Telia Sonera to deploy P2P FTTH

Cisco and Telia Sonera announced last week that they had signed a key contract to deploy P2P Ethernet FTTH service in Sweden. It's been a while since no one really pays attention to FTTH announcements in Sweden (there's a whole lot of them!) but this one is significant because of the choice of technology.

It is commonly accepted that xPON is the technology of choice of incumbent operators. Officially because of the OPEX savings and network reingeneering opportunities it offers. Officiously because of the above and the fact that it can be deployed in such a way as to make unbundling impossible.

Yet Telia Sonera is the second incumbent in Europe (after KPN) to have chosen a P2P technology for their deployment. Of course, there are more GPON announcements for the time being, the most important one in volume being Orange in France (Telefonica's deployment seems to have ground to a halt and BT's deployment is still limited on the FTTH side.) Still, the Netherlands and Sweden are highly competitive markets where deployment will like be fast, and I wouldn't be surprised if this allowed P2P numbers to continue to lead compared to GPON numbers.

I'm hoping to get a chance to talk to Cisco and Telia Sonera about this, in particular to understand the reasoning behind the choice. I'll let you know if I come up with anything.