Beneath the surface of the world’s wireless infrastructure lies a growing tapestry of fiber optic cable interwoven to provide a blanket of coverage for an expanding number of mobile users. A portion of this fiber sits unused, waiting for networks to expand to the point it is needed. Hoping to capitalize on future growth, a number of companies continue to add to the unused fiber real estate, which has come to be known as unlit or dark fiber.
Dark fiber has been around since the dot-com bubble days when phone companies were rapidly building fiber optic networks to try to corner the market. In an effort to capitalize on this dormant fiber, companies bought up existing fiber real estate and made it operational to lease to mobile operators.
As companies continue to build new fiber networks to meet present network demands, they realize it is most cost effective to also build for the future. With the growth of small cells and the need for more backhaul to towers due to increased data demands, infrastructure providers know eventually there will be a market for the dormant fiber. They also understand operators are looking to cut costs any way they can.
As Aaron Blazar, VP of Atlantic-ACM, announced back in September 2014, “Evolving thoughts around mobile network economics and end-user requirements are driving operators to look at the opportunity which, in turn, is creating significant opportunities for U.S. fiber infrastructure providers to support the movement.”
Verizon Communications is one carrier that says dark fiber will be key to its network densification efforts. “Getting dark fiber out there, getting the small cells in there, that’s the direction we’re headed,” said Brian Mecum, VP of network for the West Area at Verizon, back in September. “That’s what’s going to give us our ability to deliver to our customers on the promise of reliability.”
This has created a market for regional dark fiber vendors.
“Offering dark fiber has never been of interest to, or a strong suit of, traditional [independent local exchange carrier] backhaul providers. This drives wireless operators looking for dark fiber-based backhaul solutions to engage in regional sourcing models to meet their needs and creating opportunities for fiber operators like Fiberlight, Fibertech and Zayo,” Blazar said in a 2014 article on dark fiber’s role in the mobile backhaul ecosystem. “These fiber providers use fiber-to-the-tower builds to subsidize network expansion, increased reach and greater densification. All in, the network builders are gaining entrance into new markets via the dark-fiber-to-the-tower play while network operators gain access to an easily scalable network element.”
Much like Fiberlight, Fibertech and Zayo, Tower Cloud is a broadband infrastructure service provider looking to capitalize on the desire for carriers to densify their networks. The company recently expanded its dark fiber network by 1,300 miles in Florida, making it one of the largest high-speed networking and wireless backhaul providers in the Southeastern U.S. with more than 6,800 miles of installed fiber. George Townsend, SVP of business at Tower Cloud believes the industry’s infatuation with small cells will be the biggest driver of fiber expansion moving forward.
“From a network perspective, I think the challenges of rapidly scaling small cells will probably dominate the discussion,” Townsend said. “With small cells, what the big issue is, it’s an underlay to the macro environment, and there’s a lot of capacity being driven by all the cell phones and tablets streaming video and there’s a need to address that capacity, but also with a high quality.”
Backhaul is another key driver of network demand. While Townsend admits wireless backhaul solutions such as microwave and millimeter wave will have a place, he says fiber will still be key.
“I think in the end fiber will dominate,” Townsend explained. “The early days of backhaul everyone said it’s all going to be wireless, it’s too expensive to get fiber to all of these cell sites, but somehow as an industry we figured that out. I think the same will hold true with this technology [small cells]. But we’ve got to realize that there will be cities and situations such as a New York City or a Boston where the areas are very dense … and microwave, whether it be microwave or millimeter wave, line-of-site or non-line-of-site, will be a tool that you need to have in your toolkit to solve some of the problems.”
The bottom line is the same now as it was a year ago when Blazar decreed, “Dark fiber will play a role as a key element in mobile ecosystems going forward. Since mobile operators are managing tradeoffs from a budgeting perspective, backhaul providers must understand where to bid on dark fiber opportunities and where to hold strong on lit services. The key here is understanding ground level, metro-by-metro economics so both parties can build a sustainable ecosystem that meets the needs of end-user demand.”
