bbpmag.com - Broadband Properties

Rent, occupancy, equity.
Things are looking up.
Apartment dwellers estimate the rental value of a unit to be higher if it offers Verizon FiOS®
service.* That means installing FiOS — the most advanced TV, Internet and phone service
available — allows you to add value and build long-term equity in your property.
To learn more, including how we guide you through installation, visit
verizon.com/communities or call 888.376.3686.
Verizon FiOS tv | internet | phone
Verizon Enhanced Communities
* In this study, MDU residents estimated the rental value of a standard (2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,000-square-foot) apartment
offering Verizon FiOS services to be an average of 5 percent more per month than one offering DSL/satellite/cable services.
— Value of FiOS Study, Parks Associates, March 2008
FiOS available in select areas only. Battery backup for standard fiber-based voice service and E911 (but not VoIP) for up to 8 hours.
©2008 Verizon. All rights reserved.

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Scott DeGarmo
PUBLISHER
Nancy McCain
nancym@broadbandproperties.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Steven S. Ross
steve@broadbandproperties.com
Deputy Editor
Masha Zager
ADVERTISING SALES
Irene G. Prescott
irene@broadbandproperties.com
DESIGN & PRODUCTION
Karry Thomas
COLUMNISTS
Joe Bousquin
Bill Burhop, IMCC
Orrin Charm, InfiniSys
Amy Cravens, Cahners In-Stat.
Larry Kessler, InteliCable
Lawrence Kingsley, Contributing Editor
W. James MacNaughton, Esq.
Dave McClure, USIIA
Bryan Rader, MediaWorks
Jimmy Schaffler, The Carmel Group
Robert L. Vogelsang, Broadband Properties Magazine
Broadband Properties LLC
PRESIDENT & CEO
Scott DeGarmo
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
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VICE PRESIDENT,
BUSINESS & OPERATIONS
Nancy McCain
Audience Development/Digital Strategies
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CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
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VICE CHAIRMAN
The Hon. Hilda Gay Legg
BUSINESS & EDITORIAL OFFICE
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president’s letter
Come to the Summit
And Be at the Center
Powerful, timely information. A great value.
April 27 – 29. Dallas – at the airport.
An Australian on a trade mission to
Korea noted the “absolutely amazing”
speeds of up to 1 gigabit per
second available via FTTH and how that
boosted business in Korea. She returned
to Brisbane fired up with the vision of
economic growth and the “broader benefits”
of fiber. Recounted on page 21, the
words of this official nicely connect the
dots, describing how fiber networks can
deliver benefits from luring businesses
to reducing traffic congestion. As you’ll
note, they led to significant action.
As in that trip to Korea, observing
others’ success firsthand is often the catalyst
to making our own plans; it’s a phenomenon
that occurs in spades every year
at the Summit. If my conversations with
speakers and attendees are any gauge,
Summit 2009 will be a banner year for
this. I was just on the phone with executives
of Bristol Virginia Utilities, finetuning
the session on how fiber networks
create jobs and attract business. As I listened,
I kept thinking, “This information
is more powerful than I imagined.”
That’s the way it is with the Summit
– and with the information in this issue.
On page after page you’ll find reports
that would have seemed unrealistic just
a few years ago. Our “Fiber Deployment
Roundup,” starting on page 15, gives a
stunning overview of projects: An FTTH
network in Saudi Arabia will deliver
speeds of 100 Mbps to residential customers.
In Nigeria, a contract has been signed
for a nationwide FTTH system in this
former broadband backwater. The Chinese
government plans a fiber network
across the country capable of delivering
100 Mbps to all households. Beyond that,
our Roundup notes the progress in Lafayette,
Lousiana, in Brooklyn, New York,
and in other spots on the FTTH frontier.
The statistics in our “First Mile” section
underscore what a juggernaut fiber
has become. An expert at the Yankee
Group warns telcos on page 10 that delivering
needed bandwidth will require
fiber, and those that think otherwise are
“making dangerous technology bets.”
The same story of relentless growth can
be seen in the First Mile report about
the worldwide broadband market, which
has reached the milestone of 400 million
subscribers. That makes broadband “one
of the fastest rollouts of a major new technology
the world has ever seen,” notes a
prominent analyst on page 14.
Along with our co-sponsor, the FTTH
Council, I think of our Summit as being
at the conceptual core of this worldwide
FTTH rollout, partly because our venue
is just down the road from Keller, Texas,
where Verizon helped get it all started
in 2004.
However, the trek to Dallas should be
more like a quest than a pilgrimage, a trip
that in the current economy stands out as
an excellent value. Here I must transition
from the extraordinary to the mundane.
The Summit means lower out-of-pocket
costs compared to other broadband
events. One factor is transportation. Registrants
from New York City, Los Angeles
and Chicago tell me they are booking
flights to the Summit in the $200 range
and even below. Plus, our location within
the DFW airport means no need to shell
out for taxis and rental cars. As for food,
there is no shortage of good places to
eat reachable in minutes via free shuttle
buses from our hotel entrance. And the
Summit’s breakfasts, breaks, lunches
and receptions mean you’ll get plenty of
nourishment for the price of admission.
No, that’s not very heady stuff. But
what is mouth-watering and mind-expanding
is the intellectual nourishment
you’ll get at every session and throughout
the event.
I’ll see you there. Be sure to sign up
now at bbpmag.com.
www.bbpmag.com
2 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

Think of all you can do with
all we provide. That should
be a pretty big thought.
EMBARQ Logistics understands that you need to be innovative.
That’s why we’re dedicated to providing the latest in
industry-leading technology from FTTx to IP voice and
carrier Ethernet equipment. We can help you serve more
subscribers with more offerings in the most efficient
and cost-effective way possible. For more than 100
years, we’ve been on the forefront of communications
infrastructure. Let us show you how we can provide
the necessary resources to succeed.
© 2008 Embarq Holdings Company LLC. All rights reserved. The name EMBARQ
Logistics and the jet logo are trademarks of Embarq Holdings Company LLC.
800-755-3004
embarqlogistics.com

table of contents
DEPARTMENTS
President’s Letter. . . . . . . . 2
Editor’s Note . . . . . . . . . . 6
News & Views. . . . . . . . . 75
IN THIS ISSUE
Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Advertiser Index . . . . . . . 76
Provider Perspective
Spirit of Success in 2009 | 8
By Bryan J. Rader ■ Bandwidth Consulting LLC
When times are tough, we can draw on inspiration from other business
leaders who have weathered difficult economic conditions.
First Mile
Fiber Growth Strong in 2008;
Expected to Slow a Bit in 2009 | 10
Fiber networks now reach more than 10 percent of all broadband
subscribers worldwide. This progress is “unstoppable” – but forecasters
are revising growth curves downward for the coming year.
Fiber Deployment Roundup
Waiting Out the Downturn Here;
Expanding Abroad | 15
By Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties
Few new fiber-to-the-home projects are being announced in the US.
But countries including Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and China are making
large-scale commitments to next-generation networks with FTTH.
Municipal FTTH Deployment Snapshot
Pulaski, Tennessee – Pulaski Electric System | 22
“It’s not your stereotypical sleepy rural electric system,” says one
observer of the Pulaski Electric System. The system has become a focus
of community pride and an example of the community’s willingness to
invest in the future.
Property of the Month
RFOG at Mitchell Park Plaza | 24
By Joe Bousquin ■ Contributing Editor, Broadband Properties
NPG Cable is delivering triple play services over fiber in this renovated
loft building in St. Joseph, Missouri. Mitchell Park’s apartments rent
for $200 more than comparable units in the area.
TECHNOLOGY
Summit 2009
Page 36 – 41
RFOG Enables All-Fiber Access Alternative for Real
Estate Owners and Developers | 60
By Mark Conner ■ Corning Cable Systems and
Shawn Esser ■ Motorola
The new RFOG standard, which is designed for use by cable MSOs,
gives developers a broader choice of fiber-to-the-home providers.
Mixing GPON and Active Ethernet:
Future Proofing in the Real World | 63
By David Russell ■ Calix
A new generation of customer-premises equipment lets multiple
architectures coexist in the same network.
COVER STORY
Fiber to the Home Is Green Technology | 28
By Steven S. Ross and Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties
Evidence is emerging to show that fiber-to-the-home networks
are a net benefit to the environment – and likely to become
more so in the future. New tools allow providers to calculate the
environmental costs and benefits of their networks.
Bringing Fiber to the MDU: A Conversation with
Verizon Enhanced Communities’ Eric Cevis | 42
In a little over three years, Verizon brought FiOS services to 1
million MDU living units across the United States. A top executive
tells how they did it.
Healthy Business: Home-Based Telemedicine
Delivered Over Fiber | 46
By Rob Scheschareg ■ MedConcierge
Market research shows that consumers in FTTH communities
would welcome health and wellness amenities – and are willing to
pay for these services.
EXCLUSIVE REPORT
Hottest Distributors and VARs for 2009 | 50
By A BBP Staff Report
Distributors are now providing sophisticated design and logistics
services. Find out how they can help you build networks and provide
services more cost effectively.
INDEPENDENT TELCOS
Gorham Telephone Brings IPTV Services to Kansas | 66
By Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties
A small telco delivers advanced services by working with an integrator
that provides an end-to-end IPTV solution.
Consumer Electronics and
the Connected Digital Lifestyle | 68
By Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties
Highlights of the 2009 International Consumer Electronics
Show: Internet-enabled televisions and picture frames, home
automation systems, and 3DTV.
ABOUT THE COVER
Manhattan artist Irving Grunbaum envisions a
greener world.
4 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

