To get more people in the world online as soon as possible and have the best possible connectivity, Facebook said it had developed a technology that could deploy fiber-optic lines cheaply on grid infrastructure, and planned to grant nonexclusive, royalty free licenses to start-up Netequity Networks to use the technology to build fiber-optic networks.
The Internet services giant said its "technology solution" combines "air construction technology and many innovative technology components," but it did not elaborate on this. Facebook estimates that these technologies and components can reduce the cost of optical deployment in developing countries to $2-3 per meter.
"Deploying fiber on the grid, especially on the medium voltage grid infrastructure, brings fiber to almost every cellular tower, and is within a few hundred meters of most people," Facebook said in a statement. A fiber optic network built side by side with the grid can provide a more secure, high-capacity and low latency communication network, which will also benefit power companies. "
Facebook didn't want to build anything and developed the technology after witnessing the pain of Google fiber deploying the infrastructure. It works with San Francisco based netequity networks, which developed the fiber deployment model with Facebook.
Netequity plans to cooperate with utility companies to use the technology to deploy wholesale and open access optical fiber networks, and proposes fair and reasonable prices, capacity prices decline with the growth of traffic, rural and low-income communities have fair opportunities for optical fiber deployment with rich communities, and share the benefits of optical fiber networks with power companies.
There is no doubt that open access network is the only way. This model is becoming more and more popular in the private equity community and helps to stimulate service-based competition while introducing new infrastructure options to the market. However, it seems unlikely that regulators and other government agencies will refuse the opportunity to make money from the existing grid infrastructure if they can accept the deployment of fiber-optic utilities along the grid lines. Therefore, economic potential and regulatory licensing may pose two major obstacles to the plan.
Facebook says it has a lot of work to do in the next two years as it embarks on its first mass deployment.
