Community Fiber Networks

Daily Blogger news about Fiber To The Home FTTH / Fiber To The Premise FTTP projects and other community broadband networks.

BellSouth

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today granted BellSouth's petition for unbundling relief for Fiber-to-the-Curb (FTTC) loops.
October 14, 2004 - ATLANTA -- BACKGROUND - Such unbundling relief had previously been granted to Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) loops in the Triennial Review Order (TRO). "This FCC ruling is pro-investment and provides the regulatory certainty to move forward with additional FTTC deployments. As a result, we plan to increase the number of homes we annually equip with an advanced fiber platform by 40% in 2005."

FTTP will enable service providers to deliver nearly unlimited bandwidth and a full range of applications directly to residential and business customers. FTTP can accommodate next-generation applications such as ultra high-speed Internet access and networking, multiple voice lines and innovative, even high-definition video applications.

"Fiber to the premises could be the most fundamental and important enhancement in telecom communications services since wireless networks were built," said Matt Davis, director of Broadband Access Technologies at the Yankee Group. "With these common technology requirements, and the expected resulting manufacturing economies, widespread FTTP deployment has the potential to spur new telecom investment, stimulate competition across the spectrum of communications and entertainment services, and enable innovative, bandwidth-hungry applications for consumers."

"BellSouth has always been a leader in the deployment of fiber deep within its network, resulting in almost one million households passed by the end of 2003," said Bill Smith, chief product development and technology officer, BellSouth. "This new platform, along with favorable regulatory actions, could allow BellSouth to offer additional advantages to our customers, and we plan to work quickly to select and deploy products that will ensure the most cost-effective network design."

Electric Lightwave

CABLE BAHAMAS TO LAUNCH FIBER-TO-THE-PREMISE USING C-COR'S FTTMAX PLATFORM
Founded in 1990, Electric Lightwave, LLC (ELI) is one of the nation's leading Integrated Communications Provider of local telephone, data, network, and long distance services to small and medium enterprise businesses, Carriers, and the growing e-commerce market. As a full service provider in the West, the company offers local, long distance and high-speed broadband transport via an expanding fiber optic network that interconnects virtually every population center in the West. Headquartered in Vancouver, Wash., the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Citizens Communications (NYSE:CZN, CZNPr).

Consistently rated one of the nation's top Internet backbone providers by Boardwatch Magazine, Electric Lightwave builds and operates all-digital, high-speed fiber optic networks for businesses and long distance carriers across the United States. High-speed voice, data, and video transmission services are provided over local and longhaul fiber optic networks and extended regional and national networks. Electric Lightwave's SONET monitoring and network management capabilities provide greater efficiency in addition to a common point of control and improved economies.

In its full service markets, Electric Lightwave bundles its services to provide the convenience of a single bill and one number to call for service. These full service markets include Portland, Ore.; Seattle, Wash.; Sacramento, Calif.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Boise, Idaho; and Las Vegas, Nev. Electric Lightwave currently serves 99 municipalities.

Everest Broadband

Established in 1999, Everest Broadband Networks is a leader in today's Multi-tenant Broadband Service Provider (MBSP) marketplace. Catering to small to mid-sized business tenants that occupy multi-tenant buildings and hotel properties focusing on the business traveler. Everest brings advanced telecommunications services including guaranteed high-speed Internet, local and long distance telephone service and critical web applications. Everest delivers these services over a state-of-the-art Metropolitan Ethernet service architecture.

Endavo

Endavo (formerly CeriStar, Inc) is a premier On Demand IP Communications services Provider,
leading the convergence of voice, video and data by providing "Triple Play" communications services to residential, commercial and municipal concerns through reliable, fast and intelligent IP networks. The Company leads by designing, engineering and managing advanced fiber networks that create significant productivity enhancements and cost efficiencies over traditional systems. Endavo offers its customers exciting feature advantages by integrating telecom, Internet, video and other network services over a single line of fiber utilizing the company's IP Network platform.

Endavo provides integrated Triple Play communications services over Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP). Integrated communications services include a robust IP telephony package (VoIP), ultra high-speed Internet connectivity, broadcast and IP entertainment services such as HDTV, video-on-demand, games-on-demand, and security services.

Level 3

Approximately 23,000 mile Broadband Fiber Optic Network including Internet Protocol (IP) Services
Level 3 is one of the largest providers of wholesale dial-up service to ISPs in North America and is the primary provider of Internet connectivity for millions of broadband subscribers through its cable and DSL partners. The company offers a wide range of communications services over its approximately 23,000 mile broadband fiber optic network including Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport, colocation services, and patented Softswitch-based managed modem and voice services.

Internet Advantage offers a suite of service level management options (including Customer Premise Equipment) to meet the specific needs of individual customers. Using multiple access methods, the service provides a variety of reliable, high-performance Internet connections at speeds ranging from T-1 to OC-3. Options include leased line and Frame Relay, and all Internet Advantage services are backed by industry-leading Service Level Agreements.

