Dead or Alive? Copper Loops Merit Major New Platform Upgrade Investments

Brian Washburn

Summary Bullets:

• Counter to those who declare copper networks obsolete, platforms taking advantage of existing copper plant are drawing healthy new investment.
• Both incumbents and competitive carriers are deploying platforms that wring faster speeds out of existing copper plant.

The telecom industry hasn’t talked up copper networking for years: Twisted-pair wire just doesn’t have the allure of fiber or wireless. But even with projects such as Verizon FiOS having run for many years, removing all copper from access networks has proved too expensive and difficult to be a feasible goal. Fiber steadily finds its way into access networks, but carriers – both incumbents and their facilities-based competitors – are also continuing to stretch existing copper plant in new ways. Just since the beginning of November, there has been a flurry of new industry activity: