Andalucía assesses the investment needed to deploy a fiber-optic network

Abstract

The setup of fiber-optic telecommunication networks involves high investment efforts. The Regional Government of Andalusia assigned us the development of a tool capable of evaluating the deployment cost of a network that was not to be limited only to connecting large cities, but also to include smaller towns, in order to prevent them from staying behind the progress of the Information Society. The Andalusian regional Government aimed to deploy a network capable of accessing most of the municipalities in the region, even those municipalities that could not be profitable from a monetary perspective. We developed a nonlinear mathematical programming model with special focus on the investment costs. The costs included the parts corresponding to the civil-engineering works, as well as those related to the telematic link deployment. The solution of such a complex problem was found by a genetic algorithm, which was previously tested with a set of trial problems. The results were used to persuade private companies to expand their fiber-optic networks to reach small towns.