WASHINGTON, December 7, 2023 – Shared infrastructure is poised to become more common in broadband networks, experts said on Tuesday.

“The economics of neutral hosts are, I think, almost inevitable,” said Jonathan Adelstein, managing director at DigitalBridge Investment Management, which invests in shared telecommunications infrastructure.

“Towers are the primo example, but it moves down the line,” he said at the Broadband Breakfast Digital Infrastructure Investment Summit. “Particularly middle mile fiber is already neutral host, essentially.”

“Neutral hosts” own telecom towers and allow multiple wireless carriers to attach their equipment to them. Middle mile fiber cable, which connects local networks to internet exchange points, is typically used in a similar way, with multiple providers using the same strand to transfer data.

Another prime use case for shared infrastructure is indoor wireless connectivity, said Greg McLaughlin, CEO of AEX Automation Exchange, a company that provides software for fiber network operators.

“It just doesn’t make sense economically to build multiple networks in there when one network is more efficient and better utilizes spectrum,” he said.

David Bronston, special counsel at Phillips Lytle LLP, where he works with telecommunications providers on permitting, pointed to the New York subway system.

“You can’t get a more shared infrastructure than transit wireless in the New York City subways, which has all the carriers on it and a WiFi system,” he said. “When you come back from work everyone is on their phone. Shared infrastructure works.”

Shared last mile fiber networks, which provide connections to individual homes and businesses, are also set to become more common. AT&T closed a deal in May with investment giant BlackRock to build a 1.5-million-location open access network, meaning other internet providers could use the infrastructure to provide service to customers. 

Gigapower, the firm set up to manage the network, has been in talks with state broadband offices to scoop up funding from the Joe Biden administration’s $42.5 billion broadband expansion effort. States will start awarding grants under that program sometime in 2024.

The session was moderated by Drew Clark, editor and publisher of Broadband Breakfast. 

December 6, 2023 – The former CEO of a fiber deployer in Sweden urged the United States Tuesday to be bolder in broadband deployment, reflecting on the Nordic nation’s aggressive buildout of open access fiber networks that now provide 98 percent of the population with access to gigabit download and upload speeds.

COS Systems CEO Mikael Philipsson, and former CEO of GlobalConnect, highlighted at Broadband Breakfast’s Digital Infrastructure Investment Summit Tuesday how Sweden’s gigabit broadband strategy drove an open access “fiber race” in the Nordic nation, from which he said the U.S. can learn.

Philipsson called for U.S. network engineers to “plan for 100 percent,” saying if municipalities start to cherry pick which homes they build to, it will result in a fraction of the population likely never being served.

When GlobalConnect was planning its wholesale fiber network, it built fiber to the smallest, most rural locations first, then invited all ISPs to provide services over the network on equal terms, he said.

The Swedish government’s broadband strategy adopted in 2016 encouraged rapid investment and innovation. The government had several initiatives and strategies to encourage private investment in broadband networks, including subsidies and grants for private investment in rural areas, the promotion of public-private partnerships, and encouraging open access networks.

Today, 60 percent of the Swedish market has adopted internet service that utilizes the open access model, with the other 40 percent choosing a vertically-integrated fiber or cable offering that still relies on a wholesale fiber backbone. Due to consumer demand, even the former incumbent, Telia, adopted the open access model in order to maintain its competitive advantage.

Lessons along the way on the open access path

But there were hard lessons learned along the way, Philipsson said, including labor shortages and permitting issues that caused buildouts to stall for 12 to 15 months at a time.

“It’s going to be more expensive and take a longer time than you think,” warned Philipsson.

Fifteen years earlier, leaders of GlobalConnect were deciding whether to pursue an intensive infrastructure rollout. In what would become a defining moment, the team decided to challenge incumbent providers who at the time owned 99 percent of the physical infrastructure in the country, launching a fiber-to-the-home wholesale network with private backing.

The company’s move kicked off a land grab across Sweden, as infrastructure providers raced to compete for a share of the wholesale fiber market.

“It was a fight on the street to get customers,” recalled Philipsson. “We rolled tractors out on the street as a marker to say ‘We will serve this part of the town.’” Within five years, GlobalConnect had addressed two million households across Sweden with a fiber offering, and built its wholesale network to pass one million homes with a 70 percent take rate.

The positive effects of adopting the wholesale model across Sweden were sweeping for service providers, infrastructure providers, and residents, alike. Service providers with big ambitions were able to launch their services nationally with no capital expenditures, he said. Competition drove providers to become more customer centric, offering differentiated pricing models and expanded offerings to separate themselves, he added.

“Partner up with your former competitors, perhaps,” said Philipsson. “Sharing infrastructure is really the end game for digital infrastructure, just like all the other infrastructures.”

WASHINGTON, November 17, 2023— The high cost of fiber installation has led states to pursue hybrid fiber models to ensure rural and underserved communities have access to the internet.

Speaking at the U.S. Broadband Summit here on Thursday, state broadband officials expanded on the challenges they face in ensuring broadband deployment.

Sandeep Taxali, broadband program advisor with the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access, said that New Mexico’s $745 million allocation under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program falls short of the $1.3 to 2.5 billion that the state would need for full fiber deployment.

If the state chose to solely install fiber, underserved communities would be left out, he said.

“We want to lead with fiber but we also recognize that advanced fixed wireless and hybrid fixed wireless and fiber and satellite have a seat at the table for the very high cost remote areas where fiber is just going to not allow us to get the mission done,” Taxali said.

Jade Piros, director of Kansas Office of Broadband Development said her state is likely chosing to do 75% fiber model and 25% other technologies. Uncertainty of the cost from broadband providers make it difficult to have a standard cost calculation.

“We have to get everybody connected, and that’s why we require a lot of flexibility in shifting our expectations and the willingness to work closely with providers and be responsive to what they’re telling us,” Piros said.

Edyn Rolls, director of broadband strategy at the Oklahoma Broadband Office, expressed optimism that all of the underserved residents in her state would be reached, despite having what she said was an estimated $500 million shortfall.

“We will find the technologies that are going to be less expensive and achieve the needed model,” Rolls said. “We are trying to reach universal access. That is the goal.”

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