Contributed Article

Regional operator htp built fiber–to–the–home (FTTH) networks a decade before they became mainstream. Today, it is showing the market how early builders modernize for the future. 

The operators who moved first on fiber are now facing a second strategic decision. Speaking at the BREKO Arbeitstag in a joint session with Udo Abt, senior consultant of sales engineering at Calix, Jochen Krauss, head of network planning at Hannover-based regional operator htp, explained how an early FTTH pioneer is evolving its network for the next decade. 

htp began deploying fiber to the home more than ten years ago and today serves 123.400 residential and 9.710 business customers. Sixty-three percent of its connections are now activated fiber-to-the-home lines, a penetration level most of the German market is still working toward. Originally built on point-to-point Ethernet, the network is now evolving. Today, htp is deploying native XGS-PON for all new construction and network densification. 

A business case with real numbers 

Before committing, htp ran a full total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis spanning network build and operations. The results showed a cost reduction of more than 40 percent. According to Krauss, realized savings have exceeded the model. 

The drivers are structural. Serving 2,000 subscribers on point-to-point requires around 32 rack units of central office equipment. XGS-PON requires roughly one rack unit. Power consumption per subscriber is significantly lower. Distributed splitters also eliminate many powered and cooled street cabinets, allowing the field network to run almost entirely passive. Service activation no longer requires technicians at both ends of the line. 

Why native XGS-PON 

htp evaluated GPON and Combo-PON alternatives before committing to native XGS-PON, in what Abt described on stage as “a battle of the best arguments between the two engineering teams.” Symmetric 10 Gbps capacity supports 1:64 split ratios without compromising the subscriber experience. ONT prices for XGS-PON also fell faster than any forecast predicted, closing the historic cost gap with GPON. The choice also secures the road ahead: The step to 50G PON can run in parallel on the same infrastructure when business services and backhaul demand it. 

Just as important were htp’s procurement requirements: no lock-in on optical components, open management interfaces, and hardware available for hardened outdoor deployment. Calix met all of them. 

Simplicity as strategy 

For a 250-person operator, operational simplicity determines technology choices. Because the Calix One™ platform abstracts the access technology, htp’s team configures PON services in the same familiar terms as Ethernet, and the engineer who introduced the platform completed his first test installation within just one week. Workflows are learned once; technology generations change underneath them. As Abt put it, “That is what consumers already expect from their smartphones, where 4G became 5G without anyone relearning the device.” 

The same principle extends forward. htp’s path to 50G PON, network slicing, and AI-supported predictive operations runs on the software foundation already integrated and already mastered. 

A planned evolution, not a crisis 

htp will continue operating its point-to-point base while migrating it to PON in a structured, multi-year program aligned with equipment lifecycles. New builds are XGS-PON by default. As Krauss observed, “Technology generations turning over is simply the nature of infrastructure, and the advantage belongs to operators who plan the transition rather than react to it.” 

For the many European operators now approaching the ten-year mark on their first fiber deployments, the message from the BREKO stage was clear: The second migration is coming for everyone. htp is proof it can arrive as a plan.