Choosing the right
teChnology Can be the
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The service provider industry is always changing.
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without starting over Shouldn’t you be able to
focus on managing your own business instead
That’s why we’re here. We research all promising
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We provide scalable solutions because
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for triple play osp solutions and to request adC’s new publication, The Book on Next Gen Networks, visit graybar.com/adc

editor’s note
Learning from the Broadband
Ambush at Stimulus Gulch
By Steven S. Ross ■ Editor-in-Chief
It helps to know who your friends are
– and how few understand the stakes
involved in adding broadband to the
stimulus package. As this went to press,
the package had passed the House and
was moving toward a final Senate vote.
The $6 billion voted by the House had
ballooned to as much as $9 billion in the
Senate bill, but stood at $7.1 billion as
we went to press.
A late February 6 agreement among
senators negotiating the stimulus package
allocated $6.65 billion to broadband
investments and $350 million to broadband
mapping.
One would have expected fairly clear
sailing on the merits. But money devoted
to broadband – less than 1 percent
of the total, and one of the few items in
the package that actually looks toward
the future, rather than patching the past
– had become a special target thanks
mainly to well-placed public relations
barbs launched by some incumbents.
Republicans took advantage of that
opposition. The Republican leadership
in the Senate wants the stimulus package
to be mainly tax relief for big business.
They argue that too much of the
Democrats’ plan depends on public
works funding that may take months or
years to “stimulate” anything. The Democrats
reply that their plan includes $400
billion in fast-acting tax cuts, and that
much of the rest shores up state finances
to keep police and teachers employed.
Honest people can disagree. But how
does one respond to the nonsense about
broadband in the House Republicans’
press release attacking the plan House
Republican leader John Boehner (R-
Ohio) said he used information provided
by Senate Republicans for this line:
In its haste to spend taxpayer money,
the bill is rife with potential for waste.
For example, it contains $350 million
to map the current condition of the nation’s
broadband network and to determine
what areas need broadband.
But it also contains $7 billion to begin
constructing broadband infrastructure
without any map or plan.
Professionals in our business know
the argument is silly. The mapping will
indeed help network providers see underserved
areas and commercial opportunities.
It may also help state agencies
pressure incumbents to enter underserved
areas. But billions of dollars of
fiber-to-the-home builds are held up,
right now, for lack of funding. Mapping
has very little to do with those projects.
BRIDGES
This “shovel ready” batch is made up of
projects with what appear to us to be
solid business plans. And even if they
fell a bit short, the economic benefits
to the (mainly rural) communities that
get broadband are indisputable. But that
hasn’t kept the whole idea of federal investment
in broadband from being characterized
as a “cyberbridge to nowhere.”
The line had been shopped by incumbents’
PR people for about 10 days.
With the Senate vote pending the first
week of February, The Wall Street Journal
and The New York Times picked it
off the shelf. The particularly silly Times
February 3 front-page story by David
M. Herszenhorn was headlined, “Internet
Money in Fiscal Plan: Wise or
Waste” Although the “cyberbridge”
phrase appeared in the story’s third
paragraph, named sources later in the
story all agreed that unlike Alaska’s infamous
“bridge to nowhere,” building
rural broadband networks makes a lot
of economic sense. Why create the bad
impression in the first place, then
Can the networks be built in time
to provide an economic stimulus The
Times story states flatly that they cannot
be finished until 2015. Oddly, there’s no
source for the statement, not even an
anonymous source.
Two days later, the Congressional
Budget Office said the same thing. CBO
At the Broadband Summit,
April 27 – 29, learn in
detail how the stimulus
bill may help you finance
your network expansion.
was nervous mainly about how fast the
National Telecommunications and Information
Administration could scale up
to hand out the money. Good point. But
the scale-up could happen in weeks if
people were serious about getting the job
done. And CBO had no way of knowing
what is actually ready to build.
Verizon’s FiOS build alone costs
about $5 billion a year and rural deployments
involves mainly stringing aerial
cable. The skills and equipment to do
that are in surplus right now, in the
wake of the housing market collapse.
The Senate has deleted the $2.85
billion the House had allocated to networks
that meet minimum bandwidth
requirements, but included provisions to
spend at least $200 million on competitive
grants aimed at expanding public
computer center capacity, at least $250
million on “competitive grants for innovative
programs to encourage sustainable
adoption of broadband service,” and $10
million for audits by the Commerce Department’s
Office of Inspector General.
Another $80 million for distance
learning grants, and $20 million for distance
learning loans, would be administered
by the Agriculture Department.
A billion here, a billion there, and
soon you’re talking about real money in
Washington. But the process has made
clear that there’s a lot of ignorance out
there. The industry has a lot of educating
to do.
Steve@broadbandproperties.com
6 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

provider perspective
Spirit of Success in 2009
Obviously, times are tough and telco and MSO competition is tough, too.
But business leaders have been here before. Here’s how the best handled it.
By Bryan Rader ■ Bandwidth Consulting LLC
As we turn our calendars to 2009,
it is time for us to renew our spirit
in this business, our enthusiasm
for this industry, and our opportunity to
achieve something special.
“Are you running for office” I can
hear someone asking. “We’re drowning
here. The capital markets are frozen, my
real estate clients are struggling, I have
too much competition. What are you
talking about – renewing my spirit”
I understand. I see the long faces at
the airport. I get plenty of shrugs when I
ask, “How is business” And I recognize
the anxiety on TV news shows, and see
the “store closing for good” signs up at
the mall.
“I may have to cut staff.” “I might
not grow at all next year.” “I can’t give
raises.” “I’m not completing an upgrade.”
I see this sentiment every day.
It’s brutal. And most of us have never
witnessed a long, deep recession like the
one we’re in today.
But since we can’t control many of
these outside problems, the only thing we
can control is our attitude, our competitive
drive to improve, our willingness to
succeed, our spirit to thrive. Remember
when you first sat down and wrote your
business plan to enter this field Remember
the enthusiasm you felt about getting
started, signing up that first property,
activating your first customer Do you
remember that “feeling”
As we go into a new year, it’s time
to tap into that feeling, that energy, that
spirit again. That’s what private cable
operators will need this year to fight off
FiOS, U-verse, the credit markets, and
all the other obstacles and challenges we
face. Do you still have that “spirit”
We should pay attention to other
business leaders over the past half-century
who have had to grow their companies
during difficult times. They dealt
with down cycles, soft financial periods,
increasing competition, and anxiety
among their team members. Maybe the
best way to regain our “spirit” is to listen
to, and be inspired by, some of these
leaders. After all, whether it is selling
coffee, burgers, moon pies or broadband
service, we need a certain level of enthusiasm
to be successful…especially during
the darker days.
DREAM BIG
Listen to the story of Howard Shultz,
CEO of Starbucks, shortly after he took
control of the firm. He was trying to
re-educate his customer to spend three
times more for a good cup of coffee. He
had relatively limited capital, an inexperienced
team and a tough economy. But
he had a vision for his success.
“I dream big,” Shultz said. “I want to
build a company that people are proud
to work for, based on values and guiding
principles. I want to see long lines to
get in our stores. I want to change the
way Americans drink coffee.” His spirit
and passion – in bad times and good –
guided Starbucks to its success today.
It’s the same drive that Sam Walton,
founder of Wal-Mart, exhibited when
he opened the first store in the chain in
1950. “Low prices and satisfaction guaranteed,”
he said. “That’s our formula.” He
was so intent on winning that he compared
the number of cars in his parking
lot to those in his competitors’ lots.
He even picked winning products
to sell on his shelves – moon pies! Wal-
Mart sold 500,000 in one weekend.
Walton was passionate about his business.
But it wasn’t always easy. His early
stores struggled. His company didn’t
have systems. They didn’t have ordering
programs. Or a basic merchandising assortment.
Or even computers! But they
stayed focused – even with the early
struggles – on building what is now the
largest retailer in the world. This grew
from Sam Walton’s driving “spirit.”
That same spirit also drove Ray
Kroc as he built McDonald’s into a
world-renowned fast food company,
starting from a single location in June
1955. “There are hazards and pitfalls,
of course, just as there are in any small
business,” Ray Kroc once explained.
“McDonald’s doesn’t confer success on
anyone. It takes guts and staying power
to make it with one of our restaurants.
Some locations go along for years with a
modest volume. But with dedication to
principles and a love of hard work, you
can do it.”
Boy, did he do it. Once again, with a
spirit that helped him through the good
and bad times.
And so as PCOs look toward 2009,
we should try to instill some of the same
spirit of these other business leaders of
our past. We all have it – it isn’t lost inside
any of us. It’s what got us into this
business in the first place.
We just need to tap into that same
spirit once again even during these
times, to make 2009 a very spirited and
successful year! BBP
About the Author
Bryan J. Rader, former CEO of Media-
Works before selling the company in 2006,
has recently founded a new firm, Bandwidth
Consulting LLC, to advise operators
and providers in the MDU market segment.
Contact Bryan at bryanjrader@
yahoo.com or at 636-536-0011. Learn
more at www.bandwidthconsultingllc.com.
8 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

