Fiber Broadband Association Research Underscores Benefits of Retiring Copper for Future-Proof Fiber

The Fiber Broadband Associations Technology Committee published a new white paper on "The Benefits of Retiring Copper Today." Many telecommunications providers still face unnecessary complexity and expense by continuing to operate legacy copper last-mile broadband infrastructure, especially if they already migrated to fiber in the core and access network. The white paper explores the cost benefits and reasons why operators should accelerate the removal of copper completely and deploy future-proof fiber. In addition to fiber’s operational savings and better performance factors, FBA’s white paper outlines several approaches to replacing copper with fiber that recoup the capital expense of the migration, including:

• Reclaim Assets: The ducts and poles that carry copper can be reduced and/or repurposed to carry fiber, media that delivers exponentially more capacity than existing copper cable. The associated pole attachment fees will also be reduced as less fiber will be required due to its capacity, and the savings could be up to 50%.
• Real Estate: Many FTTH networks are centralized, minimizing the number of existing buildings and huts where the future network would occupy space and creating an opportunity to decommission this real estate and sell the properties.
• Salvage Goods: Copper is a valued commodity. Service providers can recover and sell existing copper cables for recycling to support other industries.