The telecom sector has entered the next phase of growth, characterised by a data revolution. The growing uptake of smartphones, proliferation of 4G services and increasing use of video-based applications are driving data consumption. Moreover, fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services are gaining traction as the demand for seamless, high-bandwidth data connectivity increases. These have created a compelling demand for optic fibre cable (OFC) network expansion by operators. However, fibre roll-outs are challenging due to right-of-way (RoW) issues. Inflated and unreasonable costs, as well as non-uniform procedures followed by state authorities impede OFC roll-outs by operators. The implementation of the new RoW rules has been tardy, bringing little respite to the industry. Moreover, about 60 per cent of the OFC needs to be laid for redundancy purposes because at least three to four passes/backup-routes have to be made available in important corridors to avoid a complete outage at any given point in time. To resolve these issues, the state authorities and local bodies need to ensure effective implementation of the new rules in order to make OFC deployment easier and less cumbersome. Further, the vendor community needs to take appropriate precautions while laying the fibre so that operations and maintenance is not an issue later. At a recent tele.net conference, “OFC Networks in India”, leading telecom operators shared their views on the status of OFC roll-outs, network strength, growth drivers, the OFC experience, challenges and future plans for OFC deployment. Excerpts…
S.K. Nain, General Manager, Core Network Planning, BSNL
S.K. Nain,
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is an incumbent operator with a huge telecom network base. Over the years, it has managed to build robust telecom infrastructure, including a strong optical fibre network. The company has an OFC network spanning more than 300,000 km, which is among the largest in the industry and is spread across the length and breadth of the country. For instance, BSNL offers fibre-based connectivity in areas such as the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. In fact, the OFC network is not limited to just the main island of Port Blair but extends to other less commercial islands too. At present, BSNL is associated with all the major OFC vendors in the industry.
OFC expansion plans
BSNL has recently finalised an OFC tender for 24,000 km of 24-fibre count, supply for which has just started. There is another tender in the pipeline for 50,000 km of 48-fibre count. BSNL has decided to lay OFC of 48-fibre count for long-distance connectivity where earlier OFC of 24-fibre count was used. The new fibre will be rolled out in the areas where there has been no OFC so far and in old areas where the cable has been damaged and needs replacement. The BSNL board has already approved this plan. Given the growing data demand, the company may have to go for additional orders. It is likely that we will place another set of orders for 24,000 km of 24-fibre count OFC and for 50,000 km of 48-fibre count by the end of next year.
Changing role of OFC
OFC of 48-fibre count has been planned for longer interregional or intercircle national-level routes. Earlier, we were using 24-fibre count on these routes. However, the 24-fibre count is being used within telecom circles locally as well as for backhauling.
Going forward, we plan to meet the backhaul requirements through OFC of 24-fibre count while the long-distance requirement will be met through OFC of 48-fibre count. Volume-wise, the planned OFC roll-out of 48-fibre count will be the largest for BSNL. Although we have laid OFC of much higher fibre count like 96-fibre count for gigabit passive optical networks (GPON) networks, it will be our first in terms of longer-distance OFC of 48-fibre count.
FTTH outlook
We have received a positive response to our FTTH offerings. In my opinion, FTTH is the future of home broadband, where every residential area will get high speed wired broadband services. We plan to replace the existing copper connections with FTTH in the near future. This may take time and both copper and FTTH will run in parallel, but fibre is going to take the lead and there is a huge requirement and demand on that front.
Industry expectations
Whenever we associate with a vendor for a project, our key expectation is timely project delivery. If delivery is within the scheduled time, the quality of the product/work is good and prices are competitive. In that case, it becomes a win-win situation for all.
Deepak Saxena
Deepak Saxena , Associate Vice-President, Idea Cellular
Most of the private operators share fibre networks today. For Idea Cellular, we have deployed about 150,000 unique km of OFC and we share a considerable amount of fibre network of around 200,000 km with Vodafone India and Bharti Airtel. During the past two years, Idea Cellular has added around 50,000 km of OFC to its existing network (around 30,000 km the last year alone). We are likely to continue growing at this pace. Idea Cellular has pumped in substantial funds for OFC roll-out and expansion.
While laying OFC networks, operators give important consideration to the cost economics of deployment. At Idea, we have a fixed budget for roll-outs and are hoping that the government’s new RoW policy guidelines will help us in OFC roll-outs.
As an industry, we are adding about 100,000 km per year. However, this network is being shared, so one may not see 100,000 unique km on the ground. Also, in sharing, we are open to all kinds of approaches, be it direct sharing with other operators or through specialised companies like Indus Towers. We are ready to adopt any model that helps us bring down costs significantly.
OFC strategy
Idea Cellular is a mobility-centric company, so for us, fibre deployment comes as a support to our mobile network. In urban areas, fibre helps us deliver more data, as the usage per site is very high in these areas. So far, data has been doubling every year; however, going by the current trends, it will now grow at 250-300 per cent every year. Currently, Idea is witnessing a traffic rate of around 3,700 TB per day.
In rural areas, we are trying to cover more towns and villages to provide mobile broadband connections. However, the company’s prime objective for laying OFC is to support mobility.
Challenges
Despite the recent release of RoW guidelines, we have not seen any improvement in the RoW process and charges, which continue to be the biggest bottleneck in fibre deployment for any operator today. It has been seven months since the announcement of the rules, and there is almost no implementation on the ground so far.
Operators need significant government support on the cost side for laying OFC. It is not that there is no FTTH requirement or that operators do not want to roll out these services; but the cost is too high as compared to the ARPU that an operator generates from such services. In such a scenario, liberal policies and reasonable RoW charges can help improve operators’ urban OFC networks, and enable them to establish and expand their OFC networks to rural and other under-served markets.
Expectations from the industry
The initial phase of OFC laying is crucial and if done properly, it can significantly improve the life of the cable and thus, the overall network. Since there is a shortage of skilled manpower, operators also have to bear the responsibility of ensuring that the cable is laid in a proper way.
Typically, there are three key entities involved in laying OFC – the government, which grants permission for the roll-out; the vendor, who lays the fibre; and the operator, who supervises the entire activity.
We expect the government to provide us with an appropriate location or a utility corridor where the chances of cable cutting or digging by other utilities are limited. Since creating networks for redundancy is very expensive for operators, protection from random cable cuts, particularly on important routes, will help. As far as vendors are concerned, we expect them to lay fibre at a proper depth, with proper protection.
