UK Fiber on the Rise with 30-Plus Projects in Development

LONDON– Statistics putting the UK near the bottom of fiber deployments in Europe may be ready for an uptick. Tobias Ahl, CEO of Rala, a Swedish specialist in installations of fiber networks, said there has been a real upsurge in the number of UK projects reaching the planning phase. Rala, which has been brought in by two community network projects in the UK, estimates that between 30 and 40 community projects are in the design and planning stage of development right now.

Sweden is one of the most advanced FTTH countries in Europe. The FTTH Council Europe announced recently that Sweden will have 20 percent of households connected by 2014, achieving fiber maturity. At present the UK is not even on the scale at less than 1 percent. “In Sweden, we have helped in the design and implementation of over 50 community network projects, as well as being a key supplier to Skanova, the network builder and manager to the incumbent TeliaSonera,” said Ahl.

Rala’s strategic planning system will give these projects much more detail and quality in their proposals, because the analytical tools have been developed over the course of 15 years in Sweden. “More than 50 percent of costs of network rollout are for putting ducts into the ground,” says Ahl. “Over time we have developed the technology and skills to enable exceptional accuracy at the planning stage. The result for the UK projects will be much reduced risk of failure due to incorrect financial planning,” he added.