Fibre-to-the-x (FTTx) is a bundle of opportunities wrapped in legacy challenges that can be overcome to deliver immense value to businesses, consumers and the public sector alike, says International Data Corporation senior research and consulting manager and telco and Internet of Things sub-Saharan Africa lead Keoikantse Marungwana.

Both locally and abroad, FTTx deployments have seen significant demand, driven by shifting business, education, government and healthcare needs.

Globally, consumers and corporates have shown a clear appetite for connected and smart homes and buildings, from automation to video surveillance to work-from-home systems, and this is showing little sign of abating, presenting an opportunity for businesses to fully realise the potential of FTTx.

“Organisations that adopt this technology can fully realise their digitalisation needs through a stable, high-speed and low-latency connection. They can develop their cloud strategies and accelerate cloud adoption and use the potential of the hybrid or work-from-home models,” says Marungwana.

FTTx removes the need for large office spaces and enables remote working and learning, creating new opportunities in office space optimisation and reduced office leasing costs.

Industry sectors and verticals can accelerate their SmartX strategies across metering, buildings and assets, pulling on the innovative deployment models that evolve out of FTTx and WiFi 6, besides others.

“The country is in desperate need of economic recovery and broadband technology developments are the fuel that can drive all facets of society out of these complex times,” he adds.

Connecting clinics and hospitals can improve access to healthcare through medical supplies logistics, maintenance operations, infrastructure monitoring and digitalisation, while, in education, online teaching has undergone a significant acceleration, owing to increased broadband and fibre roll-outs, with institutions adopting the new normal and developing solutions designed specifically for the market.

For the consumer, fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) could enable access to next-generation telemedicine and kick-start the local evolution of smart homes.

However, there are challenges to FTTx deployment, particularly as competing mobile broadband offers continue to pull customers away from fixed home broadband and for many customers, they do not have the budget for both mobile broadband and FTTH.

“Fibre deployment costs have been coming down steadily, but not at a rate to sufficiently accelerate the return on investment for deployments in low-density areas. The impact of the pandemic on supply chains also contributed to project cost overruns and put additional pressure on the fibre roll-out strategies of various players,” explains Marungwana.

This is further impacted on by slow wayleave approvals for trenching and excavations for the installation of underground fibre and for the installation of poles for overhead fibre deployments.

“The situation has played out the irresistible force paradox, with the unstoppable force of the fibre market growth fighting against the immovable object of council approvals for wayleaves.

“Another challenge is that infrastructure sharing among service providers is not actively pursued by many of the players in the ecosystem, as some view their infrastructure as a long-term competitive advantage and only share it on an ad hoc or reactive basis,” he continues.