Technoeconomic assessment of an FTTH network investment in the Greek telecommunications market

Abstract

Recent years have seen an increasing need for higher broadband connections, fueled by novel applications including fifth generation wireless networks (5G). The European Commission is working on achieving specific milestones regarding the development of next generation networks. Many EU countries have opted to adopt a gradual migration path towards the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) technology in view of the high costs of implementation. The Fiber-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) architecture, combined with very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) and vectoring noise cancellation techniques may therefore provide a viable short-term basis solution. Techno-economic modeling and assessment is vital at the initial stages of the development of a telecommunication network investment project involving high capital expenditures for the infrastructure. The present work provides a techno-economic model in order to assess the prospects of such a network upgrade project from a financial perspective, following a three-way migration path. The three stages are: the implementation of the FTTC architecture with VDSL2 vectoring technology, the upgrade to FTTC with G.Fast and finally the migration to FTTH. The analysis is implemented over a suburb of the city of Athens, Greece. Different scenarios are evaluated, predicting profits even from the first years following the investment. The analysis includes the estimation of the degree of market penetration, analytical cost calculations for the implementation and operation of the network and the evaluation of crucial financial indicators, regarding the prospects of the investment in vectoring services. The study can serve as a complete road-map and can be applied in similar upgrade scenarios. The most important outcome of the analysis is that the profits resulted from each upgrade will finance the next step.