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Fiber Growth Strong in 2008;
Expected to Slow a Bit in 2009
As broadband connections pass the 400 million mark worldwide, market
research firms are reporting strong 3Q08 numbers; those venturing a
prediction say the pace will slow in 2009 but growth will continue both
in deployments and in revenue – especially for FTTH.
To Succeed with Fiber,
Offer Fiber-Grade Services
Is the walled garden dead A key to FTTH success is the
emergence of fiber-grade services beyond the current triple
play, according to a new report from Yankee Group (www.
yankeegroup.com). A reliable and future-proof connection into
the home can be leveraged to remotely offer services – health
care, education, software as a service – that until now could be
offered only in person or on a business-grade broadband connection.
But to tap into those potential revenue sources, telcos
need to engage other ecosystem players outside their comfort
zone and find the win-win business models that will not only
recoup the investment for costly infrastructure but also form
the basis of their future revenue.
Yankee Group says that a truly next-generation fixed access
network in mature markets requires fiber to the home. Telcos
that are trying to deliver more bandwidth without FTTH
are “making dangerous technology bets that will haunt them
for years,” Yankee Group believes. The report concludes that
ubiquitous connectivity and the collision of communications,
Internet, media, mobility and machine dictate an IP data highway
into every home to support advanced applications. For
broadband to be a game-changer, fiber must be delivered as
close as possible to the home to overcome the current limitations
of the copper network.
In fiber deployments around the world:
• Asia-Pacific has been leading FTTx developments, and millions
of customers (especially in Japan and South Korea) already
have access to next-generation access, but the service
ecosystem has not yet truly adapted to capabilities of the
new infrastructure.
• Europe is trying to catch up, although some countries –
especially in Scandinavia – already have significant deployments
and are accelerating rollouts boosted in part by
municipal and utility-driven projects. The rest of Europe is
still struggling with finding the right regulatory model to
incentivize telcos to invest while avoiding the development
of new broadband monopolies.
• In North America, a single broadband provider, Verizon,
represents three-quarters of the homes passed, leaving the
rest of the country devoid of next-generation access.
Deployments may be undertaken as part of an offensive
strategy – as when telcos pursue cable or satellite TV markets
10 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

– or defensively, when operators are threatened by competitive
FTTH deployments or by cable’s DOCSIS 3.0.
Regulatory, deployment and marketing issues still threaten
to slow down or compromise next-generation access wireline
deployments. Regulators in many countries are hesitating between
encouraging FTTx deployments by incumbents (thus
Pyramid Research: Progression of
Fiber Upgrades Is Now Unstoppable
Despite the difficult financial climate,
the progression of fiber
upgrades is now inevitable, according
to a new report from Pyramid
Research (www.pyr.com), the telecom
research arm of the Light Reading
Communications Network (www.lightreading.com).
As many as 98 million
homes, or 6 percent of all households
worldwide, are now passed by FTTB/
FTTH networks globally, and another
74 million homes by VDSL2 networks.
Seventy percent of the homes passed by
A
new report by Dell’Oro Group (www.delloro.com)
finds that PON revenue, including both optical line
terminals (OLTs) and optical networking terminals
(ONTs), reached its second consecutive record high in 3Q08,
growing 16 percent quarter-to-quarter and 64 percent over the
year-ago period.
“Third quarter’s strength came from both EPON and
GPON,” says Tam Dell’Oro, president of Dell’Oro Group.
“EPON’s growth was driven by next-generation network upgrades
by NTT, Japan’s largest service provider. GPON, driven
by deployments for Verizon’s FiOS service as well as increasing
numbers of smaller deployments around the world, had even
stronger growth with revenue increasing more than five times
that of the year-ago period. Despite the weakening economy,
we are still forecasting annual GPON revenue to grow more
than over 50 percent in 2009.”
The report also shows Mitsubishi remained the leader in
the overall PON market, benefiting by being the primary
EPON supplier to NTT. Alcatel-Lucent, the primary supplier
of GPON to Verizon, retained its number two status in the
overall PON market and number one for GPON.
A similar report from market research firm Infonetics Research
(www.infonetics.com) puts the growth of the worldwide
PON OLT and ONT equipment market in 3Q08 at 25 percent.
Total equipment sales of $568 million reflected the strong
risking monopoly) and promoting competition (thus risking
deterring investment). Deployment may be slowed by the difficulty
of trenching, by the need to gain MDU owners’ agreement
in order to deploy to tenants, and by the lack of skilled
labor. Marketing challenges include the lack of services unique
to FTTH and the need for local sales forces. BBP
Defying Economic Slowdown,
PON Revenue Reaches Record High
fiber are located in Asia-Pacific, where
NTT in Japan was among the first to
pioneer large-scale FTTH upgrades in
2000. Europe and North America each
account for 15 percent of the homes
passed, and both have plenty of catching
up to do in the next five years.
“We found that telcos’ need for fiber
to the home remains strong, especially
in developed markets, where deployments
are driven by the maturity of the
broadband markets and a proliferation of
IP-based video, TV and interactive applications,”
notes Ozgur Aytar, Senior Research
Manager at Pyramid Research and
co-author of the report. The report also
found that with mobile operators now
offering broadband at speeds and prices
equivalent to entry-level ADSL subscriptions,
telcos have little time to procrastinate.
“After losing the voice game to
mobile players in the early 2000s, fixedline
operators can hardly allow the same
to happen with the broadband business,
which has kept them afloat when voice
revenue tanked,” adds Aytar. BBP
growth of GPON network buildouts in North America and
EMEA, the continued growth of EPON subscribers in Japan
and Korea, and the phenomenal growth of EPON infrastructure
in China to support FTTB deployments, says Infonetics.
The Infonetics report shows the overall PON market on
track to finish 2008 up 46 percent over the previous year and
to continue strong double-digit annual growth through 2011
as the shift from copper- to fiber-based broadband access drives
growth in this market around the world.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 11

Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband and video at
Infonetics Research, says, “Based on our conversations with
PON equipment vendors and network operators, we believe
FTTH and FTTB deployments will be largely unaffected by
the economic slowdown, as operators who have committed to
these deployments, including many of the world’s largest operators,
will stick with those plans, because fiber-based access is
such an important strategic opportunity for them. In fact, operators
can now lay fiber at a lower cost than before and, in the
case of Asia Pacific, government subsidization of nationwide
fiber buildout efforts provides even more incentive for operators
to continue with their rollouts.”
Other highlights from the Infonetics report:
• Worldwide BPON, EPON, and GPON subscribers are
forecast to top 46 million in 2011.
Global Telepresence Market to
Reach Nearly $2.5 Billion in 2013
Telepresence – a kind of videoconferencing technology
providing the sensation that all participants are actually
in the same room – is set for explosive growth, according
to a report from ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). The
market, which includes telepresence equipment, network services
and managed services, is forecast to grow from a 2007
level of not quite $126 million to nearly $2.5 billion in 2013.
Telepresence requires high-bandwidth, low-latency service
such as that provided by fiber to the premises.
“People thought Jimmy Stewart was crazy when he talked
to his imaginary six-foot rabbit friend, Harvey,” says ABI Research
vice president Stan Schatt. “Now hundreds of senior
• Due primarily to heavy increases in PON deployments in
China, where the major operators are deploying EPONbased
FTTB networks in major metropolitan areas and will
continue to do so through 2011, Infonetics has increased its
long-term PON equipment forecast significantly.
• Quarter-over-quarter from 2Q08 to 3Q08, the EPON
equipment segment is up 38 percent.
• Year-over-year from 3Q07 to 3Q08, the GPON segment is
up 269 percent.
• Mitsubishi and Alcatel-Lucent occupy the #1 and #2 spots
for 3Q08 worldwide PON revenue, respectively, and Cisco
and PacketFront are running neck and neck in the Ethernet
FTTH equipment market, separated by only 1 point in
worldwide revenue share in 3Q08. BBP
Broadband Subscriber Growth to Slow in 2009
Unless Boosted by Stimulus Package
Approximately 5.7 million US
households will become new
high-speed Internet customers
this year, marking a 12 percent decline
in subscriber growth compared to 2008,
according to a new forecast by market
research provider Pike & Fischer (www.
broadbandadvisoryservices.com).
The total number of broadband-connected
homes will reach nearly 74.5 million
by the end of the year, representing
about 63 percent of all US households,
P&F says.
The cable industry will capture about
75 percent of new broadband subscribers,
because consumers are increasingly
spurning slow DSL lines and because
advanced services from Verizon and
AT&T are still available only in a portion
of their service areas.
P&F believes consumers will spend
less on communications services as their
job security becomes more tenuous and
their discretionary income plummets.
However, it says broadband customer
growth could exceed forecasts if the
Obama administration succeeds in its
plan to expand broadband availability
as part of a major economic stimulus
package.
“Government initiatives, such as tax
incentives and loan guarantees to help
expand broadband infrastructure into
underserved areas, could enable service
providers to bolster their customer
counts,” says Scott Sleek, director of
P&F’s Broadband Advisory Services. “In
addition, policy makers are likely to support
training and education programs
aimed at increasing customer adoption
of broadband. These steps could offset
what will be an inevitable slowdown in
subscriber growth.” BBP
executives are talking to virtual friends around the globe and
no one is laughing anymore. The telepresence illusion is so real
that many execs forget the person they’re talking to is not really
in the same room.”
Such realism is accomplished via high-definition, life-size
video, tightly lip-synched directional audio, coordinated décor
and special technologies enabling eye contact between participants.
And it typically requires only a single mouse click to
start a session.
What would induce companies to spend up to $330,000
for a telepresence setup The high cost of travel – in money,
wasted time, and carbon emissions – is one reason. Key execu-
12 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

