As the founder/owner of a private FTTH operator I can say the above is wrong. The _only_ reason we use PON is because it is vastly cheaper to build. It is also more flexible, which might be counter intuitive. I have watched competitors try P2P but it is always a disaster for them. The PON network will finish sooner, require considerably less cabling and ducts, easier to expand with unplanned capacity, can be rerouted when an expected permit fails to go through, and does not require much footprint for active equipment. We have a single road side cabinet, using less than a single square meter, serving an area in excess of 100 square kilometers. In theory GPON can go all the way to 40 km from switch to customer, which would be more than 1000 square km served from one point of presence.

Fiberstrands are not free. In a P2P topology you need to have cabinets with active equipment close to the customers, otherwise you will have huge costs for all that fiber. Your network would also become vulnerable because a fiber cut on a duct with thousands of fiberstrands is not something that gets fixed in a few hours. Huge cables can not easily be rerouted when other construction works require you to do so.

Regards,

Baldur