Summary
1. In the continuing struggle to take cost out of FTTH, one way could be handing over the responsibility for burying the fiber on customers’ properties. 2. In particular, there may be an interest by apartment owners to do it in exchange for a hefty discount. 3. There would still have to be sufficient guidance from the carrier as indicated in the source article.
Analysis
In the initial years of DSL deployment, it was suspected that it was hampered because users did not want to admit that they could not get the modem to work correctly with the computer. In this case, Verizon Communications, for example, would be expecting the subscribers to do some really heavy-duty installation work. Yet, in many of these situations, residential home customers could get contractors to do it for them. The advantage for the telco would be less labor cost and fewer liability concerns.
Apartment buildings may like the idea of doing it themselves as compared to going with potluck that could include getting a subcontractor of another subcontractor from the phone company. In being in control on the installations, there would be less concern about issues such as aesthetics, inconveniences to residents, digging up shrubs, not putting back things to their original condition, cutting electric lines, etc. In some cases, timing adjustments may be desirable for MDUs such as in doing the installations at a more convenient time – like during a period of general renovations. It is also not out of the question that the negotiating times could be substantially reduced for the telco if the owners assume responsibility for installing fiber on their properties.
