CANARIE
“Building Condominium Fiber Networks
For High Speed Internet Access”
http://www.canarie.ca
http://www.canet3.net
Bill.St.Arnaud@canarie.ca
Tel: +1.613.785.0426
Outline
 Overview and introductions
 Canada’s community fiber programs – Bill
St Arnaud
 Stockholm’s Stokab – Anders Comstedt
 Sweden’s ICT programs - Anne-Marie
Eklund-Lowinder
Tutorial Objectives
 To provide real world case studies on
community and municipal fiber networks
 To provide information sources and pointers to
organizations that will provide assistance
and/or funding
Issues facing municipalities
 Many carriers want to deploy fiber networks
 Each carrier will deploy many conduits and or fiber and yet only use a
small percentage
 Municipalities need to coordinate fiber builds so as to minimize tearing up of
road and/or obstruction of traffic
 Once a fiber build is done many municipalities insist on a 5 year freeze on any
future digging up of road
 Gives unfair market advantage to carriers who got in under the wire or
have existing infrastructure
 In fact this is strategic part of many carrier’s business plan
 Carriers want to go for low hanging fruit in downtown cores
 Little interest in serving low profit residential neighbourhoods
 Outside of the downtown core unlikely to have many competitive fiber builds
Historical Reference Points
 There is a clear trend in all formerly monopoly services to move to
unbundled competitive services
 Roads and highway systems vs railways: infrastructure was largely
“public”, but the services (e.g. trucking) were private and competitive
 Electrical distribution systems: regulated monopolies (unbundling is on
horizon)
 Gas distribution systems: regulated monopolies (unbundling is well
underway)
 Legacy telecommunications systems: moving to unbundled fiber and
facilities based competition
Government intervention?
 As much as possible governments should have minimum intrusion into the
marketplace.
 However, sometimes government intrusion in the marketplace will produce
significantly greater benefits to the economy and society otherwise "to do
nothing would be to do harm“
 E.g. bridges displace competitive ferry service operations
 Free trade disrupted business plans of many private sector companies
 Opening up of long distance disrupted business plans of incumbent telcos
 Private sector competition in a genuine competitive open market is generally
viewed as a good thing.
 Monopolies are bad
 Duopolies are ugly
 Therefore should governments intrude into the marketplace to actively
promote facilities based competition?
 There is no question such a disruption will impact existing business models
and investment plans.
 But will the overall benefit be significantly better for the municipality?
What is condominium fiber?
 A number of organizations such as schools, hospitals, businesses and universities
get together to fund and build a fiber network
 Carrier partners are also invited to be part of condominium project
 Several next generation carriers and fiber brokers are now arranging condominium
fiber builds
 IMS, QuebecTel, Videotron, Cogeco, Dixon Cable, GT Telecom, etc etc
 Fiber is installed, owned and maintained by 3rd party professional fiber contractors
– usually the same contractors used by the carriers for their fiber builds
 Each institution gets its own set of fibers, at cost, on a 20 year IRU (Indefeasible
Right of Use)
 One time up front cost, plus annual maintenance and right of way cost approx
5% of the capital cost
 Institution lights up their own strands with whatever technology they want –
Gigabit Ethernet, ATM, PBX, etc
 New long range laser will reach 120 km
 Ideal solution for point to point links for large fixed institutions
 Payback is usually less than 18 months
Market Drivers
 First - low cost
 Up to 1000% reduction over current telecom prices. 6-12 month payback
 Second - LAN invades the WAN – no complex SONET or ATM required in
network
 Network Restoral & Protection can be done by customer using a variety of
techniques such as wireless backup, or relocating servers to a multi-homed site,
etc
 Third - Enables new applications and services not possible with traditional
telecom service providers




Relocation of servers and extending LAN to central site
Out sourcing LAN and web servers to a 3rd party because no performance impact
IP telephony in the wide area (Spokane)
HDTV video
 Fourth – Allows access to new competitive low cost telecom and IT
companies at carrier neutral meet me points
 Much easier to out source servers, e-commerce etc to a 3rd party at a carrier
neutral collocation facility
Municipal Architecture
Carrier Owned
Fiber
Carrier Neutral IX
Central Office
For Wireless
Company
Cable head end
School board office
Telco Central
Office
Condominium Fiber
with separate strands
owned by school and by
service providers
School
VDSL, HFC or Fiber
Provisioned by
service provider
Colo
Facility
Node
School
802.11b
