{"id":3900,"date":"2014-10-21T15:29:16","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T15:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/?p=3900"},"modified":"2018-06-06T10:09:34","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T10:09:34","slug":"calix-calls-for-u-s-style-catalysts-to-drive-gigabit-services-growth-across-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/?p=3900","title":{"rendered":"Calix Calls for U.S.-Style Catalysts to Drive Gigabit Services Growth across Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lack of broadband competition and minimal government support for local grassroots fiber efforts combining to threaten Europe\u2019s status as a technology leading region<\/em><\/p>\n

Calix, one of the major forces behind the gigabit community wave sweeping across the United States, is warning that Europe needs to foster a major effort to drive it forward and keep pace with North America and Asia in advanced broadband infrastructure. The comments came today on the eve of the Broadband World Forum in Amsterdam, where Andy Lockhart, senior vice president, international sales at Calix, said that major events in the U.S., such as the targeting of hundreds of communities for gigabit services by incumbent service providers like AT&T and CenturyLink, and the emergence of a variety of alternative service providers like Google, utility cooperatives, and municipalities, are positively changing the dynamics of the North American broadband landscape. In North America and Asia, investments in gigabit capable infrastructure are stimulating economic development and creating new and much more competitive service provider business models. A recent study <\/a>of 55 communities conducted by the economic, financial, and strategy firm Analysis Group<\/a> found that gigabit communities had a significantly higher GDP (1.1%) than those unserved by gigabit services. Regulatory, political, and economic barriers in Europe have discouraged this same level of innovation and investment, and without intervention will quickly result in Europe falling behind in global competiveness as well as a substandard consumer broadband experience.<\/p>\n

Observations from analysts have confirmed the Calix viewpoint. <\/p>\n

\u201cEurope is beginning to really lag behind other parts of the world in terms of gigabit services,\u201d said Teresa Mastrangelo, principal analyst and founder of Broadbandtrends LLC. <\/p>\n

\u201cA growing number of operators in communities across the globe have taken a leap of faith towards a gigabit future and are already seeing a positive return on that investment. More importantly it is having a catalytic effect within each market spurring a competitive response by those operators that want to be viewed as the technology leader. In the less competitive and more conservative European market, investment in arguably less capitally intensive but significantly less robust technologies such as copper has been favored, especially among incumbents. The result has been the creation of a widening and major gap between what is happening in North America, Asia and Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calix, from its own experience in the U.S. and increasingly across the global market, is well-placed to make the comparison: \u201cFrom our experience, the first service providers to make the leap to gigabit services find themselves at a definite competitive advantage \u2013 the quicker you go gig, the better the business case. This is complemented by an important correlated finding \u2013 that those who invest in fiber first significantly undermine the business case for everyone else, capturing a disproportionate share of subscribers and creating a very sticky consumer experience,\u201d said Lockhart.<\/p>\n

Both Calix and Mastrangelo agree on the reasons why things are the way they are in the Europe versus. North America gigabit stakes: \u201cWhile there are some pockets of activity in gigabit broadband in parts of Europe, mostly in the UK where alternative operators have started to build their own fiber offerings because the market is underserved by the incumbent, the continent as a whole is far behind other parts of the world. Europe does not have the same competitive imperatives as the U.S., where there is much more healthy competition between the telcos and the cable operators which is driving the need to build bigger, faster networks. Additionally, in the U.S. in particular, the government has stepped in to offer both a \u2018gigabit challenge\u2019 to each state as well as create experimental programs that incentivize gigabit capable infrastructure investment,\u201d said Lockhart.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the U.S., service providers in virtually every market \u2013 large and small \u2013 compete every day for subscribers and the differentiation that gigabit services provide is proving to be a great motivator for investment. In addition, government at the federal level, and in many regions at the state and local levels have adopted policies that specifically encourage gigabit investments, and local referenda are encouraged to drive grassroots efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed out the European Commission\u2019s \u201cDigital Agenda for Europe\u201d program, part of the EU\u2019s Europe 2020 Initiative, as one of Europe\u2019s main broadband drivers. But this only identifies the need for speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) as the target \u2013 far below the rates targeted in other parts of the world. Since this 100 Mbps target can now be achieved with traditional physical media like copper using technologies like VDSL2 with bonding and vectoring, investment in fiber is arguably disincentivized. Widespread European policies on unbundling also provide incumbent service providers little incentive to replace their existing infrastructure with fiber, effectively stifling the innovations offered by new media. At the same time, the EU has many initiatives around smart cities and smart grid deployments, which would benefit from fiber upgrades and gigabit services. <\/p>\n

\u201cGigabit services have proven to be real game-changers in the communities where they are deployed \u2013 offering major enhancement in such important social initiatives as telemedicine and e-education,\u201d said Lockhart.
\n\u201cWe have seen some of the most successful gigabit deployments in the U.S. launched by offering gigabit services for institutions such as schools and hospitals, which have provided new services while supporting local communities in the process,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

But Lockhart saw signs of optimism from a number of European countries where there is more interest in high-speed services and where Calix is already working with service providers, counties, and communities who have prioritized world-class broadband infrastructure. Recent projects have been announced in parts of Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Ireland.<\/p>\n

However, continent-wide progress has been slow. \u201cThe path towards gigabit services will not be simple, it will not be fast, and it will not necessarily be easy. But it is not impossible,\u201d said Mastrangelo. \u201cBeing perceived as a technology leader was the number one driver stated by operators of all types in a recently published survey by Broadbandtrends \u2013 \u2018Gigabit Broadband Services & Deployment Strategies.\u2019 Being perceived as the technology leader is proving to deliver positive results across all parts of the gigabit service provider network \u2013 resulting in higher take rates and revenues even in areas where gigabit services have not been deployed yet. The perception of leadership is that powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lack of broadband competition and minimal government support for local grassroots fiber efforts combining to threaten Europe\u2019s status as a technology leading region<\/em><\/p>\n

Calix, one of the major forces behind the gigabit community wave sweeping across the United States, is … Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[596,35,595],"class_list":["post-3900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-andy-lockhart","tag-calix","tag-teresa-mastrangelo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3901,"href":"https:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3900\/revisions\/3901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.telecomstalk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}