VENDORS HOPE FOR FIBER SALES BOOM

If any industry group got exactly what it wanted from the FCC's triennial review, it was the Fiber-to-the-Home Council. The consortium of vendors that has been lobbying for two years to get its technology excluded from unbundling finally got its wish.

The ruling allows incumbents to build new fiber facilities that can't be used by competitors, which the council believes will spur investment. “It shows that the government and the ILECs are taking the technology seriously,” FTTH Council President Mike DiMauro said.

The FCC's ruling exempts both fiber-to-the-home and hybrid copper/fiber loops that bring fiber into neighborhoods. While the RBOCs have explored consumer fiber access, they have claimed that it made little sense to invest in advanced broadband networks only to hand them over to the competition.

But even with the restriction lifted, some do not foresee a big jump in spending. BellSouth and Verizon Communications both claim that investment in their copper plant — which they are still required to unbundle — will offset any gains by deploying fiber.

Jim Sackman, chief technology officer of Advanced Fibre Communications, said he doesn't anticipate the RBOCs spending billions on new fiber access networks, but for different reasons than the incumbents claim. Even if they could escape sharing rules with a fiber-to-the-home solution, he said, they would still face the same competition from cable.

Some vendors, though, say the ruling at least provides some hope. There's still potential for fiber-to-the-home even within a network maintenance mind-set, said Darryl Ponder, CEO of vendor Optical Solutions, a FTTH member. Refurbishment and green-field development are two areas where Ponder expects fiber-to-the-home to get its start.

“There would be no reason to lay new copper when it's unbundled and fiber is not,” Ponder said.