Australian business brings fibre to Asian homes

When Vietnamese telco Viettel wanted to conduct a trial fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) project in the heart of the Asian country, it turned to Australian specialist Warren & Brown Technologies.

Warren & Brown’s role included providing the initial consultation services such as network planning and design, plus detailed engineering and installation as well as training and product supply. The company was able to offer a customised solution that met the needs of the customer as well as taking total responsibility for the overall assignment.

The project began to take shape in May 2013 when a contingent of Viettel executives visited Australia and met with management teams from NBN Co and Telstra. The Viettel team immediately recognised the value of the Australian NBN and entered into negotiations with Warren & Brown to develop a trial network in Vietnam.

The two companies then entered into an agreement in April 2014 for a consultation service to roll out the proposed FTTH network, starting with Warren & Brown working with Viettel in the design of the optical distribution network (ODN) and in establishing which passive optical network (PON) architecture would be best suited to urban and rural areas.

The following month saw preparation of the design and construction guidelines for the ODN for the first pilot site, which would pass 600 homes and offer both IP and RF TV connectivity.

The project focused on rural medium-density applications as part of the initial FTTH rollout in Da Nang City, situated in the central part of Vietnam.

The IP connectivity includes internet, IP telephony and IP TV for customers wanting to connect broadband internet and digital TV. In addition, analog RF TV will also be offered for customers requiring only RF cable TV connectivity.

Construction was completed within a span of three weeks with all 600 homes passed within the network and a unique network architecture and configuration provided by the Australian company. The project saw the use of spider web ribbon fibre, along with various Warren & Brown indoor and outdoor optical fibre termination products.

In addition, the company provided detailed theory and practical training in all aspects of fibre-optic cable technology fundamentals, cable installation, termination and testing procedures for FTTH PON networks to all Viettel technical personnel throughout all of the Vietnam provinces.

According to Warren & Brown Managing Director Neil Domelow, the experience and expertise gained from the company’s previous involvements with the NBN as well as projects in Holland and the Philippines was an important factor in assuring Viettel of the company’s ability to complete the project as specified.

“We were able to draw on our knowledge gained from our internationally experienced group of engineers to come up with a system tailored for the conditions - which performed as soon as the ‘switch was flicked’,” Domelow said.