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Posted on 09.25.06
Very informative article in Lightwave on the direction of European FTTH focusing mostly on municipal deployment. According to the article, the regulatory and competitive environment makes it unfavorable for carriers to build their own fiber access networks. Instead the carriers are actively encouraging municipalities to do the buildout and then lease capacity on the "open" FTTH networks. Also the religius battles on GPON vs. EPON vs. Active Ethernet are touched upon, with Active Ethernet and GPON taking the lead. An interesting observation from the article: For his part, Rao believes incumbent providers like France Telcom should consider FTTH for more than just the obvious bandwidth benefit. “When you have such short loops, there is, with the potential of fiber, the possibility to actually consolidate your offices,” he says. “It is theoretically possible with the capabilities of PON to actually remove a number of central offices and just have a very centralized function and save some serious money. That’s a good driver for PON.” Filed under: Regulatory Environment and Municipal Broadband Comments: None |
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Posted on 08.16.06
A consortium of schools and government agencies in Muskegon, Michigan has had to erect its own utility poles for a fiber optic network because Verizon would not grant access to its poles. Verizon claims state laws prohibit it from doing so. The consortium thinks its for competitive reasons. Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 08.13.06
Due to a regulatory dispute, Australian natrional carrier Telstra has put a hold on the access part of its USD $8 billion telecom network overhaul. The dispute centers around whether competitors will be allowed to use Telstra’s fiber to the node access network. It was after this issue was decided in Verizon’s favor by the US Federal Communications Commission that Verizon went ahead with a large scale FTTP deployment. My guess is that in the near future, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will also decide in Telstra’s favor. Filed under: Business and Regulatory Environment Comments: 2 Comments |
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Posted on 08.13.06
A community meeting is to be held in San Francisco to discuss a fiber to the premises feasibility study. Some analysis on this here. Filed under: Business and Regulatory Environment Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 07.23.06
The European Commission has banned the Dutch town of Appingedam from bulding its own fiber optic access network. The reason stated is as follows: Appingedam is "already served by broadband networks and the Commission considered that the aid was not necessary to remedy either a market failure or unaffordable prices for broadband services." Some insights on what this means to the Amsterdam fiber network or other European municipal fiber networks would be useful. Filed under: Regulatory Environment and Municipal Broadband Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 06.26.06
US Telecom company critic Bruce Kushnick is offering a free download of his e-book "$200 Billion Broadband Scandal" until Tuesday, June 27. In the book, Bruce claims that the major telcos did not deliver on previous promises of providing ubiquitous 45 Mbps service to US customers and defrauded the government and subscribers to the tune of $200 billion. Filed under: Business and Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.20.06
The Dutch Lower Chamber has voted on a new Telecommunication Law that allows legally established municipalities to participate in optical fiber projects. This act clears the way for the Amsterdam fiber project Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 06.14.06
A Japanese government panel has recommended that the Japanese national carrier NTT be split into several separate entities in order to stimulate competition. Since NTT has the worlds largest FTTH footprint, a breakup would have significant ramifications for Japanese and global FTTH. Here’s commentary from Financial Times: An official at a rival company said a break-up of NTT might improve competition in the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) market – a method of providing broadband internet access to homes that is faster than the conventional digital subscriber line technology. Rivals to NTT argue that when they want to deploy FTTH by using the NTT network, their needs are given lower priority than those of the NTT sister company deploying FTTH. Filed under: Uncategorized and Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.24.06
The Ethernet Alliance, an industry Ethernet advocacy group chartered to support IEEE 802.3 standards development process of which GEPON is a part of has announced the formation of two subcommittees: The 10GEPON (10 Gigabit Ethernet Passive Optical Network) subcommittee will support the recently formed 10G EPON study group. The 10GBASE-T (10 Gigabit Ethernet over twisted-pair cabling) subcommittee will support interoperability demonstrations as the 10GBASE-T standards effort comes to completion. Filed under: Uncategorized and Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 05.08.06
This press release from the Europe FTTH Council provides a list of current board members and their affiliations. Gives a good indication of the key players in Europe FTTH. Here’s the list: - Hartwig Tauber (IMC University Krems), Board Member and President - Jan de Groot (OFS), Board Member and Treasurer - Jean-Pierre Lartigue (Alcatel), Board Member - Tadhg Leonard (Corning Cable Systems), Board Member - Mats Hansson (Ericsson), Board Member - Joeri Van Bogaert (NBG Fiberoptic), Board Member - Tibor van Melsem Kocsis (Emtelle), Board Member - Rami Houbby (Allied Telesyn), Board Member Also at the General Assembly, Chair responsibilities were awarded to the following individuals: - Wolfgang Fischer (Cisco Systems) - Architecture Committee - Albert Grooten (Draka Comteq) - Infrastructure Committee - Olivier Danthine (GNS) - Regulatory Committee - Vladimir Prodanovic (FTTH.info) - Content & Services Committee - Morgan David (Motorola) - Market Development Committee - Kathleen De Smedt (Alcatel) - Communications Committee Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.18.06
