The separation of services and networks is considered by many to be fundamental to the future of telecom, and one of the reasons for this is demonstrated in spades by a municipal network project in Denmark.

The project in question brings a new meaning to the term “quadruple play” in that the developer, a cooperative called TRE-FOR, is adding broadband connectivity to the three other utilities – electricity, gas, and water – it already delivers to a community of about 300,000 customers.

TRE-FOR has crafted a role for itself as a middleman between its customers and service providers. It’s rolling out fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and Ethernet infrastructure, offering customers a self-service portal for them to order services, and providing a platform that makes it easy for third parties to provide those services.

The bottom line is that TRE-FOR isn’t taking on any of the risky business of guessing what applications will prove a hit with its customers. It’s still in the utility business, where investments can be amortized over a long period, and thus it's able to keep a lid on costs. At the same time, it’s created an environment that encourages innovation and competition among service providers so that its customers (who are also its shareholders) get a wide choice of offerings at low prices.

This report steps through the project in detail, drawing lessons from the experiences of TRE-FOR and its suppliers, which include Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Unisys Corp. (NYSE: UIS). Here’s a hyperlinked contents list:

• Page 2: Business Model & Market Considerations
  
  
• Page 3: The TRE-FOR Network & Services
  
  
• Page 4: The Ethernet Design
  
  
• Page 5: The Self-Service Portal & Equal-Access Network

Webinar

This report is based on a Webinar, TRE-FOR: Denmark's Pioneering Municipal Network Project, moderated by Simon Hill, Events Editor, Light Reading, and sponsored by Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and TRE-FOR Bredbånd A/S . An archive of the Webinar may be viewed free of charge by clicking here.

Related Webinar archives:

• Helping Utilities Migrate to Next-Gen Services
• Ethernet Architectures: Pros & Cons of Aggregation Networks
• Using Metro Ethernet to Deliver FTTH Triple-Play Services
• Managing the Complexity of IPTV Deployments

About the Author

— Tim Hills is a freelance telecommunications writer and journalist. He's a regular author of Light Reading reports.

Next Page: Business Model & Market Considerations