tives can be far more productive if they can effectively meet
with several companies around the world in the time it would
take to make one trip. The need for time-sensitive collaboration
and the demands of worldwide outsourcing also build a case
for telepresence.
Not that such outlays are inevitable. Many telepresence
operations are handled as managed services. And less expensive
“executive” systems designed for one or two people mean
that telepresence technology is now migrating down to middle
managers, expanding the market.
Schatt does sound one note of caution: “With the exceptions
of Cisco and HP, most of the companies in this space
are small. While some of the more innovative technologies
are coming from these small companies, the economic recession
will make some buyers cautious about purchasing systems
from very small vendors.” BBP
IPTV and Switched Digital Video
Still Growing; Forecast Revised Downward
The Internet protocol television (IPTV) and switched digital
video (SDV) equipment market increased 6 percent
quarter-to-quarter in 3Q08 to $1.4 billion, reports market
research firm Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com).
Infonetics lowered its long-term IPTV and SDV forecast
due to an expected slowdown in IPTV subscriber growth and
a decrease in cable operators moving to switched digital video.
Annual overall growth will continue in the worldwide market
through the downturn, but will grow in double-digit percentages
rather than high triple-digit percentages, as it has in previous
years.
“We still see growth coming from the telco IPTV sector because
IPTV is one of the key ways telcos can hold on to their
broadband subscribers and increase revenue per user, so providers
will continue to roll out new networks or expand their
existing networks. The cable switched digital video segment
took a hit in the third quarter when Comcast slowed its SDV
rollout and shifted its capex focus to DOCSIS 3.0 rollouts. Still,
cable MSOs will continue to introduce switched video capabilities
into their digital TV networks, just at a slower pace than
we expected prior to the economic downturn, which is forcing
families to rethink their budgets,” says Jeff Heynen, directing
analyst for broadband and video at Infonetics Research.
Other report highlights:
BBP-Jan_Feb 09 Advert-outlined.indd 1
1/27/2009 3:22:18 PM
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 13

• In 3Q08, IP set-top boxes (STBs) account for 70 percent of
the total IPTV and SDV equipment revenue.
• IPTV middleware sales are up 21 percent in 3Q08, and
video content protection software sales are up 14 percent.
• In 3Q08, Motorola continued to lead the lucrative IP STB
market, although Cisco increased its market share 6 points,
putting it in a very close second place.
• Harmonic maintains a strong lead in the worldwide IP
video encoder market, leading all segments, including
MPEG-2 and standard definition (SD) and high definition
(HD) MPEG-4 encoders.
• The competitive operator Iliad Group of France leads in the
number of IPTV subscribers, with 3 million in 3Q08.
• North America is the leading region for total IPTV and
Global Broadband Subscribers
Reach 400 Million
Global broadband subscribers have now reached the milestone
of 400 million, according to a report prepared
for the Broadband Forum by industry analysts Point
Topic (www.point-topic.com). Since its inception, broadband
has morphed from simple Internet access into triple play service
delivery and has become an integral part of people’s lives, both
at home and at work.
In 1998 there were just 57,200 broadband subscribers globally.
Only a year later, this number had increased nearly six
times over, to 280,890 subscribers worldwide. DSL quickly became
the most popular choice of delivery technology. The past
10 years have seen a 600,000 percent increase in the number of
subscribers – 300 percent in the last five years alone – to reach
the 400 million mark.
Independent communications providers serving rural and
high-cost areas have witnessed a dramatic rise in take rates
for their broadband offerings, despite increasing competition,
according to survey results from the National Telecommunications
Cooperative Association (NTCA).
All of the respondents to NTCA’s annual Broadband/Internet
Availability Survey offer broadband to some part of their
customer base, compared to just 58 percent of respondents in
the 2000 survey. Nearly all (93 percent) of respondents indicated
they face competition in the provision of advanced services
from a diverse group including ISPs, WISPs, cable companies,
electric utilities and local ISPs.
Ninety-nine percent of respondents indicated they use DSL to
provide Internet access, though fiber deployment is seeing some
gains, with 44 percent employing fiber to the home (FTTH) or
SDV revenue due to the fierce rivalry between telcos and cable
operators, but Europe is running a close second. BBP
Over the same period, access technology evolved to include
fiber, which began in 2002 with 18,000 subscribers. Fiber networks
now deliver broadband services to over 45 million people
across the globe.
Oliver Johnson, senior analyst with Point Topic, explains,
“When Point Topic started researching broadband in 1998 it
was still mostly in the technical trial stage. Getting to 400 million
subscribers in the 10 years since then has been one of the
fastest rollouts of a major new technology the world has ever
seen. Now we’re in the early days of a new era, which is going
to be much more about quality than quantity. The emphasis is
now going to shift to providing high-bandwidth, high-quality
broadband that can deliver multiple, steady, pin-sharp images
for applications.” BBP
Independent Telcos Make Broadband
Available in Rural America
fiber to the curb, up from 32 percent the previous year.
Seventy-one percent of respondents with a fiber deployment
strategy plan to offer fiber to the node to more than threequarters
of their customers by the end of 2009, with 74 percent
planning to offer FTTH to 25 percent of their customers over
that same time frame. The majority of respondents (86 percent)
identified the costs of fiber deployment as the most serious challenge
to their efforts.
An increasing number of providers are offering a video play,
with 68 percent of respondents indicating a current video offering,
up from 63 percent in 2007. This year’s survey also saw a
slight decrease in voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) offerings,
down one percent from 2007, though nearly half the respondents
(44 percent) said they do have plans to offer VoIP in the
foreseeable future. BBP
14 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

Waiting Out the Downturn Here;
Expanding Abroad
While many providers in the US seem to be in “wait-and-see” mode, countries
as diverse as Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and China plan major fiber deployments.
By Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties
The economic downturn is taking its toll on FTTH deployments,
if the number of new announcements coming
our way is any indicator. Until recently, the slowdown
in new housing was counterbalanced by the increase
in MDU and municipal overbuilds. While our monthly fiber
roundup is a decidedly unscientific sample – many projects
are never formally announced and don’t come to our attention
until they’re no longer “news” – it does seem that even
for non-greenfield projects, many would-be fiber deployers
(and their sources of capital) are in wait-and-see mode.
The good news is that planning continues to go forward,
and the availability of economic recovery funds will undoubtedly
spur many new projects, both public and private.
As we report below, the list of “shovel-ready” projects compiled
by the US Conference of Mayors includes a number
of fiber builds. Most are for specialized municipal uses like
public safety, but such networks can serve as the backbones
for later FTTP deployments.
We’re also encouraged to see major commitments to
FTTH taking place in countries as different as Nigeria,
Saudi Arabia and China. Nations that were late adopters
of telecommunications technology often went straight to
mobile communications, bypassing the fixed-network stage
entirely. Now some of them are reconsidering that decision,
recognizing that fiber will be required to deliver the services
of the 21st century.
– MZ
INDEPENDENT
TELCOS
Horizon Chillicothe Uses
USDA Grant to Deploy Fiber
Horizon Chillicothe Telephone
has joined the Corning Connected
Community Program
to support the deployment of Corning
optical fiber in Darbyville, Ohio, a village
of fewer than 300 residents. HCT
is using a USDA Rural Development
grant to build an FTTH network; the
project includes the Darbyville Community
Technology Center, which will
house multiple computer terminals and
videoconferencing equipment, serve as a
wireless Internet access point for the surrounding
park, and include dedicated
space for educational purposes. Rural
Development hosted an open house at
the new center in November.
Corning Cable Systems developed
the program to assist developers in implementing
fiber optic infrastructures
into their building plans. Bill McKell,
Horizon CEO, says, “Working with
Corning through the Corning Connected
Community Program, we can
educate our customers on the benefits of
FTTH and further increase the technology’s
visibility.”
Albany Mutual Telephone, a Minnesota-based
ILEC that is upgrading
its network to FTTH (see our December
report), announced that it is working
with a professional services team
from solution provider ADC to implement
this project. Albany Tel uses ADC
equipment both in the central office
(ADC’s FiberGuide fiber-management
system and OMX splice bays), and in
its outside plant (ADC’s 24-fiber Next
Generation Frame and RiserGuide cable-management
system). Albany Tel is
one of ADC’s first customers to place the
multifiber assemblies and RiserGuide
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 15