Average Fiber
Penetration to 250-500
homes
Business
Advantages
 Municipality saves significantly on current telecom costs
 Chicago sees immediate 20% reduction
 Other cities seen 50%- 75%
 Makes the municipality “21st century” ready
 Attracts new businesses in multimedia, services, etc
 Reduces cost for deploying fiber into neighbourhoods for
carriers
 Lowers barriers of entry for new carriers and creates
competitive open environment
Benefits to Industry
 For cablecos and telcos it help them accelerate the deployment of high speed
internet services into the community
 Currently deployment of DSL and cable modem deployment is
hampered by high cost of deploying fiber into the neighbourhoods
 Cable companies need fiber to every 250 homes for cable modem
service, but currently only have fiber on average to every 5000 homes
 Telephone companies need to get fiber to every 250 homes to support
VDSL or FSAN technologies
 Wireless companies need to get fiber to every 250 homes for new high
bandwidth wireless services and mobile Internet
 It will provide opportunities for small innovative service providers to offer
service to public institutions as well as homes
 For e-commerce and web hosting companies it will generate new business in
out sourcing and web hosting
RFP models
1.
2.
3.
4.
In normal RFP for telecom services municipality encourages responses from
condominium fiber suppliers
Municipality issues RFP to private sector for a municipal wide condominium
fiber network where contractor commits to selling strands of fiber at an
agreed upon price before and after the build. In turn the municipality will
direct all municipal telcom business to the winner bidder and provide access
to all municipal owned ducts – Chicago CivicNet model
Municipality issues RFP to private sector for a municipal condominium fiber
network, but municipality owns all strands of fiber and sells them to end users
or competitive carriers as required – Alberta SuperNet model
Municipality uses MAA to force fiber installers to build condominium fiber
networks
Negotiating issues





Offering commodity Internet bandwidth business as a carrot.
Trading municipal right-of-way for condominium fiber
Leverage the tax benefits for fiber builder of selling dark fiber vs leasing.
Capitalize the telecom budget by moving monthly telecom budget into capital
Deal with fiber builders rather than carriers.
 Most fiber builders are construction companies who make their money
on the construction contract.
 Offer upfront financing deals.
 Some fiber builders are willing to do deals where community may pay
50%- 95% of the fiber build costs. The fiber builder does an overbuild
and as the additional strands are sold to businesses or other carriers, a
percentage of the profits are returned to the school.
 Negotiate umbrella agreements for a large number of public sector institutions
across a region.
 The institutions contract directly with the carrier or fiber builder, but the
terms and conditions are set in contract negotiations with the umbrella
organization that represents the collective interests of the institutions.
Alberta SUPERnet
• Province wide network of condominium fiber to 420 communities in Alberta
• Guaranteed cost of bandwidth to all public sector institutions
• $500/mo for 10 Mbps, $700/mo for 100 Mbps
• Network a mix of fibre builds and existing supplier infrastructure
(swap/buy/lease)
• Condominium approach: All suppliers can
• Buy (or swap) a share of the fibre (during build or after)
• Lease bandwidth at competitive rates
• GOA has perpetual right to use (IRU)
• Ownership will be held at arms length
• GOA/stakeholder rates are costs to run divided over users
• Because of fibre capacity, bandwidth can be made available to businesses
at urban competitive rate
• Total cost $193m
• Bell Intrigna prime contractor
Alberta SUPERnet IRUs
Extended Area
• 372 communities
• GOA/stakeholder needs
• Proceeds from businesses
(urban benchmarked
rates) to GOA to further
network
Base Area
• 48 communities
• GOA/stakeholder needs
• Business proceeds to Bell
(urban benchmarked
rates)
- $143 Million GOA
- 100% GOA IRU
- $50 Million
- $102 Million
GOA
Bell
- 33%GOA IRU
- 67% Bell IRU
Alberta SUPERnet Impact
RURAL COMMUNITIES
Current (Typical)
Future (Everywhere)
Residences
• 56 Kbps dial Internet
($85/Month)
• No high speed Internet
Businesses
• Some T1 Facilities
($2000/Month average - rates
distance sensitive)
• Some high speed business
service on special setup
arrangement
Residences
• High speed DSL residential
Internet at urban rates
($40/month)
Businesses
• High speed business services
available at competitive urban
rates (eg $820/month - T1)
• Higher speeds at comparable rates
National Broadband Task Force
 Mandate: To map out a strategy and advise the Government
on best approaches to make high-speed broadband Internet
services available to businesses and residents in all Canadian
communities by the year 2004.
