Welcome to Bitesize Fiber, the podcast where we explore the real world challenges and smart solutions shaping the future of fiber and telecom, one bite at a time.
As fiber deployments grow from small pilots to city-wide and even national rollouts, the complexity multiplies fast. In the second episode of Bitesize Fiber: Planning & design, host Elli Puls speaks with Stephen Baker and Jeroen Vanhaverbeke about what it really takes to scale fiber builds without spiraling into chaos.
From managing lengthy permitting and splicer shortages in the U.S. to the importance of proof-of-concept builds in Europe, the discussion offers actionable insight into the logistics, labor, and planning required for high-volume fiber success. Whether you’re facing rural pole replacements or debating underground vs. aerial deployment, this episode explores the real world friction points and how to smooth them out.
Ellie Puls:
Welcome back to Bitesize Fiber, the podcast where we break down the biggest challenges and best practices shaping the future of fiber and telecom networks. One bite at a time. I'm your host, Ellie Puls.
In episode two of our Planning & design series, we're talking about scaling fiber builds from small pilots to large rollouts without falling into chaos. Joining me are Stephen Baker and Jeroen Vanhaverbeke, who share the realities of scaling projects, from the permitting hurdles that can delay builds for months to challenges around aerial versus underground deployments and the shortage of skilled splicers. We'll also explore how operators in different markets are managing these challenges while maintaining efficiency. If your team is looking to grow its fiber rollout without unnecessary delays, this is one you'll want to hear. Let's get into it.
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| Ellie Puls, Product Manager | Stephen Baker, Customer Success Manager | Jeroen Vanhaverbeke, Product Manager |
Ellie Puls:
Scaling up from small deployments to hundreds of thousands of homes. That's not easy. What are some of the biggest struggles there that operators face when trying to grow efficiently?
Stephen Baker:
Well, there's a couple of things. The proper planning that we've already discussed previously, but depending on where you're building and what area, here at least I can speak to in the US, I'm sure there's equal challenges in EMEA as well. If you're in California and you're going to build something new, well, you're permitting process can be anywhere between 3 to 9 months. So you have to take that into account. A great example is one operator, when they started to do their network transformation, and were going to build out fiber to the home. They decided to start in California.
The process was so delayed that they couldn't get any customers turned on because it was taking nine months to get through permits, then a lengthy construction period because you're tearing up yards, you're ripping repair concrete driveways and stuff like that. So it's very, very costly and lengthy construction time period. And then if you look at other areas where there has been the broadband funding for this year, which has had a lot of fiber to the home growth has occurred because of that.
You're getting into areas that have never had facilities like this built. So you get out into rural areas and the poles are 35ft tall and there's already power and there's already telephony on there. Now you attempt to put another telecommunications thing in that space. And guess what? There's room on the pole, but you don't have the proper clearances where you have to have a certain distance between telephony and another type of medium. So then you get into having to replace poles. I got to pay the power company to put a 40ft pole in, so that gets expensive. And then you're comparing that against the cost of okay, if we don't want to spend it on aerial then how much more is it going to cost us to do underground to where we can actually speed up the process? So, there's quite a few challenges.
There's probably even a lot more, you know, getting into operations and being able to support the infrastructure, being able to splice it. I mean, that's been one of the big challenges here in the US across probably the last 6 to 8 years, is lack of qualified fiber splicers. You've had to go out and train an entire new workforce, because those upgrades that we used to do every 2 to 3 years, you started including fiber in that into the 90s, so you got experience fiber splicers. Well, when the upgrades quit, they're kind of out of jobs. Uh, so that skill set went away and had to be rebuilt.
Ellie Puls:
That's interesting. And so Jeroen we've got two different markets here, US and then Europe. How is some of that different or do you see some of those same challenges?
Jeroen Vanhaverbeke:
Well, I definitely recognize the lack of experienced fiber splicers, or the fact that you need to have quite a lot of people having that capability, and especially in the beginning of a new fiber rollout. It's quite hard to get those people trained and to get the right number of splicers that you have. Now, I must say, in the typical European markets, fiber rollout has been ongoing for quite a couple of years, so there is a certain amount of critical mass in the number of splicers available. I think that translates into the fact that in the European market, we see more splice solutions, and from the US market, Stephen, I guess you see quite a lot of connectorized solutions like NPTs and items that are more plug and play in the field rather than needing a splicer every time.
Stephen Baker:
It's a mixed bag here in the US as far as what technologies are getting used, but it definitely is connectorized. It does go ahead and get built and connected during construction here in the US because you're trying to turn a customer on immediately, your a content provider. EMEA is one company owns the infrastructure and then you just let other providers come along and provide services, and then they have to get the connectivity in place at that time.
Jeroen Vanhaverbek:
That's correct. From a deployment point of view, I think also the typical American market will have more aerial fiber, especially in the more spread out rural communities, whereas Europe has quite a lot of cities that have more of an underground deployment. Of course, there are aerial deployments, I think in general it's more cities that are being constructed in Europe. Maybe returning to the previous question that you asked, Ellie, in terms of scaling up of fiber rollouts.
In my experience, it's always worth looking into a small proof of concept or a small area, a couple of streets to do the first fiber construction and validate that all the techniques that you want to use, all the equipment's, the splicers, as we've just been talking about and all of this makes sense and can be deployed easily before scaling up, because choices you make at the beginning have quite a large impact the further along you get in the fiber rollout. Because, typically you start with this is the vendor, this is the equipment, these are the cables and ducts that we'll be using. Especially for the first couple of months or years you will be using that before re-evaluating, is this the right decision or do we want to go in another way. So it does make sense to validate that early on.
Ellie Puls:
What would you say some of the best practices are to keep everything in check, have good data, proper planning, set yourself up for success?
Jeroen Vanhaverbek:
Data is a starting point and then I think it's really important to have a good workflow to try and make sort of a well-oiled engine, cutting up the focus area that you have in different parts of the network. A couple of blocks or a couple of streets, depending on how you look at it, and then apply a single workflow to that. So planning and design, talking to subcontractors, identifying who wants to build in that area, making sure you have the permits, as Stephen already mentioned.
For me, the goal is to try and break it down into atomized parts, the whole network rollout, and then defining a workflow and applying that over and over again to the same size data.
Stay tuned for the next episode of Bitesize Fiber: Planning & design. Catch up on the previous Bitesize Fiber series Network construction.
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