FTTH deployment and its impact on network maintenance and repair costs

The introduction of FTTH leads to high costs, especially in fiber deployment. In operations we face a high complexity and corresponding high cost of fiber splicing compared to copper welding. However, fiber based access networks are less vulnerable to degradation because of outside plant conditions, leading to lower failure rates. In order to correctly calculate the business case for a new FTTH network deployment, the capital expenditures need to be balanced with the expected gains in operational expenditures compared to the current (e.g. copper based) access network. In this paper we present a hierarchical approach for getting a clear and balanced view on the costs of an FTTH deployment. This includes a gradual increasing level of detail and a clear view on the trade-offs in each step, an integrated calculation model containing both CapEx and OpEx and the interaction between both. We focus on the modeling of the network maintenance (preventive repair) and repair process and highlight the key differentiators between the copper and the fiber based case.