Broadband Breakfast: Open Access Network Builders Discuss Ownership Models for Next Generation Broadband Infrastructure

Broadband Breakfast: Open Access Network Builders Discuss Ownership Models for Next Generation Broadband Infrastructure: Panelists agreed in order to fund fiber to the last mile, it is necessary to build into cities first, where network adaption will be high. This will generate the necessary revenue to build into sparser neighborhoods.

This is basically the same model employed by investor owned incumbent telephone and cable companies that brought the United States to the place it is today with big gaps in advanced telecom infrastructure and two thirds of homes not having access to a fiber to the prem #FTTP connection.

It cannot scale up quickly enough to catch up the nation to where it should be in 2020 but for its excessive reliance on investor owned providers that led to these shortcomings. The nation needs a crash build public project to bring #FTTP to nearly every American doorstep. The current viral pandemic control measures that shifted knowledge work out of centralized commute-in offices made its advanced telecom infrastructure deficits painfully apparent.

Rapid rise in work from home #WFH drives demand for enterprise grade connectivity

As states and localities put in place contagion control measures that shut down centralized commute in offices in mid-March of this year, many knowledge workers migrated to working at home. But with only about a third of all U.S. homes having access to fiber to the premise (FTTP) connections, many found their home connections wanting.

They are less secure than enterprise connections. Bandwidth is tight and competes with other users in the household such as students engaged in online learning and video entertainment streaming. Service from legacy telephone and cable companies is optimized for streaming video entertainment with asymmetric circuits allocating much more bandwidth to downloading than uploading. That’s not optimal for virtual knowledge work that often involves the use of two-way videoconferencing and virtual private networking.

The virtual office in the cloud needs fiber connectivity. A co-working space company offering its aptly branded CloudVO (virtual office) recognizes this need. It sells passes for access to these spaces offering what it describes as enterprise-grade connectivity – presumably FTTP.

Meanwhile, AT&T recently rolled out a new business offering aimed at bringing enterprise grade connectivity to home-based knowledge workers. AT&T’s Home Office Connectivity however isn’t FTTP per se. It would also use business class fixed wireless service supported by its mobile 4G LTE infrastructure where there’s no FTTP infrastructure and as a backup network. But that’s where the service becomes decidedly more residential than business class. It’s sold in bandwidth consumption tiers of 8, 12 and 50 Mbps at $80, $130 and $200 monthly, respectively.

The target market for Home Office Connectivity is businesses, not the homes of home-based knowledge workers according to AT&T:

The service enables businesses of any size to extend enterprise broadband connectivity throughout their workforce, whether it is for a single additional line or thousands. It also simplifies onboarding and management with consolidated invoicing directed to the business, single-number enterprise customer care, and professional on-site installation by a certified AT&T technician.

The line between residential and business service in the legacy telephone company business structure is becoming blurred.

Exurbs often neglected for landline advanced telecom infra

A Rise in Remote Work Could Lead to a New Suburban Boom - May 13, 2020: Larger homes with more rooms and offices could draw those no longer worried about their commute out of urban cores and into the suburbs and exurbs. (Emphasis added)

Advanced landline telecom infrastructure is typically lacking in exurban areas that have population densities lower than suburban but considerably higher than rural. That's because legacy incumbent telephone and cable companies generally count occupied dwellings along rights of way when planning last mile infrastructure. When there are stretches where there are few houses, clusters of homes not far down the road are redlined.

The exurbs end up being neglected, falling through the cracks as the mainstream and info tech media adopt an incomplete, binary view of advanced landline telecom infrastructure as either urban or rural with nothing in between. Hopefully migration to the outer reaches of metro areas identified by Zillow will shine a light on this issue and result in more fiber connections being built to exurban homes and small businesses.