Why Growth of Fibre to the Home across Asia presents new challenges

Fast solutions to network faults are urgently required due to the rising number of Fibre to the Home subscribers across the APAC region, Frank Kaufhold, Managing Director of leading research and development company UTEL has warned ahead of the mega ICT event CommunicAsia 2015 scheduled to happen in Singapore between June 2-5, 2015.

“Today, there are over 100 million FTTH subscribers across Asia and that number is continuing to grow at a high rate,” said Kaufhold. “Despite fibre becoming more and more widespread for many networks across the world, for most it is still not possible to monitor status in real time. For most operators managing copper networks, it is also not possible to have reliable visibility all of the way into the customer premises. “

A centralised testing system is required to eliminate these problems, Kaufhold continued, with UTEL being the only company that has developed such a system.

“Using UTEL’s Fast Light technology, FTTH subscribers can be ready to respond to and fix faults on the network, which is vital in order to maintain a consistent connection and ensure a rapid response to call-outs.”

UTEL’s Fast Light is used as the basis for a centralised G-PON fibre management system – the only technology in the world available today that is able to reliably detect ONT reflections through 128 split PONs without expensive wavelength dependent reflectors.

Consistency and speed of response are not the only benefits to come from a centralised testing system, continued Kaufhold: “OPEX can be reduced at the same time through use of a centralised testing system.”

Another major gain for operators, said Kaufhold, is that each time a network is modified in any way a new reference can be generated ensuring that records are up to date and field staff are always directed to the exact location of any issue found – an issue particularly relevant in the APAC market due to the rapid growth of its fibre networks.

A range of products for FTTH deployment will be available to view at Stand BQ3-06, Great Britain Pavilion, Hall F, Basement 2 at this year’s CommunicAsia, which will take place in Marina Bay Sands, Singapore from 2 – 5 June.