MDUs become hottest FTTH market

While the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) industry has largely focused on the scramble for broadband stimulus funding this year, 2009 has quietly become the year FTTH went MDU-crazy.

Multi-dwelling units have become a major segment of the FTTH buildout, and as with most local loop fiber trends in North America, Verizon has been the driving force behind the shift. With its push into major metro markets such as New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Verizon has been pushing its vendors to develop solutions that better match MDU requirements. The result has been smaller optical network terminals and more flexible ONT solutions, a proliferation of pre-connectorized fiber drops and the development of better in-building fiber distribution using more bendable fiber.

To be sure, Verizon was already driving its vendors to make smaller indoor ONTs and pre-connectorized fiber drops for easier installations, but the MDU push is accelerating those trends.

“To meet our goal of passing 3 million new homes each year, we had to find ways to improve the speed and cost of our fiber deployment and installation,” Verizon CTO Richard Lynch told the FTTH Conference & Expo Tuesday in his keynote address. “Deploying terminals for fiber drops was time-consuming, so we worked with our supplier partners to create a connectorized version for quick ‘plug and play’ installation. We recognized that it often took more time than expected to install outdoor ONTs. So we worked with the supplier community again and created the ‘just-inside’ model.”

Verizon then pushed suppliers for solutions customized for MDUs, Lynch said.

“Limited wall space in MDU basements made initial designs of the common ONTs difficult to use, so our suppliers created stackable ‘pizza box’ ONTs that required much less space,” he said. “Inside the living area, single-customer ONTs were too large and unattractive, so together we developed Desktop ONTs the size of a home router that made the installation process cleaner and simpler for the customer. We needed more flexibility for MDU interior installations, so fiber manufacturers refined bendable fiber to handle the tight turns found in urban buildings – with no degradation or signal loss.”

Verizon is making a major MDU push for one obvious reason – apartment buildings represent 25% of its customer base and an even higher percentage of metro area customers – and one less obvious reason, said Kevin Smith, director of engineering process assurance. 

“You always have a greater opportunity in the MDU space because of the much higher residential churn,” Smith said in a Tuesday panel session on MDUs at the FTTH Council event. “The average churn in the single family unit space is seven to eight years. So if you can’t get that customer or they’ve disconnected their service, you don’t have another opportunity for a while.”

ADC is one of several vendors focusing on MDUs because of the increased opportunity, said Trevor Smith, director of carrier solutions. “Our customers have asked for help in understanding how to address that environment,” said Smith, who moderated the MDU panel at the FTTH Council event. “They are looking for increased efficiency and less need for planning and engineering.”

ADC’s Rapid Fiber system was designed specifically for MDUs and incorporates connectorization of fibers in the in-building distribution system.

“Connectorization allows you to work in the field with less skilled labor and less overhead,” Smith said. “Plus you don’t have to carry as much equipment as if you are doing field splicing.”

Verizon’ Kevin Smith said the company’s early MDU experience showed fusion splicing in the field was “cost-prohibitive.”

“They need power, and the amount of training required is higher,” Smith said. “What we have just started looking at is mechanical connectors so that our installers can go in with a compact kit. They are very quick, and they don’t need power.”

Because most MDUs are in more densely populated areas, they tend to be close enough to the central office that the DB loss associated with connectorization isn’t an issue because the optical budget is sufficient, Smith said.

Working with several vendors, Verizon created VATS – the Verizon Advanced Terminal System, Smith said. VATS is a preconfigured cabinet with preconnectorized cable that allows technicians to do “plug-and-play” installation of tenants as they sign up for service.

One of the challenges of dealing with preconnectorized fiber when connecting tenants to the system is that the fiber has to come in pre-set lengths, almost guaranteeing that there will be some slack. ADC has developed its own solution to “slack storage” by creating a terminal device with a built-in spool that can store the typical 3-millimeter, 12-fiber cable on a reel behind the terminal and, once the fiber is cut, allow the flanges of the reel to be snapped off, Smith said.

“It comes with 100-foot, 200-foot and 300-foot drops, which simplifies the ordering process,” Smith said. “There are only three part numbers to worry about. The big payoff here is the labor savings, and labor represents 60% of the cost of deployment, much more than materials.”

In Part 2: Dealing with landlords