 To ensure Canada’s competitiveness in a global economy
 To address the Digital Divide
 To create opportunities for all Canadians
 35 members including carriers, educators, librarians,
communities, equipment manufacturers, etc
 Chair – David Johnston
 www.broadband.ic.gc.ca
Chicago CivicNet
•CivicNet - A City-Wide Condominium Fiber Project
•connecting up 1600 public sector institutions
•Oriented to Development of Backbone Infrastructure
•With Gateways to Tributary Systems
•More Fiber in More Places Faster
•Ubiquitous, Pervasive: 1,600 Locations
•E-Z High-Performance Low-Cost Internet Connectivity
•Foundation = Existing City Fiber Builds
Quebec University Condo Network
Construit
Projet démarré
À venir
Bande passante louée
Val d’Or/Rouyn
MAN de Montréal
MAN d’Ottawa/Hull
MAN de Québec
MAN de Sherbrooke
Observatoire Mont-Mégantic
Lionel-Groulx
Lanaudière
Sorel-Tracy
Montreal Public Sector
Condominium Networks
Marie-Victorin
Rosemont
Montmorency
Maisonneuve
Ahuntsic
Édouard-Montpetit
Bois-de-Boulogne
Vers Québec
St-Laurent/Vanier
Champlain
Vieux-Montréal
Gérald-Godin
Construit
Dawson
Projet démarré
À venir
John-Abbott
André-Laurendeau
Bande passante louée
Capitale
Région-de-Sherbrooke
Rivière-du-Nord
Seigneurie-des-Mille-Iles
Amiante
Laval
Saint-Hyacinthe
Affluents
Bois-Francs
Draveurs
Grandes-Seigneuries
Hautes-Rivières
Laurentides
Patriotes
Premières-Seigneurie
Samares
Trois-Lacs
Chemin-du-Roy
Marie-Victorin
Sir-Wilfrid-Laurier
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
Engineering
Study
School Board
Construction
List of Schoolboard Fiber Builds
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
PROJECT
140 km of fibre optics 80 schools
180 km of fibre optics 66 schools
175 km of fibre optics 52 schools
200 km of fibre optics 80 schools 4 partners
12 km of fibre optics 9 schools
170 km of fibre optics 111 schools 3 partners
250 km of fibre optics 51 schools
170 km of fibre optics 70 schools 4 partners
60 km of fibre optics 12 schools 4 partners
90 km of fibre optics 40 schools
210 km of fibre optics 58 schools
250 km of fibre optics 54 schools
200 km of fibre optics 35 schools
2 km of fibre optics 3 schools
190 km of fibre optics 73 schools
460 km of fibre optics 72 schools
45 km of fibre optics 15 schools
29 km of fibre optics 11 sites
6 km of fibre optics 5 schools
92 km of fibre optics 20 schools
South Dundas
IROQUOIS
MORRISBURG
South Dundas Results






Morrisburg , Iroquios Have Fibre Hung
Electronics In and Fibre Lit
ISP’s , ASP’s all Want In he Fibre
Major Employers Inquiring
Very Positive Attitude in Community
Digital Desert to Digital Oasis
Peel County Municipal Fiber Network
 Mississauga, Brampton, Pell
 200 km of Fibre
 96 strand backbone
 “Enough for small country”
 12-60 strands elsewhere
 12,000 strand-kilometers
 Laid end-to-end = Victoria to St.
John’s …...and back again
Fredericton Fiber Build
 Started as Economic Development tool
 MUSH, Govt., Research - ISP, carriers
invited to participate
 Build partners emerged quickly, $50,000
“donated” by three firms
 Contracting now for 8 km phase 1,
$110,000, complete Sept 2001
 48 fiber min.
