Those That Fail to Learn From History Are Doomed to Repeat It
by John Francis Nolan, first mile networks
Introduction
At the risk of understatement, the author has been “monitoring” the Internet3 fibre access4 market for a good few years i.e. from circa 2003 onwards with his definition of fibre access being “the replacement of the copper (and coax) infrastructure for connectivity, primarily to the home/business.”
This paper is by way of an update on the author’s current thought process and will offer opinion, etc., where appropriate. In the development of this paper, the author has drawn on his experiences within the telecoms industry and a number of references – these references are expanded upon in Section 8.
At the outset, the author wishes to draw readers attention to the early work of First Mile Networks (FMN)5,6 with FTTH7 in the UK, and in particular, discussions held with a number of UK “developers” namely Land Securities, Meridian Delta (MDL), and Quintain Estates.
Figure in the attached document illustrates an extract from the early FMN thought process and, whilst Land Securities and MDL did not engage with our approach, we were successful with Quintain in developing a comprehensive business plan for their Wembley Park Estate.
The FMN business model was predicated on the provision of ducts and fibre at the early stage of such developments with the premise being that every potential end point on the estate would be serviced by fibre. It could be argued that the FMN model was a precursor to today’s many alternative network providers and hence the author would argue that he is not some “Johnny come lately.”
