Making Sense of an FTTX Business Plan

Wireless-wireline convergence and the implementation of 5G will drive an order of magnitude to more access points in the outside plant. Previously deployed capital assets in the outside plant typically have fiber counts that don’t allow for individual fibers to every access point, and the best strategy for increasing capacity is to use a form of wavelength division multiplexing (WDM). However, implementing a WDM strategy can be difficult for logistical reasons: service providers must choose the right channel plan and the right types of lasers for the right applications.