solution alongside the active equipment
in an Ethernet deployment. “The ADC
equipment takes less space in the central
office, but leaves enough room for
growth – particularly important as we
move toward more fiber and less copper,”
says Tom Eveslage, network operations
manager for Albany Tel.
Today Albany Tel’s network consists
of 85 percent copper lines and 15 percent
fiber lines. Eveslage said those proportions
should be reversed by the end
of this five-year project. Using an active
Ethernet architecture, Albany Tel is deploying
greenfield fiber networks – primarily
in new-home developments – and
also building over existing copper lines.
Network speeds up to 100 Mbps will be
available, ten times faster than Albany
Tel’s current broadband offerings.
Texas-based FTTH provider NTS
Communications selected Razorsight’s
AIM solution to automate its network
cost management functions and provide
related analytic capabilities. In 2008
NTS Communications was acquired by
Xfone; as integration activities began, it
became clear that the companies’ legacy
cost management solutions could not accurately
manage their combined assets.
The Web-based AIM solution allows
NTS to achieve the balance of internal
staff, systems and third-party providers
that will minimize its network costs.
NTS chief operating officer Brad Worthington
says the software is a scalable
solution that will help the company accommodate
the growth it expects. BBP
RBOC
UPDATE
FiOS to Inaugurate Service in Washington, DC
Verizon came a step closer to launching FiOS services in
the District of Columbia when Mayor Adrian M. Fenty
approved the company’s cable franchise. One more step
still remains – a Congressional review. As part of the 15-year
agreement, Verizon will make FiOS TV available throughout
the District over the next nine years. The first residents will be
able to order FiOS TV within a year.
In New York City, Verizon has expanded FiOS to additional
areas in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, making good on its
Even in a down economy,
Verizon’s added more FiOS
customers than ever before,
boosting the company’s
earnings per share.
pledge to build out the network to half a million homes by the
end of 2008 (and eventually to make FiOS available to the entire
city). Door-to-door marketing and other presales activities have
been taking place in all of these neighborhoods in preparation
for the introduction of FiOS TV. Verizon also opened a retail
store in Staten Island, another borough of New York City.
Despite its recent focus on big cities, Verizon isn’t neglecting
the suburbs and smaller cities where it first started its FiOS
project. In the last month it gained franchise approvals in communities
in New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and
began rolling out video services in new communities in those
three states as well as in California.
Verizon also announced that FiOS TV now provides 100
or more channels of high-definition (HD) television in every
market where the TV service is offered, and that FiOS TV
customers can now control their Home Media DVRs remotely,
either online or via certain Verizon Wireless handsets. BBP
Verizon Reports Record Growth
in FiOS Customers for 4Q08
Verizon reported surprisingly strong earnings for
the fourth quarter – actually bettering 4Q07 by some
measures – driven by customer and revenue growth.
“Verizon has shown that it is able to compete effectively
in this economic environment,” Chairman and
CEO Ivan Seidenberg said in announcing the financial
results. “The Verizon story in 2008 was one of customer
growth and product innovation, based on the
strategic technology and broadband infrastructure
investments we have made year after year.”
One of those strategic infrastructure investments
is the company’s fiber-to-the-premises network. Verizon
Wireline reported record growth in the number of
new customers for FiOS TV and FiOS Internet.
FiOS TV FiOS
Internet
Net adds 4Q08 303,000 282,000
Net adds 4Q07 226,000 244,000
Year-end data:
Total customers 2008 1.9 million 2.5 million
Total customers 2007 0.9 million 1.5 million
Penetration rate 2008 20.8% 24.9%
Penetration rate 2007 16.0% 20.7%
Premises marketed 2008 9.2 million 10 million
Premises passed at year-end 2008: 12.7 million, or
40% of total Verizon landline footprint.
ARPU for FiOS customers at year-end 2008: $133
per month.
16 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

Municipalities
Shovel-Ready Broadband Projects Set to Go
The US Conference of Mayors released a report on urban
infrastructure projects that are “ready to go” as part of
an economic recovery package – more than 15,000 projects
that meet local needs, can be funded through existing federal
channels, can start quickly when funding is received, and
can generate significant numbers of jobs. These 15,000 projects
include a number of special-purpose fiber optic networks,
mostly for public safety and traffic control, along with several
community WiFi projects. (Some of the municipal fiber projects
will be able to serve as the backbones for FTTH rollouts
in future years.)
In addition, there were three requests to build broadband
networks:
• The city of Bridgeport, Connecticut, requested $10 million
to install a citywide broadband network for both community
and municipal use, creating 40 jobs.
• The city of Miami, Florida, requested $28 million to build a
municipal broadband network that would create 560 jobs.
• The Austin Independent School District in Austin, Texas,
requested $15 million to provide access for low-income students
to broadband communications from their homes, a
project that would create 40 jobs.
The full report is available at www.usmayors.org/main
streeteconomicrecovery/documents/mser-report-20081219.pdf.
LUS Fiber, the new telecommunications division of Lafayette
Utilities System in Lafayette, Louisiana, began serving
customers in February. The company will continue rolling out
service in a phased fashion over the next two years.
The municipally owned utility is offering television, Internet
and phone services to residents and businesses of Lafayette;
triple play services start at $84.85 per month. In addition to
competitive pricing, LUS Fiber is introducing innovative features
including a TV Web portal and a 100 Mbps peer-to-peer
intranet. The TV Web portal, available to all digital TV subscribers,
allows consumers to connect to the Internet through
their TV set-top boxes. The peer-to-peer intranet allows LUS
Fiber customers to communicate and share files with each other
at 100 Mbps, even if their connections to the public Internet are
at lower speeds.
Another municipal utility inaugurating telecom services
after a long planning and construction period is the Tullahoma
Utilities Board (TUB) in Tullahoma, Tennessee. TUB
is launching triple play services over its new fiber-to-the-home
network, LightTUBe. Customers of the electric utility were
given the opportunity to sign up for television, Internet and
telephone services beginning in the fall of 2008. Internet connections
are available at speeds up to 100 Mbps downstream/30
Mbps upstream, and high-definition television service is available
as an option.
The city of North St. Paul, Minnesota, is planning a referendum
in February to approve the construction of a fiber-tothe-home
network, which it is calling PolarNet, and which it
hopes will “provide an answer to the question of what distinguishes
North St. Paul from other communities in Minnesota
as a place to live, work or play.” The project has been more than
five years in the making, and will require issuing $18.5 million
in general-obligation bonds. A majority vote is required
in order to issue the bonds, extend the existing fiber backbone
FTTH subscribers in Lafayette, LA,
will be able to communicate at 100
Mbps within the network, whatever
their Internet access speeds.
to homes and offer Internet and video services; a 65 percent
supermajority is needed in order to provide telephone services.
If the referendum passes, the city plans to begin building in
the spring and start offering services to customers in late fall
2009, possibly through a private-sector partner. The network
will serve schools and businesses as well as residences.
In Glenwood Springs, Colorado, the city government has
been considering extending its municipal fiber optic network,
which currently provides connectivity to businesses, to some
or all residential neighborhoods. After a referendum in April
2008 demonstrated public interest in residential FTTH services,
the city has been conducting due diligence to determine
how to proceed. In a recent meeting, the city council agreed to
go forward with a market assessment as a next step.
In Red Wing, Minnesota, the city council accepted a fiber
feasibility study produced by two consultants. The study
concluded that a fiber infrastructure was needed to support the
communications needs of the city and county offices and the
school system, and that extending the network to local homes
and businesses would be financially feasible and would boost
economic development. The city council asked staff to move
forward with a due diligence process, and it is considering a
referendum on FTTH as a way of gauging public support and
likely take rates for services. The referendum will be legally required
if the city decides to offer telephone services, and in any
case will provide information needed by potential funders.
In another sign of the financial recovery of UTOPIA, the
FTTH network operated by a Utah municipal consortium,
one of the member cities, Centerville, is reported by local press
to be considering an expansion of the network. The city’s redevelopment
authority proposed a loan/lease investment in the
network to bring high-speed services to Centerville’s business
community. BBP
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 17