Ottawa Fiber Condominium
 Consortium consists of 16 members from various sectors including
businesses, hospitals, schools, universities, research institutes
 26 sites
 Point-to-point topology
 144 fibre pairs
 Route diversity requirement for one member
 85 km run
 $11k - $50K per site
 Total project cost $CDN 1.25 million
 Cost per strand less than $.50 per strand per meter
 80% aerial
 Due to overwhelming response to first build – planning for second
build under way
Ottawa Original Estimates
 Original Engineering Estimates
 Original estimates turned out to be 10% higher than RFP responses
 Estimated cost to connect 22 institutions with 6 fibers to each
institution in a star configuration
 Total cost $615,000 or approximately $30,000 per institution “on
average”
 Actual costs range from $5K to $60K depending on how far institution
is from center of star in downtown Ottawa
 If condo fiber contractor were to double capacity of network (i.e.12 strands
to each customer) cost of project would only increase by 10%
 Or doubling number of participants would increase cost by only 10% (plus
cost of laterals for additional institutions)
 By doubling number of participants average cost would be less than
$20,000 per institution
 Ultimately fiber costs could get as low as $1000 per institution if every
building in the city was connected with fiber
Section 1a – 96 strands
Section 1b – 12 strands
Secion 1c – 12 strands
Section 1d – 96 strands
Section 1e – 12 strands
Section 2 – 36 strands
Section 3 – 12 starnds
Section 4 – 24 strands
Section 5a – 24 strands
Section 5b – 12 strands
Section 6 – 12 strands
Section 7a- 12 strands
Section 7b – 12 strands
Section 8 – 12 strands
Section 9a – 96 strands
Section 9b – 72 strands
Section 10 – 12 strands
Section 11a – 12 strands
Section 11b – 60 strands
Section 12 – 12 strands
Section 13 – 48 strands
Section 14 – 12 strands
Section 15 – 48 strands
Section 16 – 12 strands
Section 17 – 36 strands
Section 18a – 36 strands
Section 18b – 24 strands
Section 19- 12 strands
Section 20- 12 strands
Newbridge
March
20
55 Metcalfe
1e
1a
Laurier
CRC
17
OCRI
Algonquin
5b
Ottawa U
7a
Splice Box
11a
10
Baseline
16
Ottawa
Carleton
Region
9b
Bronson
14
13
Merivale
Greenbank
15
1b
NRC
7b
Smythe
Blair Rd
CISCO
Nortel
Merivale
Carling
Civic
5a
4
St. Laurent
11b
18a
9a
1c
Conseil
Des Ecoles
3
2
1d
Oconnor CO
O Heart
18b
19
Main Splice Box for Cross
Connection Of Fibers Between
Participating Institutions
6
8
12
Ottawa General
Telesat
O-C School
Board
Carleton
O-C Catholic
Note: This a reference installation. Final Configuration will vary depending on number of
participants and additional point to point fiber requirements.
Fiber Count
Splice Count
Indoor Installation
Type
(Aerial/Conduit)
Difficulty Level
(1-Low,2-Med,3-High)
Section Cost Detail
Indoor
Installation
(Labour - Mat.)
1a
500 m
96
1
C
3
1
5,000 $
6,920 $
125 $
3,329 $
15,374 $
500 $
1b
1000 m
12
1
C
1
1
5,000 $
7,240 $
250 $
2,898 $
15,388 $
1,000 $
1c
500 m
12
1
C
1
1
5,000 $
4,740 $
125 $
2,173 $
12,038 $
500 $
1d
600 m
96
1
C
1
1
5,000 $
6,920 $
150 $
3,518 $
15,588 $
600 $
2
3000 m
36
2
C
1
$
20,440 $
750 $
6,638 $
27,828 $
3,000 $
3
1200 m
12
1
A
2
5,000 $
7,040 $
300 $
2,948 $
15,288 $
600 $
4
1300 m
36
1
A
3
-
$
9,220 $
325 $
2,949 $
12,494 $
650 $
5a
3200 m
24
2
A
1
-
$
14,560 $
800 $
4,992 $
20,352 $
1,600 $
Segment
5b
Length
1
Outdoor
Installation
(Labour - Mat.)
