The development of very high speed broadband networks in areas on the other side of the digital divide or “gray and white” zones is a top priority for sustainable economic and social development. Indeed, the need to provide nearly 20 million households and hundreds of thousands of small businesses with broadband speeds 10 to 100 times higher than those currently available has become critical.
Bluwan’s recommended strategy is to start off by covering gray zones as widely as possibly to increase network build ROI and to follow up with a wider coverage for white zones. That being said, such a strategy requires that network design leverages a wider array of available technologies, which, together, can help optimise the cost and efficiency for each transmission segment.
Although fibre is a must have for the transport of hundreds of gigabytes in core networks, it becomes over-kill for the average household. Without a hybrid approach in defining a target network architecture to bridge the digital divide, there is a risk that the few would benefit from excess capacity, leaving behind the many consumers and businesses situated in less populated areas. The low profitability associated to fibre roll-outs in less populated areas would impede future extension of such a network into white zones.
Sizing studies for gray zone areas show that wireless radio systems leveraging hyper-frequencies such as Bluwan’s Fibre Through The Air can meet capacity and coverage requirements at a cost that is 4 to 10 times less than the cost of deploying fibre. With a much faster time to market and therefore faster ROI, this approach protects the intent to deploy high speed broadband to white zones, and can help governments deepen their commitment to bridging the digital divide.