Cost of dropping fiber

tim

I keep hearing that all Telcos say it is unrealistic to bring ‘fibre to the home’ due to the high cost of dropping fibre in metropolitan areas. I would be very interested to hear if anyone knows the approximate installation (dropping) cost per kilometre in this country.
Thanks,
Tim

Rojam

I'm sure I read somewhere recently that the average cost of laying fibre or cable in Ireland is around £150 per metre.

:mad: I still don't know why there's no utility tunnelling or rentable conduits here in Ireland - just how many times have we seen the teletubbies, the gas lads and the electron-pushers all digging the same street at the same time ?

Moriarty

Laying the actual fibre (eg the cost of the fibre + installation of the fibre in the ground) costs $4/metre. That is an internationally agreed price between major operators and contractors. It will obviously cost more than that when you have to dig up tarmac & relay it after, although i doubt it would add substantially to the cost.

Ireland has more than enough fibre layed at the moment though. If i remember correctly, i read a National Development Plan document a few weeks ago that stated that 80% of the fibe in the country is still dark. What we need is access from the fibre backbones, to the consumer market.

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Moriarty
Ireland has more than enough fibre layed at the moment though. If i remember correctly, i read a National Development Plan document a few weeks ago that stated that 80% of the fibe in the country is still dark. What we need is access from the fibre backbones, to the consumer market.

It would be great if you could find a link for that. Thanks.

Fergus

Even high capacity leased line connections to premises are usually done with one or more copper pairs. It avoids the complexity of splicing optics etc. The optical circuits tend to go down to at best street level, and which point there's a distribution cabinet with metallic pairs doing the last bit.

Regarding laying, I believe Dublin Corporation charges staggering amounts per metre for digging up Dublin city. Maybe even a good deal more than 150..

rardagh

The costs of laying fiber in Ireland are dependant on the many component costs including;

1. The cost of the fiber pair bundle; perhaps £7 per meter for a 48 pair fiber bundle on a bad day
2. The cost of chosen construction methodology, eg. ducting, slotting, ploughing; perhaps £15-£75 per meter
3. The cost of the long term damage or way leave fees charged by the local authority £10 - £200+ per meter depending on local authority and chosen construction methodology
4. The costs for surmounting Special Engineering Difficulties; eg. a river/stream in the way
5. The design, build (including splicing and chambers) and project management costs.

This list isn't complete but gives a good overview!

However, if well planned and designed a cost effective Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) or Fiber-To-The-Curb (FTTC) network, as Fergus mentioned, is not an impossible feat.

You find that where this technology has taken off, in Sweden; New Zealand, Milan etc. it has required the government to take a leading role because of the unusually lengthy pay-back period required. However they offer cheap 100BaseT circuits!! on a future proof infrastructure:

New Zealand Sweden

Moriarty

Originally posted by rardagh
This list isn't complete, but will give you an idea that talk of $4 per meter is quaintly naive.

I got a bit mixed up. I went to go find this info again - I was thinking of fibre line rental agreements. The price was also €2/year. 'Oops'.

Boston

5.6km per million pounds means its 178 pounds a meter, that doesnt include spliting it.

but keep in mind splitting it once could serve 10-200 people depending on the area.