NESA A/S is energy utility company operating in the vicinity of Copenhagen. The company has its core activities of electricity distribution and trade and is the biggest electricity provider in Denmark with 535.000 customers. For the past 15 years the company has been deploying fibre cables to support its core activities, e.g. through an IP based control system for their electricity installations, and now owns more than 25.000 Km of fibres and more than 700 Km of fibre traces.
In 2002 the company diversified into the broadband market and started implementing and testing a FTTH network. In yearend 2004 the company had 800 active homes participating in a commercial pilot project. The deployment strategy of the company is to lay down empty micro duct tubes with power cables, for subsequent blowing of fibbers. The company has already connected 20.000 homes with tubes and intends to lay tubes to 200.000 homes in the next 5-7 years.
According to NESA there are several important synergies between electricity supply and fibre optic infrastructure supply: a) common network planning, b) Common digging projects, c) Common network control and monitoring, and d) common service organization. The cost of the fibre cable itself is minor in relation to the groundwork and as NESA phrases it: “It should be illegal not to establish fibre connections to the household when a digging project is ongoing”.
NESA’s business model: NESA provides an operator independent network, where different service providers can access the households through NESA network and NESA owns, controls and maintains the broadband network and physical infrastructure. Today there are five service providers competing in four service types (see following figure).
The customers pay a fixed monthly fee of € 50 for access to the infrastructure and then buy services directly from service providers through a web portal.
When introducing future services, NESA does not encounter technical limitations but considers standardization as barrier to the development, especially in set-top boxes. The company has successfully implemented TV and VoD services but misses a service that is unique to the FTTH platform.