Broadband Advancement Faces Test Amid Copper Network Retreat
"Fiber-to-the-x" has become a major strategy established by telecom operators in recent years, serving as a key initiative to consolidate broadband advantages, support enterprise development, and drive network transformation. Currently, fiber access is gradually replacing the original twisted-pair copper cable infrastructure, with optical node coverage moving increasingly closer to users, and urban optical network FTTH (Fiber-to-the-Home) deployment advancing in full swing.
Copper Network Retreat Faces Multiple Constraints
Meanwhile, the implementation of copper network retreat is also necessary. First, PON-based optical access technologies and products have matured, with declining costs of fiber and equipment, making the replacement of traditional copper access inevitable due to their technical advantages. Compared with traditional copper access, fiber access offers higher carrying bandwidth and transmission quality, capable of supporting various mixed services such as HD video and cloud computing, serving as the foundation for new business growth points. Second, the advancement of fiber increases the complexity of network maintenance. In addition to the urban optical network, operators must maintain multiple existing wired bearer networks (including DSL, PSTN, and dedicated line networks), resulting in high operation and maintenance costs. Implementing copper retreat allows operators to focus on maintaining the urban optical network, simplifying O&M complexity and reducing costs. Third, copper-based services and networks occupy substantial infrastructure resources, with copper cables consuming significant duct resources, and narrowband voice and DSLAM-related equipment occupying considerable equipment room and space resources with high power consumption. Copper retreat facilitates energy conservation and emission reduction, aligning with the long-term construction and development requirements of the "urban optical network." Finally, retired copper cables and related equipment can serve as maintenance spares or generate revenue through replacement and sale, effectively alleviating the financial pressure of fiber advancement and improving enterprise efficiency.
Although copper retreat is necessary, considerable difficulties exist in actual implementation, primarily in service migration, engineering execution, and user acceptance. From the perspective of service migration, a large number of services based on ordinary twisted-pair copper cables remain in operation. The user scale, service revenue, development trends, alternative technologies, migration costs, and user perception of these services all influence and constrain the progress of copper cable decommissioning. In particular, government and enterprise services are widely and dispersedly distributed across copper networks, making copper retreat migration complex, relatively costly, and highly impactful on services. From the perspective of engineering execution, the existing copper cable and related equipment base is enormous, involving numerous regions and sites, making it difficult to fully implement decommissioning in the short term. The process must be advanced in phases based on optical network coverage and service takeover capabilities, inevitably making it a long-term process. Meanwhile, the cost of line migration and renovation projects such as copper cable removal remains relatively high, requiring reasonable scheduling based on funding conditions. From the perspective of user acceptance, the premise of copper retreat is the extent of fiber advancement, but difficulties in FTTH home installation inevitably exist, making full copper cable withdrawal challenging, particularly for pure voice service users.