INTERNATIONAL
DEPLOYMENTS
Europe: French Providers Agree
to Share In-Building Wiring
Fiber to the home is often described
as a natural monopoly, so that
“whoever is first with fiber, wins.”
But in Paris, France, multiple providers
have been overbuilding each other’s fiber
networks with the encouragement of
the French national regulatory agency.
The agency, ARCEP, has tried to promote
competition while minimizing the
costs of building multiple competing
networks. Because most Parisians live
in low-rise MDU housing, one potential
area for cooperation is in-building wiring.
Recently three large providers – incumbent
Orange (France Telecom), cable
giant Numericable, and alternative
operator SFR, which recently merged
with Neuf Cegetel – signed a detailed
agreement for sharing in-building fiber
optic cables.
In most neighborhoods where they
are deploying networks, the three providers
agreed to use a “single-mode”
solution: Each residential unit will be
equipped with a special fiber allocated
to the operator chosen by the subscriber.
But in one Paris neighborhood
and in a provincial town, the providers
are testing a “multimode” solution – a
new technique in which four fibers are
installed in each building and each operator
can connect to the network at the
shared access point.
The fourth major FTTH deployer in
Paris, Free (Iliad), has not signed onto
the agreement. According to France
Telecom, Free is demanding that the
four-fiber solution – which is still being
tested – be deployed everywhere. France
Telecom says this approach will make
it difficult for residents of buildings already
wired by Free to choose a different
operator. France Telecom accuses Free
of “blocking the implementation of a
general agreement on the mutualization
of vertical fibering, a prerequisite for the
large-scale deployment of fiber.”
The agreement is open to other operators
– in case Free changes its mind – and
the three signers have agreed to adapt
their terms and conditions based on feedback
from tests and early deployments.
Also in France, communications
wholesaler Axione is planning to build
out FTTH networks and offer triple
play services in 11 areas through public
service outsourcing contracts. Axione
will use Ethernet, IP/MPLS and FTTH
technologies from Alcatel-Lucent. Alcatel-Lucent
will also provide project
management, network design, installation,
integration and maintenance.
“Economic development and growth
for our customers across the country is
the goal of this project,” says Jacques
Beauvois, Chairman of Axione, and
Pierre Barnabé, Vice President of Alcatel-Lucent’s
activities in France, adds,
“This project demonstrates Axione’s
commitment to bridging the digital
divide which ultimately will boost economic
and social development in regional
communities.”
Andorra Telecom (Servei de Telecommunications
d’Andorra), which
is deploying a fiber-to-the-premises
network throughout the principality of
Andorra, announced that it is using the
VertiCasa cable system from Prysmian
Cables & Systems in multiple dwelling
units. Andorra Telecom’s project began
in 2008 and will reach all 35,000 homes
and businesses by 2010. The company
chose Prysmian’s VertiCasa for its easy
fiber access and break-out, which reduces
installation times and the need
for skilled labor. The system includes a
main riser cable of up to 48 fibers, which
can be branched directly to individual
subscribers on different floors without
splicing the fiber in the riser.
Prysmian has recently been involved
in a number of other projects in Europe,
Middle East, Russia and China utilizing
VertiCasa along with other products
from its FTTH portfolio.
Swiss incumbent Swisscom has selected
Huber+Suhner products and systems
for its fiber-to-the-home network.
Huber+Suhner, a specialist in electrical
and optical connectivity, will supply fiber
management systems to Swisscom
for local exchanges. As a first step, it will
supply customer-specific “LISA” highdensity
fiber optic management systems
for the exchanges in Basel, Geneva and
Zurich. Swisscom has used fiber optic
technology for years, first to connect its
exchanges and later for business customers.
It is now bringing fiber to private
households in order to enable applications
such as HDTV and teleworking, as
well as faster transfer of large data files.
Dutch fiber-to-the-home operator
Reggefiber has signed a contract with
Genexis for fiber-to-the-home gateways
in Reggefiber’s FTTH network, now being
rolled out in more than 10 Dutch
cities. Genexis’ FiberXport gateway will
deliver broadband Internet, VoIP and
television services to homes on the network.
“Fiber to the home is the last step
to be taken in order to offer end users
real access to the digital highway,” says
Peter Kamphuis, Reggefiber’s director of
operations. “The Genexis FTTH gateway
enables us to deliver triple play and
more while maintaining low installation
and operating cost.”
Reggefiber is deploying Europe’s
largest FTTH network, with plans to
connect at least 2.5 million homes in
the Netherlands by 2013. In December
its joint venture with incumbent telco
KPN to deliver FTTH was approved by
the Dutch Competition Authority.
Dansk Bredband, a broadband
communications supplier in Denmark,
has chosen Enablence as the PON supplier
for its rollout of fiber to 50,000
homes over the next two years. The first
18 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

project using Enablence equipment will be implemented in
North Funen, Denmark, together with the NEF Foundation,
an innovative Danish power utility. (Dansk Bredband delivers
its triple-play solution over both its own fiber optic network
and those of energy companies.)
Mikkel Jensen, Dansk Bredband’s technical director, says,
“Until now, many businesses have thought that it was beneficial
to use only larger equipment suppliers, but in my view,
the fact that Enablence’s Networks Division is focused exclusively
on access networks is an absolute strength. It provides
far greater flexibility and allows the company to respond with
more focused customer-specific solutions.”
Swedish real estate developer Heba Fastighets signed an
eight-year agreement with communications provider Telia to
provide triple-play services over fiber to the home to its properties
in Stockholm, Lidingö, Huddinge and Borlänge. Altogether
about 3,000 units will be offered telephony, broadband
and television services; installation began in January and is expected
to be completed by the end of the year. Heba Fastighets
president Lennart Karlsson says, “Modern communications
and fast broadband are high on the wish list of today’s homeowners.
We are both proud and pleased to offer our tenants
this opportunity.” Telia already has about 55,000 FTTH customers
and is under pressure from the Swedish government to
open its network to competing providers.
Breakthrough Projects
in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia
Nigerian telecom company 21st Century Technologies has
signed a contract with Ericsson to supply, build and integrate a
nationwide residential FTTH network, using Ericsson’s GPON
and IMS technology. Ericsson says the project represents a major
breakthrough in West Africa, a market largely dominated
by mobile communications. Deployment to the first 10,000
homes started in January.
Ericsson will provide 21st Century Technologies with an
end-to-end deep-fiber access network based on its EDA 1500
solution for GPON access and its Ribbonet and Micronet
air-blown fiber systems. The contract also includes Redback
SmartEdge 1200 routers and Ericsson’s IMS solution for the
core network, enabling access to a wide range of multimedia
services. Ericsson will also be responsible for network design,
deployment and systems integration services.
Saudi Telecom Company (STC) has started work on an
FTTH network in Saudi Arabia that will provide Internet access
to residential customers at speeds up to 100 Mbps. The network
will be deployed in stages, beginning with neighborhoods
in the major cities. Engineer Saad Bin Dhafer Al-Qahtani,
STC’s vice president for residential services, calls the project a
“huge leap in Internet services,” saying customers will be able to
enjoy services such as VoIP, VoD and electronic gaming.
China’s Ministry of Science and Technology announced a
plan to build a nationwide fiber optic network that could deliver
triple-play services – including Internet access at speeds of
100 Mbps – to all households. A prototype network has been
operating in the Yangtze River Delta since December 2006,
delivering services to about 30,000 users, and its success led the
Vendor Spotlight
ADC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.adc.com
Alcatel-Lucent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.alcatel-lucent.com
Corning Cable
Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.corningcablesystems.com
Enablence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.enablence.com
Ericsson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.ericsson.com
Genexis ...............................www.genexis.eu
Huber+Suhner .................www.hubersuhner.com
PacketFront .....................www.packetfront.com
Prysmian Cables & Systems ........ www.prysmian.com
Razorsight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.razorsight.com
Teknovus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .www.teknovus.com
Ubiquoss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.ubiquoss.com/
english_renew/company/about.asp
Ministry to conclude that a large-scale investment in FTTH
made sense. The project’s timetable and budget have not yet
been announced, but it appears that it will require investment
by private telecommunications companies.
Brasil Telecom is expanding its fiber-to-the-home network
in the cities of Brasilia, Curitiba, Goiania, Porto Alegre and
Florianópolis and plans to launch residential services at speeds
ranging from 14 Mbps to 100 Mbps.
The Fiber-to-the-Home Council, the IMCC and
Broadband Properties Magazine
Congratulate
For becoming a Silver Sponsor and
the official host of the Tuesday Night Exhibit Hall
Cocktail Reception at the
2009 Broadband Properties Summit.
For more information on DIRECTV,
visit www.directv.com.
You are cordially invited to come see
DIRECTV at the upcoming
April 27 – 29, 2009
Hyatt Regency DFW • Dallas, TX
New Business Models For Fiber Communities
To Exhibit or Sponsor, contact: Irene Prescott at
irene@broadbandproperties.com, or call 316-733-9122.
& For other inquiries, call 877-588-1649,
or visit www.bbpmag.com
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 19

Deployer Spotlight
Sweden
Denmark
Netherlands
International
deployment activity.
France
Switzerland
Andorra
Pakistan
Japan
South Korea
Saudi Arabia
Thailand
Nigeria
Brazil
Tullahoma Utilities Board ..............www.tub.net
North St. Paul,
Minnesota ...........www.ci.north-saint-paul.mn.us
Red Wing, Minnesota ..............www.red-wing.org
UTOPIA ............................ www.utopianet.org
States with fresh
deployment activity.
North American Telcos
Albany Mutual Telephone .................www.albanytel.com
Horizon Chillicothe Telephone . . . . . . . . . . . www.horizontel.com
NTS Communications .......................www.ntscom.com
Verizon Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.verizon.com
Other North American Deployers
Glenwood Springs, Colorado . . www.ci.glenwood-springs.co.us
LUS Fiber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.fiberforthefuture.com
International Deployers
21st Century Technologies .................www.21ctl.com
Andorra Telecom ...............................www.sta.ad
Axione . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.axione.fr
Brasil Telecom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.brasiltelecom.com.br
CAT Telecom ............................www.cattelecom.com
Dansk Bredband ...............................www.dbnet.dk
France Telecom .....................www.francetelecom.com
Heba Fastighets .............................www.hebafast.se
KDDI ......................www.kddi.com/english/index.html
KPN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.kpn.com/corporate/en.htm
LG Powercom ..........................www.powercomm.com
Miyoshi, Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Numericable ..............................www.numericable.fr
Pakistan Telecommunications Ltd. ............www.ptcl.com.pk
Reggefiber . . . . . . . www.reggefiber.nl/default.aspxpageID=40
Saudi Telecom Company . . . . . www.stc.com.sa/cws/portal/en/
SFR ..............................................www.sfr.com
Swisscom ....................www.swisscom.ch/GHQ/content/
homepage.htmlang=en
The City of Miyoshi, Japan, is deploying PacketFront’s
Broadband Business Engine, a tool to improve service and
subscriber management, on its FTTH system. Working with
Soliton Systems K.K., PacketFront adapted the product to support
the Japanese language. The City of Miyoshi has connected
7,500 households with fiber and has the potential to reach
16,000 households during the next few years. It is already using
other PacketFront equipment and systems to run its network.
Japanese service provider KDDI, which entered the fiber
business by buying networks from Tokyo Electric Power and
Chubu Tele-Communications, has launched the first commercial
deployment of 2.5 GePON, using Turbo-EPON chips
from Teknovus. These chips were introduced two years ago to
offer a smooth upgrade path from the 1.25G standard to the
10G standard. (Turbo-EPON is compliant with IEEE 1.25G
EPON specifications but offers an enhanced Turbo-EPON
mode for 2.5G operation.)
A second 2.5 GePON deployment was announced shortly
afterward, with LG Powercom, one of the largest communications
service providers in Korea, building out a large-scale
FTTH/FTTB network using a 2.5 GePON solution from Korean
supplier Ubiquoss. The solution is also based on Teknovus’
2.5G Turbo-EPON chip. LG Powercom’s network will
provide high-speed data, voice and a range of advanced video
services for residential and business subscribers in single-family
units and multitenant units.
20 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

