Stuart Corner
Monday, 17 March 2008 10:05
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
We've all heard how better broadband will support lots of eco-friendly greenhouse gas reducing activities like telemedicine and teleworking, but the FTTH Council Europe has gone one better and attempted to balance the gains of these activities against the environmental impact of laying and operating FTTH networks. Not surprisingly, it's all good news.
The Council's Sustainable Development and Fibre (SUDEFIB) Committee, in conjunction with PriceWaterhouseCoopers concluded that, in a European context, FTTH could achieve a positive contribution to greenhouse gas reduction after 14 years, with a very limited range of applications.
The modelling technique looked at the resources consumed and greenhouse gasses produced from installing an FTTH network under various deployment scenarios and at the greenhouse gas reductions from a specific, but very limited set of applications. The conclusion was that "the environmental impact of the deployment of a typical FTTH network will be positive in less than 14 years considering only the three selected services. Additional either existing or developing applications will further emphasise these results."
SUDEFIB looked at three deployment scenarios: urban dense, urban wide and rural areas and at four deployment techniques: existing ducts or urban sewage, traditional trench, micro-trench, aerial hanging). Three specific applications were considered: Teleworking, telemedicine and home assistance. Telemedicine looked up three cases: teledialysis, telemedical meetings and medical imaging transfer. It was assumed that 10 percent of the working population could telework three days per week in 2011, and that 20 percent of the population 75 years old and over could benefit from home assistance.
The total environment impact of the FTTH network took into account full life cycle factors including production of passive and active equipments, transport, implementation, power consumption and end of life. These were balanced against the environmental gains of the three applications considered. The deployment phase of an FTTN represents approximately 80 percent of its total environmental impact, with the biggest impact being the length of new cable ducts needed per home passed. CONTINUED