SBC

SBC Communications Selects Alcatel as Primary Supplier for New Fiber Network
October 20, 2004 SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC) today announced a five-year, approximately $1.7 billion primary supplier agreement with Alcatel to provide network equipment and video system integration services for Project Lightspeed, the SBC initiative to drive fiber deeper into its networks to provide customers new, feature-rich Internet Protocol (IP)-based services, including IP television, voice over IP and ultra-fast Internet access.

Last week, SBC announced it would dramatically accelerate its $4 billion to $6 billion Project Lightspeed plan to extend its new fiber-optics network closer to customers, with a goal of providing 18 million households IP-based services including super high-speed data, video and voice services in two to three years — rather than five years as previously announced. SBC made the announcement immediately after the FCC issued rules clarifying that it intends to keep advanced networks and services free from regulations designed for traditional telecom services and networks.

Project Lightspeed minimizes deployment time and cost by using both a Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) and Fiber to the Neighborhood solution. This approach gives SBC's customers the IP capabilities they want — integrated digital TV, super-high-speed broadband and voice over IP services — at one-fourth the cost and time as an FTTP-only overbuild.

SureWest Broadband

SureWest Broadband began doing business in 1999 as a provider of advanced communications products and services in the Sacramento metropolitan region
SureWest Broadband partners with land developers, builders and corporate IT customers to deliver high-speed communications access via a 100 percent fiber optic network, fixed wireless and/or wirelines. SureWest Broadband is the only company in Sacramento offering a triple-play of digital TV (including video-on-demand and pay-per-view), high-speed Internet and telephone service.

UTOPIA

The Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) network, the largest fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) network in the United States.
UTOPIA is a consortium of 14 Utah cities engaged in deploying and operating a 100% fiber optic network to every business and household (about 140,000) within its footprint. Operating at the wholesale level, it supports open access and promotes competition in all telecommunications services.

As a minimum, UTOPIA will deliver 100 MB of bandwidth to every connected home and 1 GB of bandwidth to every business. Not all of that need be allocated to Internet connectivity, but it can be, if desired. Though this may be overkill for simple web surfing and email access, it is important to note that more and more, services are converging. Video, voice, and data are becoming intertwined, and video and voice transmissions are being digitized and can be transmitted as "data" over the Internet. The need for higher capacity connections is increasing rapidly. While other technologies like cable and DSL may realize modest increases in capacity over time, they will never match the capacity of fiber.

Verizon

Verizon Selects Motorola to Provide Infrastructure and Customer Premises Equipment for Video Services on Verizon Fiber-to-the-Premises Network
October. 26, 2004 Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ) today announced they have signed a multi-year contract for Motorola to provide video network infrastructure and consumer premises equipment related to Verizon’s launch of video services on the company’s new fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network next year. Motorola will also provide project integration and operational services. The service, called Fios, will be launched in Keller, Texas, and later parts of southern California and Florida, the company said Monday. At up to 30mbps (megabits per second), Fios is a quantum leap compared with Verizon's DSL (digital subscriber line) service, which runs at a maximum of 1.5mbps.

Fios can reach these speeds because it's based on fiber-optic lines that serve Internet access at a much higher clip than the traditional copper wires that support DSL.

Verizon Communications leads the charge to deploy fiber-optic cables to customer premises. Several factors drive the initiative, including pressure to generate new revenue from video services; however, regulatory barriers may hold it back in the short term. The Yankee Group anticipates Verizon will pass more than 350,000 customer locations by 2004. This should generate more than $150 million in broadband equipment revenue. During the next five years the deployment will reach almost six million homes, apartments and businesses, and will generate equipment revenue of nearly $3 billion.

FTTP technology matchs the speed of a DS3 line at fraction of the cost and could be installed overnight. Fiber to the Premises, known as FTTP, uses fiber-optic cable and optical electronics to directly link homes and businesses to Verizon's network. It is the most significant telecommunications transformation in over a century in the technology used to carry telephone calls, data and video to and from homes and businesses.

Cable Bahamas

CABLE BAHAMAS TO LAUNCH FIBER-TO-THE-PREMISE USING C-COR'S FTTMAX PLATFORM
(January 29, 2004) - C-COR.net Corp. (Nasdaq: CCBL), a global provider of broadband communications products, software systems, and services, today announced that Cable Bahamas Ltd. has selected C-COR's FTTmaX platform for a field trial of Fiber-to-the-Premise technology supporting voice, video, and data services to its Bahamian subscribers. C-COR equipment initially deployed in January 2004 includes an FTTmaX headend for the operator's central office and optical network units (ONUs) that are deployed in the home or business.

Commenting on the initiative, André Foster, Vice President of Information Technology at Cable Bahamas, stated: "Cable Bahamas has been using fiber extensively for many years and provides a fully functional two-way network delivering video and high-speed data services.Deploying a customer premise device that can deliver the triple play of services—voice, video, and data—over a single strand of fiber on a passive network has always been Cable Bahamas' vision.

Grameen CyberNet

Grameen CyberNet Ltd has been Bangladesh's leader in Internet service since it commenced operation in July 1996. Fibre Optics Cable Network first time in Bangladesh.

MetroNG

Nigeria - Metrong offers a range of connection options utilising fibre optic technology
Our pure IP over fibre network has running speeds of up to 20,000 times faster than dial-up modem, and 500 times the speed of most "broadband" connections for businesses.