MARKHAM – When it decided to roll out fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) by overbuilding Bell in the town of Mount Forest, Ont. (pop. 5,100), Wightman Telecom couldn’t have foreseen all that lay ahead for the cutting-edge project. And maybe that’s just as well.
With 40 kilometres of cable conduit now installed passing fibre-optic connections by 99% of Mount Forest’s residences and businesses, Wightman Telecom’s FTTH project is deemed a success. But it was rife with difficult challenges starting from day one.
Jim Norton, project manager with Pickard Construction of Owen Sound, Ont., gave the contractor’s perspective on the Mount Forest FTTH project, during a presentation at the 2009 Canadian Independent Telecommunications Association showcase and seminars held this week in Markham.
The very first day of construction of the FTTH infrastructure – March 24, 2008 – coincided with a big snow storm in Mount Forest, Norton said. That was just the first of many “unique challenges” faced by Wightman and its contractor, he said.
During the spring and summer of 2008, Mount Forest had several municipal works projects happening at the same time, too. The town’s main street was being repaired, a new sewage plant was being built, and a new sports complex was also under construction. In addition, three new residential subdivisions were added to Mount Forest in 2008.
Not only did these construction projects physically impact Pickard Construction’s own work, but the sports complex and new residences also needed to be included in Wightman Telecom’s fibre network plans.
Added to that was the challenge of digging conduit trenches through a very rocky landscape and large forested areas. “It’s no coincidence it’s called Mount Forest,” Norton said.
A further consideration was being aware and respectful of the area’s large Amish community, who still use horse-drawn carriages for transportation. Construction in certain areas had to be done in such a way as to not frighten horses or impede their route, Norton explained.
At least construction in school zone areas was scheduled during the summer when the kids were on vacation, Norton said. “Otherwise, we would have had kids in trenches and all over the equipment.”
Rob Figliuzzi is vice-president and chief financial officer for Wightman Telecom, based in Clifford, Ont. (pop. 800). He explained that the Mount Forest fibre network rollout was just one of four FTTH projects conducted in 2008 by Wightman Telecom in small Ontario communities were it had established a CLEC presence, battling ILEC Bell Canada. The other three FTTH networks were installed in Harriston, Listowel and Palmerston, Ont.
Figliuzzi advised any small telecom company that is thinking about rolling out FTTH to make sure at least 50% of residences and businesses in a community will be served, otherwise it isn’t worth the expense. And in fact, Wightman Telecom’s strategy for all four of its FTTH projects was to completely overbuild the towns’ existing Bell networks. “We want to own the town,” Figliuzzi said.
Wightman’s all-or-nothing approach included building its own central offices in the towns, instead of using incumbent facilities. Furthermore, by installing cable conduits underground, Wightman eliminated telephone pole rental costs, too, Figliuzzi said. And although it is expensive and time consuming, Wightman is choosing to rewire all of its customers’ residences with new Cat-5 cabling, as some of the telecom wire found in the homes of the towns it serves is 50-plus years old.
He said many variables come into play when trying to figure out the cost of a community-wide FTTH project, but he estimates Wightman’s bottom-line cost was about $3,500 per home on average.
Figliuzzi had one final piece of advice to other telcos embarking on FTTH rollouts: “Get a physical and stock up the liquor cabinet.”
Bruce Telecom of Tiverton, Ont., also recently expanded its business through a FTTH network overbuild of Bell in the community of Southampton, Ont. (pop. 3,000). Completed in September 2007, the fibre network consists of 14 kilometres of conduit delivering fibre connections to 693 homes.
Wayne Kaufman, vice-president of standards and field services for Bruce Telecom, explained that so far only 255 customers have been converted to FTTH service, with the rest of the in-home fibre installations still to be completed.
As with Wightman, Bruce also chose to build its own central office as part of the town’s network overbuild and to bury conduit underground instead of doing an aerial installation, Kaufman said.
Kaufman said one lesson learned the hard way was the need to have an emergency restoration kit available in case of an accidental fibre cut, which happened in February. Two conduits, each housing 432 fibres, were cut by accident, which resulted in 120 metres of conduit needing to be dug up, Kaufman said. In total, it took 120 man-hours to restore the fibre network.
Also included under the heading of lessons learned, Kaufman said the time to convert a home to fibre should not be underestimated, although nothing beats new Cat-5 wiring, he added.
Kaufman also said the next time Bruce Telecom takes on a FTTH project of this scope it will probably target certain areas within a community first and then grow the fibre network from there, instead of taking a blanket approach to the entire town at once.