Brisbane, Australia: “We Need to Deliver It Ourselves”
The Australian government’s plans to develop a national
high-speed network have made little progress to
date. “A year of wasted opportunity, a year of stagnation
and uncertainty,” was an opposition politician’s verdict
on 2008, which ended with the country’s largest communications
provider being disqualified, essentially on a
technicality, from building the network.
But inaction on the national level hasn’t stopped
smaller providers and local governments from proceeding
with their own plans. Brisbane, Australia’s third largest
city, is spending about half a million dollars (US) this
fiscal year toward detailed design of an FTTH network
that would use the city’s existing fiber network as a base.
Here’s Jane Prentice, the Brisbane city councilor who
proposed the plan, explaining the history and purpose
of the proposal:
Recently, when I joined the Lord Mayor on his
trade mission to Korea in August, we observed
the fact that they enjoy fiber speeds of between
100 megabits to 1 gigabit per second – absolutely
amazing, Lord Mayor. This re-emphasized the
benefits that Brisbane would have if we had highspeed
fiber connections. It was from this trade
mission, where we viewed the benefits to local
businesses firsthand, that this project arose.
Since then, we have even had representatives
from ETRI, the company who undertook the rollout
of fiber in Korea, visit Brisbane to assess the
possibility of fiber rollout in Brisbane and the
benefits it could bring. The economic benefits of
connecting Brisbane with high-speed fiber connections
are considerable. Various studies which
have been previously conducted suggest that
businesses can achieve additional cost savings
equivalent to 4.7 percent of business costs by upgrading
from narrowband Internet connection to
a broadband connection.
The implementation of a high-speed network
could boost the Brisbane and Moreton region’s
economy by [$3.5 billion; Australian $5 billion] and
create more than 15,000 jobs over the next five
years. On top of these economic benefits, there
are also the broader benefits to productivity, the
environment, and to the community in general.
Rough estimates show that the Council could potentially
save [more than $60 million; Australian
$95.5 million] a year in the value of time saved by
a high-speed fiber network.
The project also has a number of social benefits.
For example, I assume that even councilors
in this place, the first thing you do when you get
to your office in the morning, as do businessmen
around the city, is turn on your computer and do
your e-mails that have come in overnight. If we had
FTTP… what people could do is do that work from
home and then go to the city in off-peak. Look at
the effects that would have on reducing traffic
congestion around this city in the peak hours.
There are also the obvious environmental benefits.
Imagine high-definition online videoconferencing
enabling you to easily interact with someone,
whether they were a block away or half a
world away. The environmental benefits of saving
on these short- and long-term trips by car or even
airplane would certainly be significant. Overall,
the project would allow residents and businesses
more flexibility, and open up a greater capacity
for innovation.
Of course, the rollout of high-speed fiber connections
is already being considered as part of
the Federal Government’s national broadband
network. However, I have to say I am not confident
that this solution can be delivered in a timeframe
acceptable to Brisbane’s needs, or that with
proposed speeds of just 12 megabits per second,
and indeed, maximum speeds using ADSL2 of 24
megabits per second, that it would be fast enough
for Brisbane’s requirements. Indeed, both the
Lord Mayor and I were concerned that Brisbane
was not at the top of their list for rolling out this
fiber network, and it very much highlighted the
fact that, if we want to achieve this progress, we
need to deliver it ourselves.
Pakistan Telecommunications Ltd. (PTCL), a major
communications provider in Pakistan, announced that it
will be deploying GPON fiber networks in order to cater to
“bandwidth-hungry broadband applications.” Pilot projects
are already being rolled out in the three major cities of Karachi,
Lahore and Islamabad.
Local press reports that CAT Telecom, a state-owned telecommunications
company in Thailand, will deploy an FTTH
network in the beach resort city of Pattaya. The network is
expected to pass 20,000 premises by the end of 2009 and will
support businesses, schools and residences. The city is also
planning to offer free WiFi on the beaches, in an effort to promote
Pattaya as an “IT paradise location.” BBP
About the Author
You can reach Masha at masha@broadbandproperties.com.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 21

Municipal FTTH Deployment Snapshot
Pulaski, Tennessee –
Pulaski Electric System
This month’s featured municipal FTTH deployer is Pulaski Electric System’s PES Energize, the fiber-to-the-home provider
for the city of Pulaski, Tennessee. “This is not your stereotypical sleepy rural electric system,” a local business magazine wrote
about PES. “Pulaski’s massive fiber-to-the-home investment is the antidote to the chronic problem of trickle-down technology
afflicting communities its size across Tennessee.” Our thanks to Wes Kelley, executive vice president of the company, for gathering
the information for this snapshot and providing his reflections on the deployment’s challenges and successes. Find out more at
www.energize.net.
- BBP Editors
Background
Provider name: PES Energize
Public entity owning the provider:
City of Pulaski, Tennessee
FTTH service area: Pulaski and outlying areas
Number of households/number of
businesses in service area: Approximately 5,000
Number of FTTH subscribers: Approximately 1,400
Competitors: Charter offers cable modem service;
AT&T offers DSL
FTTH Network Profile
Miles of fiber backbone: 12
Miles of fiber access infrastructure: 120
Number of POPs: 1 headend and
20 fiber distribution points
Network architecture: EPON
Business model: Retail
Services offered: 270 television channels, residential and
small-business phone service, high-speed Internet access,
point-to-point data circuits and server co-location
Highest tier Internet access: Residential – 30 Mbps for
$149.95
Take rates after 20 months of service:
Video – 25%
Data – 20%
Voice – 17%
Year deployment started: 2006
Year services began: 2007
Time to complete buildout: 1 year
Economic development impact: Local economic development
leadership has begun marketing PES’ services
to nearby Huntsville, Alabama, which is home to a large
number of defense and space industries. Before PES
built its network, the community had never attempted
to approach the defense or aerospace companies because
it had little to offer that met their special needs.
Photo by Susan Carlisle
The FTTH network has allowed several existing
industries to receive superior service at much lower
prices. The system has become a focus of community
pride and an example of the community’s willingness
to invest in the future.
FTTH Deployment Team
Design: Atlantic Engineering Group
Construction: Atlantic Engineering Group
Installation: OnTrac
Integration: OptiNet, Scientific Atlanta, Enhanced
Telecommunications Inc., Central Services Association
Deployment Details
Aerial, underground, or both Primarily aerial
Method for underground installation:
Direct burial, boring
Equipment used for installation: Zahn R300 trencher/
plow
22 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

Municipal FTTH Deployment Snapshot
Photo by Bob Schwartz
Method for connecting fiber:
Field fusion splicing of fiber pigtails
Splicing equipment:
Fitel S121A fusion splicers, S1771 core splicer
Operating Equipment
Central office electronics: Wave7 Optics (now Enablence)
Fiber cables: OFS
Fiber distribution systems: OFS, Tyco
Video headend (or alternative): Scientific Atlanta
Testing equipment: Sunrise Telecom Spectrum Analyzer,
EXFO OTDR, Trilithic TR-2 RF meters
Customer-premises equipment: Wave7 Optics ONTs
Power supply: CyberPower, Alpha
Set-top boxes: Scientific Atlanta
Key Software
B/OSS: Enhanced Telecommunications Inc. Triad
Network management: Wave7 Optics EMS
Softswitch: Sonus (operated by Momentum Telecom)
Network Operation
Central office personnel:
6 (including department management)
OSP personnel: 5
CSRs: 5 (this team also supports 15,000 electric,
water and gas customers)
Trucks, trailers, etc.: 2 bucket trucks, 4 pickups,
1 splicing trailer
Biggest Challenges
Although we built a state-of-the-art fiber network, we
came to realize that most residential customers do not concern
themselves with future applications. They are looking
to replace or upgrade the services they have today. So even
though we built a system capable of cutting-edge services,
it often still comes down to which TV channels you offer
and at what price. Customers are shoppers first.
Biggest Successes
We have been very pleased with the community’s response
to our deployment. We have not only provided an
improved customer service experience at great prices, we
have also stepped up and worked with our area organizations
to help them understand how our FTTH system can
benefit them.
PES established a partnership with the local college to
operate our local access channel, 3PTV. This channel provides
the students at Martin Methodist College with an opportunity
to learn video production and technical editing,
and it provides a valuable and exclusive channel offering
for PES.
Also, we partnered with AT&T to provide a turnkey network
that links all the schools in our county. PES provides
the fiber connection, and AT&T manages the data and technical
support. This allowed the local school district to use
AT&T’s state contract pricing, yet be linked with PES’ fiber
network. BBP
Contact Masha Zager at masha@broadbandproperties.
com if you would like your municipal fiber deployment
to be featured in Broadband Properties.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 23