Right of ways
(Negociation
and/or
Approuval)
Engineering
and Project
management
Total Cost
Annual
Maintenance
500 m
12
1
A
1
1
5,000 $
3,740 $
125 $
1,973 $
10,838 $
250 $
6
2600 m
12
2
A
3
1
5,000 $
17,480 $
650 $
5,666 $
28,796 $
1,300 $
7a
2500 m
24
2
A
1
12,460 $
625 $
4,117 $
17,202 $
1,250 $
7b
-
$
800 m
12
1
A
1
1
5,000 $
4,640 $
200 $
2,288 $
12,128 $
400 $
8
5000 m
12
3
A
3
1
5,000 $
31,720 $
1,250 $
9,594 $
47,564 $
2,500 $
9a
2800 m
96
2
A
3
1
5,000 $
21,840 $
700 $
10,660 $
38,200 $
1,400 $
9b
3000 m
72
2
A
3
1
5,000 $
21,880 $
750 $
9,726 $
37,356 $
1,500 $
10
2000 m
12
1
A
3
1
5,000 $
12,240 $
500 $
4,348 $
22,088 $
1,000 $
11a
4500 m
12
3
A
1
1
5,000 $
20,220 $
1,125 $
7,069 $
33,414 $
2,250 $
$
4,700 $
125 $
1,565 $
6,390 $
250 $
1
5,000 $
8,240 $
500 $
3,548 $
17,288 $
1,000 $
$
13,000 $
550 $
5,350 $
18,900 $
1,100 $
1
5,000 $
4,040 $
150 $
2,078 $
11,268 $
300 $
12,520 $
550 $
4,726 $
17,796 $
1,100 $
11b
500 m
60
1
A
1
12
2000 m
12
1
A
1
13
2200 m
60
2
A
1
14
600 m
12
1
A
1
15
2200 m
48
2
A
1
16
1100 m
12
1
A
1
17
2200 m
48
2
A
2
18a
8900 m
48
5
A
1
18b
3000 m
36
2
A
1
19
20
300 m
2000 m
24
12
1
1
A
A
2
2
Total
60000 m
1
$
5,000 $
5,540 $
275 $
2,603 $
13,418 $
550 $
$
14,720 $
550 $
5,166 $
20,436 $
1,100 $
2
10,000 $
41,500 $
2,225 $
19,289 $
73,014 $
4,450 $
1
5,000 $
14,440 $
750 $
6,438 $
26,628 $
1,500 $
2
1
10,000 $
5,000 $
3,680 $
10,240 $
75 $
500 $
2,931 $
3,948 $
16,686 $
19,688 $
150 $
1,000 $
110,000 $
355,920 $
15,000 $
142,528 $
623,448 $
32,800 $
-
Logical Layout of Topology
Newbridge
NRC
CRC
OCRI
CISCO
Telsat
Ottawa U
Nortel
Carleton
In reference model each institution
has been assigned 6 strands to
terminate on, or about 55 Metcalfe
St
Example: Carleton U has 6 strands
2 would cross connect to NRC/ONet
2 strands would connect directly to OttawaU
2 strands would connect directly to CRC
(At NRC Carleton could interconnect at layer
3 with other organizations
Typical Fiber Capital Costs
 Average total cost between $7 and $15 per meter as follows:
 Engineering and Design:
 $1 - $3 per meter for engineering, design, supervision, splicing
 Plus Installation:




$7 to $10 per meter for install in existing conduit; or
$3 to $6 per meter for install on existing poles
$25 to $100 per meter if new trenching required
$10 tp $20 per meter for sewer installation
 Plus Premise termination:
 Average $5k each
 Plus cost of fiber:




15¢ per strand per meter for 36 strands or less
12¢ per strand per meter for 96 strands or less
10¢ per strand per meter 192 strands or less
5¢ per strand per meter over 192 strands
Condo Fiber Costs - Examples
 Des affluents: Total cost $1,500,00 ($750,00 for schools)





70 schools
12 municipal buildings
204 km fiber
$1,500,000 total cost
average cost per building - $18,000 per building
 Mille-Isles: Total cost $2,100,000 ($1,500,000 for schools)




80 schools
18 municipal buildings
223km
$21,428 per building
 Laval: Total cost $1,800,000 ($1,000,000 for schools)




111 schools
45 municipal buildings
165 km
$11,500 per building