According to this article, one of the poorest neighborhoods (Hanna-Creighton) in Fort Wayne, Indiana will be among the first to receive Verizon Fios FTTH service, while the affluent Sycamore Hills neighborhood will not be receving FTTH in the near future because its out of Verizon’s territory. Couple of other interesting pieces of information in the article: -How business plans guide development will become more apparent as House Bill 1279 comes into effect: The state’s telecom deregulation bill, called the “High-speed to the Heartland Initiative,” will eventually create a “Wild West” of free markets and open competition, Koppin said, in which cable television companies offer telephone service, telephone companies carry cable TV signals and Internet service providers offer all three. And the restrictions on how they do business are few. -a small company in southeast Indiana is taking up the charge: Tele-Media Solutions will offer fiber-optic speed Internet, television and telephone service by June, all through an Internet connection. I was not able to find any additional references to this one. Filed under: Business and New FTTH Rollouts and Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.11.06
Two Chicago suburbs are blocking the rollout of AT&T’s Project Lightspeed because they claim that since AT&T is planning to offer IPTV video service, AT&T is required to apply for a video franchise license. AT&T in turn is suing the suburbs claiming that IPTV is an improved version of the Internet and not a cable TV service. Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 04.11.06
A 3200 unit residential development near Sydney, Australia was slated to have FTTP service from the Australian national carrier Telstra. Now ambiguity over Telstra’s right to provide video over the FTTP network may derail the project. Here is the complete story. Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 03.13.06
World Wide Packets has received approval from the Rural Utilities Service. The technical acceptance, granted by the United States Department of Agriculture, authorizes independent telephone and utility companies to purchase World Wide Packets equipment with the assistance of funds from RUS grants and loans which, for many service providers, improves ROI possibilities. WWP is a maker of Active Ethernet gear for access deployments. Would there be a market for Active Ethernet from rural telco’s, a market which Optical Solutions dominates with GPON gear? PON would seem to have a natural advantage for a highly dispersed deployment while Active Ethernet would seem to do well in high density deployments. Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 03.10.06
To follow up on the post on the call for interest for a 10 GEPON study group, here the contents of an email I received: IEEE voter body voted 52 yes, 2 no, in favor of 10G EPON.This means that a study group will be formed. The output of the study group will be a PAR (Project Authorization Request) which meets five criteria (Market Potential, compatibility, distinct identity, technical feasability, & economic feasability). If it passes this stage, then a task force will be created. Judging from the overwhelming support, it seems like the standard will go through. In comparison, we never had this type of support for 1G EPON. I think the biggest problem will be compatibility with 1G EPON at the physical layer (i.e. optical loss budget).
Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: 1 Comment |
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Posted on 03.07.06
The Fiber Optic Association, Inc. (FOA) has introduced a new certification program for Fiber To The Home/Premises (FTTx) technicians to be offered through the network of FOA-approved training organizations. Many of the 140+ FOA-approved schools are expected to offer specialized training and certification based on the FOA CFxT (Certified FTTx Technician) program. Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 02.15.06
The FTTH council has issued a press release that has the following statement in it: In a filing submitted to the FCC, the FTTH Council presented evidence that burdens often imposed on the acquisition of cable television franchises harm consumers, slow next-generation broadband deployment, and violate federal telecommunications law. Among the obstacles cited by the FTTH Council were: lengthy negotiating periods of six to 30 months, level-playing field laws (which serve to protect incumbents and deter new entry), requirements to extend networks beyond economic limits; requirements to move aerial plant underground, and imposition of unrelated fees and costs. My question is which of the above practices "violates federal telecommunications laws" and if so, will we see some court cases? Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 01.06.06
The Amsterdam city council has voted to approve the construction and rollout of the CityNet active ethernet FTTH network to 40,000 residents. This is probably the most significant European FTTH rollout to date. Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 01.05.06
Hartwig Tauber, president of Europe FTTH Council has written a lengthy article on the lagging state of FTTH deployments in Europe. He blamed the condition on the ambiguous regulatory environment and pointed out that only municipalities and regional authorities are currently making investments. A proposal was then put forth for a "third-party primary infrastructure model" where a entity makes a long term investment in FTTH infrastructure, protected by regulations, and then lease this infrastructure to third parties that would provide services. I believe that this is similar to the model that Amsterdam is pursuing. Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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Posted on 11.16.05
Corning Cable Systems has been granted Rural Utilities Service (RUS) acceptance for its outside plant fiber management and distribution products. The RUS, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, offers loans and grants in order to increase the rate of deployment of technology to small towns in rural areas. Service providers can utilize RUS funding to upgrade existing networks or build new systems that carry at least 200 kb/s symmetrical data, as well as enhanced voice and video services that would further contribute to the strength of the overall business plan. RUS acceptance allows service providers to purchase Corning Cable Systems terminals and pedestals with these funds.… The products are listed in the “List of Materials Acceptable for Use on Telecommunications Systems of RUS Borrowers.” The complete list of products can be found here. Filed under: Regulatory Environment Comments: None |
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