes per year. The nexus of his presentation is that telecoms and developers need to be providing consumers the largest broadband pipe they possibly can. “Who had ever heard of YouTube two years ago?” he asked rhetorically, noting that when YouTube goes high definition (HD), that particular site alone will require 12 exabytes of bandwidth.
Swanson went on to highlight some of the key technologies that he believes will grow in forthcoming years and will put bandwidth pressure on the Internet, including:
Video Conferencing — Swanson believes video phones will become ubiquitous, and they will be in HD.
Amateur Video — YouTube, but in HD.
Movie Downloads — One HD movie download requires 10 gigabytes per second, and Swanson believes movie downloads will soon require 100 exabytes of speed per year.
Online Gaming — One game alone could have as many as one million players online at the same time, using 1 exabyte per year.
IPTV — Today, we are getting used to hundreds of TV channels. With IPTV, consumers will have access to tens of thousands of channels.
3-D Video/Home Theater — Swanson says evolving 3-D movies will require 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps in download speeds, compared to today’s non-HD movie download requirement of just 10 Mbps to 20 Mbps.
How to Market Fiber
Max Kipfer, executive vice president of corporate development for Connexion Technologies, addressed attendees at the conference with ideas for marketing and selling fiber. He says some of the key selling points are speed (it’s faster than DSL or cable modem), savings (via bundling), value (increases value of property), simplicity (one fiber can deliver all the services a homeowner needs), flexibility (fiber allows more service providers to use the same pipe) and reliability (fiber requires minimal maintenance and corrosion is not an issue).
Kipfer pointed to Kellswater Bridge Development in Kannapolis, N.C., as an example of a development successfully approaching its FTTH marketing. He quoted George Kiser of Kellswater Bridge who said, “One of the best sales tools we have is fiber-to-the-home.” Kipfer advises developers to employ field marketing managers and service activation specialists to sell fiber to homeowners. Kipfer also suggests employing collateral literature, kiosks in the sales centers and dynamic Web site content in marketing FTTH. Connexion has created “developer marketing kits” that include ad campaigns, literature and co-op advertisements. “Some developers don’t want to be associated with the potential problems [of being a service provider],” Kipfer adds. “The last thing a developer wants is phone calls from homeowners complaining that something doesn’t work in the home. So, for years, they didn’t do it — so they could blame the faults on the incumbent service providers. FTTH takes a leap of faith, but the benefits more than outweigh the downside.”