Koen Casier

Game-Theoretic Optimization of a Fiber-to-the-Home Municipality Network Rollout

Rolling out fiber to the home (FTTH) is very cost intensive, and typical figures mention around 1500euro (

General framework for techno-economic analysis of next generation access networks

2000) to add one house to the network. The viability of a FTTH project largely depends on the take rate and as such on the competition with other operators. In this paper we investigate a case in which a municipality rolls out FTTH in competition with another network operator upgrading its infrastructure. We construct an economic model for both operators, including the effects of competition, on which we apply game theory to find the optimal strategies. We complete the results using sensitivity analysis. The final results show how a municipality FTTH rollout drives the existing operator into a more aggressive competition and how FTTH favors industrial sites and densely populated areas.

Geographic model for cost estimation of FTTH deployment: Overcoming inaccuracy in uneven-populated areas

A large variety of access network technologies and architectures that provide wide service portfolio to the customer are available for the network operators. Each of the potential access network architectures and technologies varies in complexity, network functionality, services supported and overall network costs. A detailed comparison of the economic viability of different access network scenarios is crucial for operators due to the high cost of this network segment. This paper identifies all essential elements of a general framework for the techno-economic analysis of different access network technologies and architectures, as well as describes some specific issues/problems related to the techno-economic evaluation of next generation (NG) access networks. The goal is to have at operators disposal a methodology allowing the techno-economic comparison of the proposed access network solutions and their introduction/rollout.

Municipalities as a Driver for Wireless Broadband Access

A geographic approach is proposed to accurately estimate the cost of FTTH networks. In contrast to the existing geometric models, our model can efficiently avoid inaccurate estimation of the fibre infrastructure cost in the uneven-populated areas.

Economic benefits of a community driven Fiber to the Home rollout

Municipalities can form a driving force behind the deployment of new telecom infrastructure. While a telecom operator focuses on direct (financial) profits, a municipality is mainly interested in the social benefits for its inhabitants. In this paper, we evaluate a wireless municipality network from both a technical and an economic point of view. WiFi and WiMAX are considered as the most suited technologies for this purpose. A detailed techno-economic study has been performed including forecasting of the user adoption, dimensioning of the wireless network and modelling the related costs and revenues. The trade-off between installing a high number of relatively cheap WiFi access points, and a smaller number of more expensive WiMAX base stations for delivering full coverage is investigated in several scenarios.

Adoption and Pricing: The Underestimated Elements of a Realistic IPTV Business Case

Nowadays, many telecom operators are reluctant to roll out a new fiber to the home (FTTH) infrastructure, as they are put off by the high investment costs. Inspired by several local FTTH initiatives, especially in Western Europe, this paper considers an FTTH rollout by a local community. We show that clearly different economics play a part in case a community would roll out the FTTH infrastructure, and we give also an indication of some required conditions to obtain a feasible FTTH rollout. To get realistic results, the techno-economic study has been applied on a municipality network in the city of Ghent, located in Belgium. We have performed a cost/benefit analysis, and different rollout schemes are compared to each other. As the introduction of a new technology involves a lot of uncertainties, it is of great importance to determine the most influencing parameters. For that purpose, we have executed a detailed sensitivity analysis, which also provide us with a general forecast of the outcome of the considered case study.

Geometric versus geographic models for the estimation of an FTTH deployment

The adoption of IPTV increases competition for telecom operators. Especially video on demand and the move to HDTV push the bandwidth requirements to the limits. It is very challenging for an operator to construct a successful and sustainable introduction of IPTV over the existing infrastructure. This article gives an overview of a typical business case followed by a detailed discussion of the adoption and evaluation of the outcome. The results of this article indicate the importance of a correct choice of adoption model and related parameters. It illustrates how different IPTV-specific effects on adoption (i.e., competition and analog switch off) might have a considerable impact on the outcome. After adoption, the article shows how the outcome of the business case can be used within pricing decisions by setting sustainable and competitive boundaries on the tariff. Finally, as pricing will also have an important impact on adoption (e.g., a price reduction could lead to increased adoption), the possible impact of this feedback loop is indicated. In this sense the approach discussed in the article could easily be extended with a highly detailed cost model of the network architecture and technology, leading to a full business case for IPTV introduction by a telecom operator.

Methodology for a cost evaluation of migration toward NGOA networks

Optical access networks provide a future proof platform for a wide range of services, and today, several operators are deploying fibre to the home (FTTH) networks. Installing an FTTH infrastructure, however, involves very high investment cost. Therefore, a good estimation of the investment cost is important for building a successful business strategy and, consequently, to speed up the FTTH penetration. In this paper, for calculating the amount of cable and fibre in the outside plant together with the associated civil works, and the number of required network elements, two different approaches are investigated: (1) geometric modelling of the fibre plant based on approximate mathematical models and (2) geographic modelling of the fibre plant based on map-based geospatial data. The results obtained from these two approaches can then be used as input for preliminary investment cost calculations and/or techno-economic evaluations. Compared to more complex and accurate geographic modelling, we verify that especially with uneven population density and irregular street system, simple geometric models do not provide accurate results. However, if no geospatial data is available or a fast calculation is desired for a first estimation, geometric models definitely have their relevance. Based on the case studies presented in this paper, we propose some important guidelines to improve the accuracy of the geometric models by eliminating their main distortion factors.

Economic analysis of future access network deployment and operation

Evolution of optical access networks promises to bring higher bandwidth to more customers. However, this evolution toward so-called next generation optical access (NGOA) networks also introduces additional challenges that operators and/or vendors have to address: how to properly estimate and compare different NGOA architectures and their evolutionary paths in terms of their economics. Calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) for NGOA networks is a very complex target as it needs to involve good knowledge of the technology, the existing network infrastructure, and any migration-related processes. In this paper a complete methodology is presented for evaluating the TCO of the migration toward a NGOA network. It contains a detailed description of which key aspects have to be considered, which processes they affect, and how they are translated into costs in a logical manner. Finally, it also shows how this methodology has been applied to particular selected cases and how it gives a detailed view of all costs involved in migration. This approach opens up opportunities to cooperate in techno-economic research using it as a base. Both operators and vendors can also utilize this approach to get a useful economic background of their future investments and potential sales.

Techno-economic evaluation of open access on FTTH networks

In this paper we take into account the business aspects of building wireless and optical access networks. A detailed view on broadband access network deployment costs, including both capital (CapEx) and operational expenditures (OpEx) is given. Main cost components of optical and wireless access networks have been identified, and the deployment costs of different architectures have also been presented.