Is laying fiber cables really expensive?
If there’s one statement I hear consistently is that it must be expensive. But is it? Let’s dig in.
First we have to segment: what cables are we laying? In a different post I discuss a few different ways to think about the cables connecting the Internet: submarine, continental and access.
But where is the demarcation point between the continental and the access network?
Let’s define it like this:
- Metro networks: datacenter → cabinet (aka distribution box)
- Access networks: cabinet → home
If metro networks are the main roads within cities, access networks are the secondary and tertiary streets.
Fiber in Belgium is abundant
The dirtiest little secret about most European societies is this: fiber is abundant. Just take a look at Eurofiber’s network map:
Keep in mind that Eurofiber is just one of the many players in the Belgian market. They are also a relatively young one.
Imagine taking the map of Belgium and overlaying it with the network maps of all the telecom players:
- Proximus
- Telenet
- Voo
- Numericable
- Colt
- Mobistar
- BASE
- Belnet
- Destiny
- Verixi
Simply the length of the list should impart the idea of how full of fiber cables Belgium is.
Now add this to the list: companies that you would not think are telecom companies also have fiber networks.
- energy companies: Sibelga, Eandis, Fluxys.
- water companies: De Watergroep, Hydrobru, SWDE
- transportation companies: STIB-MIVB, De Lijn, TEC
- Government authorities and Education: CIRB
The metro network map of Belgium is fiber-rich.
“Fine, but that doesn’t mean that anyone can access those fibers. Does it?”
Not all companies lease or rent their metro networks. However, many do. In fact, enough companies do that it is almost a commodity.
Metro Networks within the cities
The city is full of fibers. The naked eye cannot see it. However, after you see it, you will not be able to “unsee it”. Let me show you what to look for.
These weird doors to the underground are called man-holes.
They come in many flavors, but have very similar dimensions. Different operators have different logos on them.
These man-holes are everywhere!
What the hell is inside of these things? I’ve always expected that a person could go inside one of these — they must be called "man-holes" for a reason, right?! Once inside, there would be enough space to walk around from man-hole to man-hole, in a complex series of tunnels. You could even bump in to The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 🐢.
How disappointed I was when all I saw was this: a dirty mess of cables and weird black box.
What the hell do they do with this? Well, technicians splice fibers, that means that they make physical connections between fibers strands.
That’s easy for the cables that are already laid; just park your van and pull out the fibers to connect more customers. But how do you lay more cables? It’s almost disappointing how low-tech it is. Simply lift the tiles, dig until you find cables, don’t break anything.
Access Networks
How do these fibers get to customers? On to the last leg of the trip. They dig some more and put a big box, called a distribution box.
From the distribution box they normally go either under the sidewalk or along the façade.
At each customer, that cable then goes into the house or office to then end up connected to a modem.
So connecting homes to fiber doesn’t mean that a company has to lay the entire path. The part where the fiber is missing is from the access network: from the distribution box to the customer’s modem.
Laying fibers is not a mystery nor glamorous. The components seem rather simple:
- get approval from the municipality
- open trench / climb on façade
- lay cables
- close trench / come down from façade
So what’s the cost?
In a city environment like Brussels, the estimated cost to lay cables under the sidewalk is around €100/meter. If the customer is 100 meters away from the distribution box it would cost €10.000 to connect her. Even if it's possible to use the façade cabling (around €20/meter) that's still a prohibitive cost.
Enter the fiberhood
Instead of connecting one customer at a time, the network builder works with the local inhabitants to make a group purchase.
Imagine that on that same street there are 14 houses. The network builder can now spread the costs. The cost for each home would be of around €700.
But not every street has single-tenant homes.
If all homes have 2 tenants, then the cost drops to €350/tenant. All so it goes. It gets extremely interesting when it's a new building with 20+ potential tenants.
In conclusion:
- fiber is everywhere
- laying fibers is expensive
- but using the concept of fiberhoods drastically reduces the costs
Interested in bringing it to your community? Are you property developer working on properties with 30+ units? We would love to further discuss: http://smartfiber.io or reach out at rico@smartfiber.io.
this article first appeared on: the SmartFiber blog.
