Operators waiting for FTTH equipment prices to drop

Operators around the world are waiting until the price of next-generation Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) technologies drop before they replace existing FTTH equipment, according to a new report from Infonetics Research.

The next-generation FTTH technologies which currently feature prominently on operators’ shopping lists are believed to include 10G EPON, XGPON1 (asymmetric 10G PON) and WDM-PON.

However, despite vendor expectations riding high for a third wave of FTTH deployments using next-gen technologies, trials and deployments will be slow to materialise until the price of these new technologies reaches parity with current equipment prices, according to the report.

Increased bandwidth per subscriber was found to be the top reason why operators will ultimately deploy next-generation FTTH technologies, followed by the delivery of IPTV and broadcast video.

The features most often cited by carriers as being required in an FTTH Optical Network Terminal (ONT) were VoIP, 802.11n and HPNA, signalling a continued shift away from basic bridge devices and towards integrated residential gateways, according to Infonetics Research.