Federated access between network operators will emerge as a new market structure in FTTH

There will be further signs in 2025 and beyond of a new phase in the ownership of fixed assets. In recent years, the trend for delayering has typically involved the creation of infracos and servcos, and the sale (or more often, partial sale) of physical fibre assets to institutional investors. 

For the netco, a central objective is typically to achieve operational benefits: revenue deltas from additional tenants and efficiency gains. But if the expected gains do not materialise for the investor, or simply if the investor has an exit date, this leaves opportunities for operators to buy back (that is, re-layer), particularly if, as expected, their capex intensity falls away. 

This scenario may also result in a more distributed ownership of assets among the leading telecoms operators, which acquire equity stakes (or indefeasible right of use) in geographically discrete chunks of network largely on the basis of market share. Federating, or clubbing, access therefore looks set to emerge as an economically sustainable alternative to current open-access models in the coming years.