services over FTTP networks in the United Kingdom proposed by the regulator Ofcom and developed by the Network Interoperability Consultative Committee. FTTP FTTS, FTTH and FTTB Most FTTH deployments follow one of four primary architecture types: centralized split, distributed split, star architecture, or daisy-chaining. Fiber network developers choose architectures based on a variety of factors, such as the physical geography of the local environment, number of anticipated subscribers, and labor force skill. FTTN and FTTC FTTN/C is seen as an interim step towards full FTTH and in many cases triple-play services delivered using this approach to provide up to around 100 Mbit/s have been proven to grow subscriber numbers and ARPU considerably FTTN/C is currently used by a number of operators, including AT&T in the United States, Germany's Deutsche Telekom, Greece's OTE, Swisscom, TIM in Italy, Proximus in Belgium, nbn™ in Australia, and Canadian operators Telus, Cogeco and Bell Canada. Optical distribution networks Direct fiber The simplest optical distribution network architecture is direct fiber: each fiber leaving the central office goes to exactly one customer. These networks can give you a lot of bandwidth, but they cost more because of the fiber and the equipment in the central office. South Africa and specifically in the city of Cape Town have one of the largest direct fiber networks in the world. Cape Town has been on the forefront of telecommunication and connectivity for many years, with a large amount of fiber in the ground and many competitive offerings. Their argument for direct fiber is that multiple operators can patch into the network easily, and troubleshooting made simple. Direct fiber is generally favored by new entrants and competitive operators. A benefit is that no layer 2 networking technologies are excluded, whether passive optical network (PON), active optical network (AON), or other. Any form of regulatory remedy is possible using this topology. Shared fiber More commonly, each fiber leaving the central office is actually shared by many customers. It is not until such a fiber gets relatively close to the customers that it is split into individual customer-specific fibers. AONs and PONs both achieve this split. Active optical network AONs rely on electrically powered network equipment to distribute the signal, such as a switch or router. Normally, signals need an optical-electrical-optical transformation in the AON. Each signal leaving the central office is directed only to the customer for whom it is intended. Incoming