December 2014, Vol. 69, No. 12
Features
Fiber Growth Driven By Multiple Market Demands
Fiber is hot again in the telecommunications market.
More homes continue to be connected directly to fiber optic cable, and fiber deployments are increasing in areas that may be surprising to some with much of the demand driven by wireless service providers.
“The impact of fiber is large and growing,” said Heather Burnett Gold, president of the Fiber To The Home (FTTH) Council, a non-profit association consisting of companies and organizations that plan and deliver video, internet and voice services over high-bandwidth, direct fiber optic connections.
The FTTH Council conducts an annual survey on usage and impact of broadband. The 2014 survey, prepared by RVA LLC, released the past summer and updated at the end of October, reports 10.4 million homes are connected to fiber, compared with 9.7 million in 2013.
Other key findings in the report:
• The number of homes “marketed” – that is with the potential to be connected to fiber – increased in North America from 26.6 million to 32 million;
• Fifty-eight service providers now are offering gigabit-per-second internet packages;
• Satisfaction rates are far higher for FTTH than all other types of broadband based on both reliability and speed. Comparing both ends of the spectrum in terms of performance, FTTH versus DSL, FTTH is now 5 times faster on download speeds and 23 times faster on upload speeds; and
• The perceived “need” for faster broadband continues to grow with home users spending more time on the internet. Broadband users 35 years of age and under report they receive more than half their video content online.
“After surveying broadband consumers for seven years, two trends are very clear,” said Michael Render, president of RVA. “First, the importance of broadband to the consumer lifestyle increases with each passing year and second, end-to-end fiber optic networks are becoming more and more differentiated from other types of broadband in terms of performance, use and perception.
“Fiber is fast, reliable and ready to meet growing needs. And fiber is also letting people do more, from high-bandwidth health care applications to powering the many connected devices in a modern home.”
More than FTTH
However, FTTH is only part of the fiber story. Two contractors with long experience in serving telephone markets share their experience in today’s market, including FTTH and other developments which should ultimately contribute growth of fiber home connections.
Henkels & McCoy Inc. (H&M) is one of the nation’s largest utility contractors and currently has a heavy workload of fiber work throughout the United States.
“There definitely is an uptick in fiber construction, but not just fiber to the home (FTTH),” said Bob Dundon, Henkels & McCoy communications market director. “We have a number of projects under way to bring fiber to multiple locations which are more accurately classified as fiber to the premises (FTTP) or fiber to anywhere (FTTX). Fiber to the home is just one of a number of end points where we deliver fiber. Some of the FTTH work we do is for small municipalities that have taken on building their own fiber networks with the help of federal grants and economic development funds.”
Dundon said fiber projects include bringing fiber to unserved and underserved areas, as well as overbuilding areas in which Internet service is already in place but is not delivered via fiber.
Wireless demands
“The significant growth in the wireless market is another driving force for fiber deployment, Dundon continued. “Fiber to the tower (FTTT) is the main application driving new fiber builds in the wireless market. Wireless carriers are upgrading their copper backhaul networks to fiber in order to support the tremendous growth in mobile communications. We are currently involved in an 8,000-mile fiber project in Texas and a 13,000-mile fiber project along the Gulf Coast, all to support FTTT. In addition to the fiber builds to the large cell towers, small cell implementation, also necessary to support this mobile growth, is driving new fiber construction. The small cell market anticipates strong growth over the next five years.”
Dundon believes analysts have underestimated the wireless growth and didn’t forecast the activity we’re seeing today, and consumer demand for more and faster access to broadband will continue to drive fiber infrastructure growth.
“There are estimates for mobile data growth that are staggering – 650 percent between now and 2018,” Dundon said. “That growth will require more fiber infrastructure.”
“If the area for new construction is one where there already are utility poles, the default is to go aerial,” said Duke Horan, director of business development for Henkel & McCoy’s West Region. “However, often there is no pole space available, and make-ready can be cost-prohibitive. In addition, many areas today do not allow for aerial installation. Therefore, much of the new fiber is going underground.”
Of the underground segments, most is being installed by horizontal directional drilling, Horan said.
“Much of the drilling equipment being used is in the 30,000 to 40,000-pound pullback range,” he continued. “For drops, smaller units are used. In areas with back lot easements, the small units work great because they can go through a 36-inch gate and work where bigger machines can’t go.”
Other construction methods have found little traction for this work, said Horan “Excavation causes surface damage that requires restoration,” he explained. “Plowing isn’t really a fit except in rural areas or places where there are wide spaces between houses and for drops. ‘Stitch’ boring with piercing tools is not effective because the path of the bore cannot be controlled. However, we are seeing an increase in micro trenching and some microfiber.”
Long haul projects
One surprising development is the new long-haul construction focus, Dundon pointed out. “We are bidding several segments that will connect metro areas. In the 1980s and ’90s, long-haul routes usually were along railroad rights-of-way. This time, it’s different – carriers are looking for diverse routes to support applications to connect multiple markets as well as the growth of data center demands. Upgrades to new fiber plants are taking place because the older fiber systems can’t match the reduced latency of the new fiber.”
Founded in 1923, Henkels & McCoy has evolved into one of the largest privately held firms serving the utility infrastructure industry in the United States, providing diversified services to the power, oil and gas pipeline, gas distribution and communications markets. The company is based in Blue Bell, PA.
Rural telecom systems
Don E. Kelly Contractor Inc. has been a telecommunications contractor since the early 1970s and since 1988 has specialized strictly in underground outside plant construction.
Many of the company’s clients are small independent telephone companies in Southern Missouri and adjacent portions of Oklahoma and Arkansas who are installing local fiber networks that in addition to basic telephone, offer high-speed internet service, said owner Don Kelly.
“We put in the systems and often contract to maintain them,” Kelly added. FTTH always is part of those projects.
“Historically we’ve always plowed in as much cable as possible,” said Kelly. “However, many projects today require directional drilling and we’re doing a lot of that.”
Kelly owns and operates four drill rigs with pullback ratings from 9,000 to 30,000 pounds. The largest is equipped to drill in rock which frequently is encountered in the areas where the company operates. This HDD unit just came off a job where it drilled 2,200 feet through solid rock. The smallest machine does drops to houses and takes cable under sidewalks, driveways and fences.
“We’re boring somewhere every day,” said Kelly, “and much of is subcontracted. To do that, it’s necessary to have a group of excellent subcontractors – and we do.”
Much of the fiber Kelly puts in is to wireless towers. “Right now we have three projects that requires a total of 45,000 feet of boring.”
Kelly said many of the small telephone companies are family owned. “We have one that operates six exchanges. We’re putting in 15 miles of fiber for one of them, do all the work, then maintain the systems after they are up and running.”
Crew members from Henkels & McCoy work on a fiber deployment project. (Photo courtesy Henkels & McCoy)
Don Kelly Contractor is based in Norwood, MO, with branch offices in Seneca, Steelville and Lebanon. While concentrating on telecom work, the company often makes HDD installations for water and other projects.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
FTTH Council, (503) 635-3114, www.ftthcouncil.org
Henkels & McCoy, 1-888-HENKELS, www.henkels.com
Don E. Kelly Contractor, (417) 746-4545
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