Best Practices
Dig Once
- Adopt a “dig once” policy whereby fibre conduits are installed any time other municipal infrastructure (road, water and sewer) projects are undertaken
- Dig once policies can reduce the cost of future fibre deployments by as much as 90%
- Adding fibre conduits as part of another construction project results in cost increases of just a few cents for every dollar spent
- Dig once policies can also be coordinated with building codes and development plans so that fibre is put in place in new communities and business parks
Aerial Fibre Deployment
- To defray the cost of trenched fibre, consider aerial deployments (such as on utility poles)
- Depending on ownership and existing contracts it may be possible to coordinate the use of existing utility poles for aerial fibre
- Where possible ensure that deployment of new utility poles includes space for future attachments including fibre lines
Fibre Fed Towers
- Towers used for fixed wireless still require a connection back to the community POP
- Microwave backhaul solutions may be more inexpensive in the short term but are less reliable - they can suffer from line of sight issues and weather effects. They may also raise potential capacity concerns in the future
- Fibre fed towers are more expensive to build but address the concerns of microwave backhaul and have other advantages (as discussed in the Technology section)
- Fibre fed towers also put in place fibre infrastructure that can be used for future fibre deployments
Transition Planning
- If a full fibre deployment is too expensive, consider using a combination of the above strategies along with municipal strategic planning to develop a transition strategy whereby fixed wireless is used in the short term with a longer term goal of deploying fibre
Demand Aggregation
- When planning for community broadband engage in exercises to determine demand – even if you partner with an ISP, they may require some evidence of demand within the community
- Demand aggregation can serve as a way of engaging the community – you can even have neighbourhoods hold friendly competitions to see where demand (and therefore first deployed service) is greatest
- Depending on the size and scope of the deployment consider using demand aggregation software
