Ethernet in the First Mile or EFM, as it is commonly referred to, is a family of technologies that allow native Ethernet transport over voice grade copper. This would mean being able to move the 1st mile access portion of any Carriers network into the native Ethernet world. This portion of the network is currently (mostly)served by either DSL or CATV technologies (a few lucky souls have Fiber to their homes 
). If you want to learn more about the Technical aspects of EFM, look here.
Ethernet based services are in high demand by Carriers’ Customers, especially business customers who need large amounts of bandwidth to transfer their data. IP networks who also, by aggregating large amounts of traffic, are increasingly using Ethernet as their interconnection technology. Here’s a few basic reasons why Ethernet is so popular:
- The most efficient way to carry IP Services
- The only globally standardized communications protocol
- The de-facto transport for IP communications
- The best cost per bit
- The most clear and defined upgrade path
So if we take the advantages of Ethernet, outlined above, into consideration it seems to be a no-brainer to want to use EFM as a first mile aggregation/transport technology. Using a ubiquitous technology from customer premises through the aggregation layer and on into the core should lower CAPEX and OPEX considerably, right?
Absolutely!
Except for one issue that is hindering EFM implementations in Europe.
Over the last 10 years a considerable amount of investment has gone into consumer and business broadband services. Most of these services are Internet access and/or VPN services run over DSL copper pair infrastructure.
Telecom Regulation in most countries in Europe have, among other duties, provisions to protect the existing telecommunications infrastructure. Since the DSL infrastructure is such a large part of the telecom infrastructure, Regulators have put very tight controls on what sort of technologies are allowed to run over copper pairs.
Certain EFM implementations could (theoretically) cause disturbances by bleeding signals over onto copper pairs carrying DSL at the last mile where thousands of copper pairs are “bundled” together outside of the street cabinet, Regional Office or Central Office. Since we (at least those of us in this industry) are addicted to our DSL at home, I understand the position of the regulators when they want to protect existing infrastructure.
I do feel, however, that the restrictions are a bit draconian. A good balance needs to be struck between protection, technological adoption and innovation to ensure that our services have a maximum uptime as well as ensuring the best advances in communications are available to those who want them.
Recent news suggests that EU member country regulators have already seen this as an issue and have put together processes whereby an EFM vendor can test how well their technology can co-exist with existing copper services. One of the outcomes os this has been recent announcements by Actelis of the permission by Swiss and Danish regulators to implement Actelis technology in their countries.
This is definitely a space to be watching!
