Jazztel: Leading FTTH Development in Spain

In Spain, demand for broadband services is soaring. Although telecommunications in Europe is developing quickly, Spain still lags in fixed broadband. Statistics for 2011 revealed that broadband penetration in Spain was 60%, which is the 5th lowest in Europe. To address this issue, Spain began a massive FTTX rollout in 2012. 

Advancing Against the Headwind

Jazztel is the shortened name of Jazz Telecommunications, the fourth largest fixed broadband provider in Spain. The company was founded in 1998 and is owned by the British company Jazztel Plc. Jazztel offers triple-play (internet, telephone, and TV) and MVNO services. With 1.3 million xDSL users, Jazztel aims to become the second biggest fixed broadband provider in the country.

Over the past three years, Jazztel has bucked the economic slowdown in EU with annual growth in user base and revenue of 20%. This makes Jazztel one of the fast-growing telecom operators in the EU. In 2012, Jazztel and Telefonica signed an agreement allowing each other access to their infrastructure and for jointly building FTTH networks. This agreement marks the start of Jazztel’s FTTH construction. In November 2012, Jazztel partnered with ZTE to build a GPON-based FTTH optical access network that will be competitive over the long term. 

Building a High-Speed FTTH Access Platform

Cost is the primary consideration in FTTH deployment. Operators reduce investment by reusing existing twisted pair resources as much as possible. Some operators even opt for compromise solutions, such as FTTB/FTTC. Fiber is first installed to the curb, building or zone, and users are provided with 8–50 Mbps access bandwidth via VDSL2 and vectoring technologies. Such a network is not necessarily the cheapest. If the rate of service provisioning does not reach a certain level, the network costs even more than an FTTH network. Network analysis shows that the cost of end-to-end FTTH deployment declines drastically when the network reaches a certain size.

Network analysis and fierce competition have prompted Jazztel to choose FTTH. With a cutting-edge, scalable, high-speed access network based on FTTH, Jazztel hopes to remove bottlenecks to business development, boost competitiveness, and propel itself to No. 2 in the Spanish telecom market.

ZTE provided Jazztel with a turnkey solution that covers equipment, engineering, construction, and maintenance. To make the network future-proof and scalable, ZTE provided an integrated, next-generation, full-service optical access platform called ZXA10 C300. This platform allows for smooth evolution to NG PON and WDM PON.

Each of the GPON boards has 16 ports, which is the highest port density in the industry. This not only satisfies Jazztel’s requirements for high-density PON ports but also saves equipment room. Equipment power consumption and network TCO are also significantly reduced.

ZTE also provided an ONT + home gateway networking solution that allows access to diverse services, including high-speed internet, voice and video. This solution meets Jazztel’s long-term service and bandwidth needs. 

Fast Delivery, Efficient Deployment

ZTE’s state-of-the-art solution included superior delivery and exemplary service. After the contract had been signed, ZTE shipped 150 GPON OLTs in three months. To ensure the project was delivered on time and without compromising quality, ZTE trained local engineering subcontractors one month in advance. In addition, ZTE developed service control measures and in-process quality control tools.

In less than two months, ZTE had deployed the first stage of the project and had put more than 70 OLTs into service.

Collaborating for a Bright Future