On telecom infrastructure modernization, politics of "good enough" likely to prevail at expense of FTTP

Despite the enactment of the Biden administration’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) one year ago, the United States is unlikely to show significant progress over the foreseeable in modernizing its legacy metallic telephone and cable TV distribution infrastructure to fiber to the premises (FTTP) for advanced telecommunications. Here are some of the reasons:

• Policymakers will likely argue that getting American homes connected as quickly as possible – the urgent need shown during pandemic restrictions – is paramount and hence any technology that can do that is “good enough.” They’ll also argue that fixed terrestrial wireless (FWA) and satellite delivered connectivity have demonstrated their ability to do that, particularly in areas that meet the legislation’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program (BEAD) primary eligibility standard for construction subsidies (>80% of prems are unable to order service with throughput of 25/3 Mbps or greater). That could also lead to efforts to regulate the rates for these technologies since they typically priced above landline delivered services.
  
  
• Fixed wireless – licensed or not – and satellite will be deemed “good enough” after intense lobbying of the federal and state governments over the BEAD subsidy eligibility standards. Notably, the director of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) – charged with overseeing the distribution of the subsidies – suggested satellite and fixed terrestrial wireless will have to suffice in some high cost areas of the nation.
  
  
• The FCC’s recently released “broadband map” that will determine eligibility for infrastructure construction subsidies designates areas currently served by satellite and mobile wireless providers offering licensed FWA as ineligible for funding.
  
  
• Coax cable and second generation DSL fiber to the curb (FTTC) infrastructure will also be deemed “good enough” over FTTP in more densely settled parts of the nation. The cable industry will continue to refine its DOCSIS signal compression technology and only invest in FTTP selectively in newly built residential subdivisions whereas just a couple of years ago, they were installing coax in newer developments.

Report: Draft legislation implementing telecom component of Biden administration infrastructure initiative shuns fiber infra standard

 — The draft is likely to fuel renewed advocacy from consumer groups and anyone else hoping for ultra-fast fiber optic buildout, as it instead opts for lower minimum broadband speed thresholds (100 Megabits per second download over 20 Mbps upload would count as "underserved" for the $40 billion tentatively slated to go to the Commerce Department’s state grants, less than the fiber-focused minimums some Democrats wanted). 

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-tech/2021/07/21/bidens-trustbuster-streak-continues-with-kanter-pick-796632?utm_source=sendgrid&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletters

The asymmetrical 100/20 throughput vs. fiber distribution infrastructure standard is mirrored in a California budget bill enacted this week appropriating $2 billion in grant funding.

N.M.’S Daunting Digital Divide | ABQ Journal

N.M.’S Daunting Digital Divide | ABQ Journal: If matching dollars from telephone companies that won stimulus grants are included, plus development loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service, broadband investments in the past five years surpass $400 million, according to the state Department of Information Technology.

But many of New Mexico’s rural zones still have no Internet coverage, and many that do are still using dial-up modems, or aging digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, said USDA Rural Development State Director Terry Brunner.

And don't expect Google to come in any time soon and build fiber to the premise infrastructure as it is doing in a single metro area, Kansas City.

“New Mexico still has a digital divide because in some areas it’s just so hard to go through mountains or rock formations, and then you get to the end of the route and find there just aren’t enough homes and businesses to pay for the construction,” said Valerie Dodd, CenturyLink Inc.’s vice president and general manager for New Mexico.

Not a valid explanation because it fails to take into account aerial fiber, using (and upgrading as necessary) the utility poles that deliver POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) via copper cable.

Horsepower to improve the business case for aerial fiber deployment

One of the toughest nuts to crack in the business case for deploying fiber optic cable plant is the cost of labor, which by some estimates accounts for 70 percent of the price tag.

Now an old world method -- horsepower -- is helping aerial fiber deployments pencil out, as this Reuters story out of Vermont illustrates.

"It just saves so much work - it would take probably 15 guys to do what Fred (a Belgian draft horse) and Claude (his human owner) can do," said Paul Clancy, foreman of a line crew from FairPoint. "They can pull 5,000 feet of cable with no sweat."

On a recent June day, the tall, burly man and his muscular workhorse toiled 10 yards off of a desolate dirt road in hilly Hardwick, Vermont. They were assisting a work crew manning trucks and together they lashed cable to existing aerial utility line strung along wooden power poles.

Virgin trials aerial FTTP in UK countryside

Conventional wisdom holds that fiber to the premises telecom plant isn't cost feasible in less populated regions because it requires costly trenching and won't generate sufficient revenues. Some U.S. telecom experts including Tim Nulty have challenged that notion. Now Virgin Media is going to attempt to prove the conventional wisdom wrong with a FTTP aerial deployment in the rural UK village of Woolhampton, according to this TechWorld item.

If Virgin can show aerial fiber to the premise is doable even within a for-profit business context, it could spur both for profit and nonprofit aerial fiber build outs in the U.S. and elsewhere.