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Originally Posted by BenMcr
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I’m happy to be wrong. It’s 2022 and the actual management team to deliver this has only just been assembled. They are trialling it now in 3 areas. It will be several months before it is ramped up to full scale, I doubt very much they can overbuild all of the HFC in just over 5 years.
There’s a misconception that the overbuild will be quick and relatively inexpensive because of the existing VM duct network. If the existing HFC fibre & copper cables weren’t in-situ that may be more the case but the HFC & FTTP must coexist. There are lots of places where the duct are full, so new ducts will be required. Some existing cabinets can be converted for dual use but mostly new cabinets will be required.
I’m probably being pessimistic with 10yrs, but just over 5yrs? Not a chance.
VM will still invest in DOCSIS, which will deliver 10G over HFC, so if you have to make decisions on where to spend money. They will continue to spend on FTTP network expansion as that is new business and customer expansion - that’s a given. But if we’re 2-3 years into Mustang and It’s proving to be more expensive than envisaged and spend decisions need to be made. You’ll scale back Mustang (not stop it) and push on with NetEx as that is giving you a better return on your money.