Huawei, Latvia's MWTV to build out open access FTTX

MWTV, a Latvian networking company, using Huawei's infrastructure solutions, is starting to build out an open access, fiber to the home ready (FTTX, until end-subscriber connections are ordered) network in residential areas of the capital, Riga. The network presently reaches around 40 000 households, with the aim of reaching 100 000.

As MWTV project manager Otto Šrams explained, the idea is to build a superfast fiber network capable of delivering around 2.5 gigabits per second (Gps) to an apartment building -- more than enough to ensure at least 100 Mbps internet as well as moderately compressed or uncompressed high-definition video to each household. The fiber connections to the building would, upon a resident's choice of services, be extended to the residence and terminate in a optical fiber to Gigabit Ethernet converter, to which any number of end-user devices -- a digital HD TV set-top box, a WiFi router, a PC or Mac, or even a voice telephone, could be attached.

Šrams explained that the MWTV network architecture would also allow content providers outside of Riga or even abroad to offer their services directly to subscribers on the network.  Satellite broadcasters such as Viasat could reach subscribers who cannot mount satellite dishes on their apartment buildings or are blocked from the satellites by other structures. It would allow foreign IP TV providers to reach Latvian subscribers directly.

Although MWTV didn't go into too many details, it is known that the company is negotiating with Lattelecom and other internet and cable TV providers (such as Baltkom and IZZI) who have declared their intention to offer 100 Mbps internet and at least some HD TV channels and/or video on demand. Leasing the MWTV network would save the operators the time and expense of building their own fiber optic networks under Riga. A model cited by MWTV is the solution offered by Stokab in Sweden.

MWTV is understood to be linked to Latvia's Mono Group, a kind of conglomerate involved in alcoholic beverages, logistics, and banking (former owners of Lateko Bank, now Icelandic-owned Norvik and presently involved in setting up a Postal Bank) among other things. MWTV, as its name suggests, was set up to be a cable TV operator, but soon discovered that it was not going to master content aggregation and provision, and focused on the business idea of an open-access fiber optic network instead.