In its August issue, the publication ZTE Technologiesa technical magazine on the latest trends in the telecommunications sector, has interviewed Pedro Abad, CEO of Asteo Red Neutra to learn more about the company’s role as a FTTH wholesale operator focused on building ultra-modern FTTH and backhaul networks in rural environments. We highlight some of the contents of the meeting, the content of which can be found here.
Fiber connectivity in rural Spain
As a new operator, what distinguishes you from other FTTH wholesale operators in the market?
We are the first rural FTTH wholesale operator totally focused on bringing connectivity to ultra-rural areas with a population of less than 1,000 inhabitants. In addition to serving citizens and businesses in rural areas, we have another important feature: our 2,000 km of fiber optic backhaul that connects each of the municipalities with each other. This backhaul has sufficient capacity to provide service to the mobile telephone antennas that are deployed in these territories and that in the future will begin to offer 5G connectivity. 
Our vision for innovation also includes our carrier-neutral business model that allows any telco or digital company to offer its services in these rural locations, relying on Asteo ‘s next-generation network based on XGSPON technology.
In a market as dynamic as the Spanish one, what is Asteo’s objective?
We are currently deploying our network in Castilla y León, specifically in Burgos, Salamanca and Segovia, and in Extremadura, specifically in Cáceres and Badajoz. The first phase of our development plan includes bringing connectivity to nearly 500 rural municipalities and 170,000 homes. We have already completed 50% of our plan and will continue working to connect these rural areas. In parallel, we are working to encourage the creation of new local operators in rural areas and expanding our network of authorized operators that can use our fiber optic network.
Focusing on rural environments, what difficulties have you encountered during your deployments and how do you resolve them?
Rural deployment is clearly conditioned by the large number of different permits to execute the deployment. We are working very closely with the Administrations to accelerate this process.
In addition, implementation on the ground became a challenge, particularly in certain areas given the orography and physical constraints. In this case, Asteo has developed a methodology that is very well adapted to this civil works environment, which ensures that we can reach any of the 500 municipalities planned as part of our network topology.
In a world hungry for ever richer digital experiences, how do you respond to the growing expectations of operators and their customers?
When we started planning the project at Asteo, we studied the pros and cons of the different technologies available. In the end, our conclusion was to focus on bringing the latest available technology to the rural environment and ensuring a future-proof network that can adapt to the growing demand profile of consumers without any technical risk. According to the study conducted by the “Asteo Observatory” when a village is connected to fiber, its inhabitants use it with high frequency every day and this will continue to grow, for example: 89% surf the Internet, 83% use e-mail, 79% use it for social networks/messaging, 68% for banking transactions, and 52% enjoy movies, series or watch sports. To a lesser extent, but with significant percentages of use, are online shopping (50%), administrative procedures (40%) and listening to podcasts or the radio (34%).
In addition, we have designed our network to be able to offer any connectivity based on high technical specifications and capabilities, such as 5G services, which mainly demand very low latency metrics and can only be supported by networks like Asteo’s.
