Underground Construction - January 2022 - 23

Factors Driving Bull Fiber Market
Jeff Griffin | Senior Editor
The number of homes in the United States
that connect to the internet with fiber
optic cable is increasing and 5G is an
important development. But many may
be surprised what the FTTH (fiber to the
home) growth data shows.
" There are about 25 million homes in
the U.S. currently connected to fiber, and
about 56 million passed by fiber (near
enough to fiber to be connected), " said
Michael Render of RVA. LLC, a market
research firm that conducts surveys for the
Fiber Broadband Association.
" One thing is clear, " said Render, " the
growth in fiber to the home in the next five
years will absolutely be the highest ever,
and there is reasonable likelihood that the
growth in just these five years will surpass
all FTTH growth to date. "
Almost all network operators and internet
service providers now finally recognize
fiber is the best internet medium, said
Render. Based on an RVA study of 4,000
U.S. and Canadian consumers, including
speed and latency tests based on the survey,
fiber clearly has the best performance.
The public wants fiber, Render said.
RVA consumer studies show consumers
want high-speed, highly reliable broadband
which now is the third most important
community attribute, close behind safe
streets and affordable housing.
" Needless to say, " said Render, " the
underground construction opportunities
for fiber over the rest of this decade appear
to be tremendous. "
Presentation
Render will expand on fiber/5G growth at
the 2022 UCT Show next month. His keynote
session - Fiber Construction Forecast:
FTTP and 5G - will be presented at 8:30 a.m.
in the Fort Worth Convention Center.
Render summarizes why fiber and
5G growth will continue and what this
growth means:
" This performance advantage has
become particularly important during the
Covid pandemic with increased work from
home and remote learning. Homes that
have lower performing broadband often
reported difficulties and had to 'ration'
usage during important times of communication
with some family members having
to get offline to support those with the
most important meetings or needs. "
In addition, the importance of better
broadband has become even more
significant to the average consumer,
Render pointed out.
" In RVA consumer studies for the Fiber
Broadband Association, telephone companies,
in particular, that did not invest in fiber
have faced significant broadband churn
in addition to landline and video loss, and
several ended in bankruptcy. Several bankruptcy
filings of these companies specifically
noted that a lack of fiber investment was
a major cause of their failure.
" There are now more than 1,200 companies,
large and small, deploying fiber in the
US. These include telephone companies,
cable companies, competitive providers,
municipalities and rural electric coops.
Many of them have publicly projected
substantial FTTH builds, " Render observed.
" Likewise, many vendors of fiber and
fiber equipment have noted increased
interest and have said there now seems
to be a 'land grab' with everyone trying
to stake their claim by getting their fiber
into a specific geographic area first. Even
some cable MSOs, who currently enjoy the
largest share of broadband customers are
starting to overbuild with fiber. Besides the
advantages of better customer attraction
and low churn, the Fiber Broadband
Association has produced a study showing
that fiber offers the network operator more
reliability and lower operating costs.
" In addition, existing government
programs to increase rural fiber deployment
such as the FCC Rural Digital Opportunity
Fund (RBOC) and the new $65 billion broadband
bill included in the recently passed
infrastructure bill will increase deployment
further. It is anticipated that funds from
the new bill will be distributed to states for
award to underserved areas. Not all of this
will be fiber, as the bill allows speeds as low
as 100 Mbps down and 20 up, but there will
be preference given to fiber builds.
" Fiber is not the only technology for
broadband, but without a major new technological
discovery, fiber will remain the
superior technology for decades to come, "
Render stressed.
" Technologies such as low orbit satellites
can provide some level of broadband, especially
important in very remote areas, but
come nowhere close in terms of meeting
current and future needs. 5G wireless
provides important mobile connections. but
again, simply cannot compete with FTTH in
terms of performance. " *
Michael Render
Fiber and Underground Construction
Within the general growth of fiber deployment, the percentage of fiber being placed underground is
growing, except for rural electric coops which usually place fiber on their poles, said Michael Render
of research firm RVA, LLC.
" Some states. " Render said, " will offer a particularly good opportunity for construction. Besides fiber
to the home, the growth in 5G also is creating opportunity. The high number of 5G towers projected,
placed closer together than traditional cell towers, is increasing rapidly. These small cell antennas
usually are fed by fiber.
Most believe, he added, that there will be significant challenges to completing this work on time
due to materials shortages, and labor constraints. The status of these challenges, and strategies to
mitigate these problems will be discussed at Render's UCT session.
" The silver lining for the underground construction industry, " he continued, " is that these pressures
and constraints likely will increase margins for underground contractors.
" The well-informed contractor should be in position for an excellent decade of fiber opportunity. " *
UCONonline.com | JANUARY 2022
23

http://www.UCONonline.com

Underground Construction - January 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Underground Construction - January 2022