American Tower Corporation has made a big mark in the wireless world by deploying infrastructure that can be used by multiple carriers. Now it is applying that business model to fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) infrastructure in Argentina. Using Nokia’s Altiplano Open Access network controller solution, American Tower shares network resources as slices of a physical network, enabling the wholesaling of fiber access on a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) basis.
“Open fiber to the home networks are growing rapidly,” said Paul Choiseul, Vice President of Innovation – Transport and Networking – OCTO at American Tower.
American Tower’s communications site portfolio includes fiber networks in select geographies. The new FTTH network in Argentina, with Nokia as the sole supplier, reaches close to a million homes-passed. The neutral host model, where investors build networks and wholesale capacity to tenant operators, is now a growing proportion of the fiber market, according to American Tower.
In a study for Nokia, Arthur D. Little found almost one third of telecom sector deals in the Americas and Europe during the past decade were with fiber investment companies. Neutral hosts had up to three times higher profit, compared with traditional telcos.
The neutral host NaaS platform allows enhanced automation and delivers autonomy of operation to its virtual operators, according to Nokia. Through the use of industry-standard APIs, virtual network operators can receive a “slice” of the network and operate as if it were their own infrastructure.
“Neutral host business models lower the cost of fiber deployments and attract new sources of capital, driving the FTTH market to enter underserved areas,” said Sandy Motley, President, Fixed Networks at Nokia.
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