RFOG at
Mitchell Park Plaza
By Joe Bousquin ■ Contributing Editor, Broadband Properties
This month’s showcased property is Mitchell Park Plaza, a renovated loft building in St. Joseph, Missouri. Management
recently implemented an FTTP infrastructure using both RFOG and PON technology in partnership with NPG
Cable, an MSO that operates in Missouri, Arizona and California. Our thanks to Steve Ward, technical operations manager
at NPG, and Steve Foutch, co-owner of Foutch Bros. LLC, the developer of the $28 million project, who provided
the information here.
Basic Property Information
Mitchell Park Plaza is a renovated loft development of
the old Mead Paper Company factory in St. Joseph,
Missouri, where “Big Chief” writing tablets were
manufactured for decades. Steve and Scott Foutch of Weatherby
Lake, Missouri-based Foutch Bros. LLC bought the building
in 2006 with the vision of creating a luxury, amenity-rich
apartment community in the heart of downtown.
“There was this big complex right in the middle of St. Joe sitting
there vacant,” Steve Foutch says. “The price was right, and
we’re historic-loft-renovation type people, so we grabbed it.”
The building that was once a 500,000-square-foot factory
is now home to a $28 million, 258-unit mixed-use apartment
and retail community. Amenities include a 20,000-square-foot
recreation facility with indoor running track and swimming
pool, a 7,000-square-foot rooftop deck and 13,000 feet of rooftop
gardens and landscaping. Hailed as a model for sustainable
renovation in the greater Midwest, the building includes
a rain-capture irrigation system, electricity-producing photovoltaic
panels, roof vents that double as power-generating wind
turbines and a five-story daylight-harvesting atrium.
But while the green features help set the building apart,
Foutch Bros. needed state-of-the-art technology amenities to
command above-market rents. Mitchell Park’s apartments rent
for $500 to $1,300 a month, as much as $200 more than comparable-sized
units in the area. “To justify the premiums we’re
charging for these lofts, we had to put in the best of everything,”
Foutch says. “We knew we would have gamers, professionals,
and a lot of empty nesters, all of whom are tech savvy.
We didn’t want any headaches with the Internet.”
The big black box is the splice enclosure; to its right is the Alloptic ONUX
1110 micronode; the CyberPower UPS is directly below it.
24 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

Foutch Bros. partnered with locally based NPG Cable,
which used Alloptic’s gear to deploy fiber to the premises. Distributed
through a hybrid RFOG-PON setup at the building,
the system brings high-speed Internet, TV programming and
telephony – required to interface with the building’s security
and entrance monitoring system – to each of the 258 units.
While the system’s RFOG technology enables the MSO to leverage
its traditional video distribution equipment and set-top
boxes, the PON side of the system pushes a 10 Mbps signal to
the owner’s Ethernet switch, allowing residents to plug their
computers into a wall jack inside their units.
“We’re using the RFOG for anything that requires twoway
service, such as VOD or pay-per-view” as well as for basic,
one-way cable service, says Steve Ward, technical operations
manager at NPG. “Then, we’ve got the PON network, with
Alloptic’s Xgen 1000 ONT, to deliver the high-speed Internet
as well as a signal to the channel banks for the phones.”
Through a bulk subscription agreement, Foutch Bros. buys
services and programming from NPG, and includes those costs
in residents’ rents. While market surveys suggested residents
would pay $125 for the triple-play services if purchased separately,
Foutch says the economies of scale leveraged through
the bulk agreement add just $40 to each unit’s rent per month.
“We go down the list of all the different amenities we’re giving
them, and then we pencil out what they would be paying for all
that separately,” Foutch says. “When we show them what their
net effective rent is after subtracting all that out, their eyes just
get real big and they say OK.”
So far, the building’s grand opening has been an undisputed
success: 1,300 people showed up at the building on opening
day, and the first 100 units available started leasing immediately,
even at the premiums Mitchell Park commands. While
the building’s eclectic attributes make it difficult to point to
the technology amenities alone as the driving force behind it,
Foutch is confident they’ve played a major role. “In St. Joe,
fiber optics is really a new thing,” Foutch says. “We’ve been
waiting for it for a long time.”
Vital Stats
Greenfield or retrofit Retrofit, but part of a major renovation
to the structure.
Number of residential/commercial units: 258 apartments and
64,000 square feet of retail.
High-rise/mid-rise/garden style Five-story mid-rise.
Percent of units owner occupied: All units will initially be rentals,
with planned conversion to condominiums after five
years.
Time to deploy network Three weeks.
Date services started being delivered: October 1, 2008.
Technology
How is fiber distributed inside the building
Steve Ward, NPG Cable: We used OFS Zero Water Peak Fiber,
which terminates in four distribution closets on the second
Signal distribution in the building starts here in the northeast equipment
room, one of four. The network controllers are at the bottom of the rack in
front of the RFOG micronode.
floor of the building. In each closet, an Alloptic Micronode
1550/1590nm transceiver connects to a Scientific Atlanta
GainMaker Line Extender. We can then feed that signal
to standard DOCSIS set-top boxes – in this case, Motorola
DCH 3416, dual-tuner DVRs – to provide TV programming
in each unit.
The same fiber that provides video via the Alloptic Micronode
also connects to an Alloptic Xgen 1000 GePON
ONT with four 100 Mbps Ethernet ports. One of these
ports connects to a Zhone VoIP channel bank, which is
then connected to the building’s copper wiring to provide
telephone service to each unit and an interface with the
building’s internal security system.
A second 100 Mbps port is fed to the property owner’s
gateway switch, which provides Internet access to all units
via Cat 6 cabling.
The third port has been left empty for future use, while
the fourth port is used for device management. In this case,
the Zhone craft port is plugged in there.
Changes in the final copper cable layout of the MDU
created a challenging situation. The security room on the
ground floor and the recreation area on the second floor
were connected only to fiber, and not to copper cabling.
Rather than go through a costly change of adding copper
to each space, we leveraged the RFOG technology we had
deployed in the building already. By installing additional
micronodes in each of those rooms, we were then able to
provide DOCSIS triple-play services to both areas.
Why did you choose this distribution architecture This architecture
provided a cost-effective, relatively painless deployment
that’s easy to maintain, because everything hooks into the
four distribution closets. Additionally, the Alloptic Micronodes
are outfitted with burst-mode technology, which
activates modem traffic and two-way services only when
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 25

did you choose this method At the moment, only one building
in the complex has been converted into living units.
But due to the large demand for apartments in the area, the
owner may convert additional buildings over time. If that
happens, a single fiber would be extended to the next building
to feed additional ONTs, micronodes, and VoIP channel
bank equipment. Additional fiber-connected Ethernet
equipment would also be supplied as required.
At the top of the rack is a 1:8 optical splitter. Below it is the DuraComm 48
VDC UPS along with a 20 amp circuit breaker. All the Amphenol cables run
back to the Zhone Channel Bank at the bottom.
they’re being used. That keeps noise from the property at
a minimum, and off our DOCSIS network, something we
always want to do.
How did you deal with wiring and plug access This was an old
warehouse. The building was gutted and new walls were
built in the interior. Cable was already running to each unit
when we started our installation. That was nice, because we
didn’t have to terminate any of the runs – the owner did all
that, and laced them up for us, too.
That said, when we first got there, it was still pretty
challenging. When we first came into the building we had
258 RJ-6 connections, 258 RJ-45 connections and 258 RJ-
11 Cat 3 connections (for the phones). It was a little overwhelming
at first glance.
Also, because the building was still under construction
when we got in there, there weren’t any 110-volt power outlets
in the communications closets. We had to use extension
cords to get power in there to test our equipment.
How much square footage did you have to dedicate to the network
inside the building Could closets be shared with other utilities,
or did you need to create a dedicated maintenance space The
original design of the MDU provided the four closets for
the building’s demarc point and cable termination. Three of
the closets are 6 by 10 feet, but a larger closet, where other
systems are housed, is probably 10 by 15 feet. We used a
small area on the wall to mount the Alloptic Micronode
and ONT. The VoIP channel bank was mounted in a rack
with the property owner’s gateway switch. All we needed
was a good piece of plywood to mount our gear on, and
some space in the rack.
If your property has multiple buildings, is the network distributed
between them via aerial or underground means, or both Why
Services
Does the building have triple-play services Yes, today the units
have DOCSIS cable TV service with a standard, 75-channel
programming package, using the RFOG elements of
the system. Voice and data are provided via Alloptic’s Ge-
PON solution. All services are included in the rent.
Can residents subscribe to IPTV IPTV is not offered today. But
because there’s fiber to the premises, it could be provided
relatively easily in the future by adding a larger gateway
switch and appropriate set-top boxes. The Alloptic 100
Mbps ONT could be replaced with a 1 or 10 Gigabit ONT
to provide the bandwidth for IPTV for the MDU.
Are there amenities beyond triple play, or IP systems for managing
the property The property owner, who maintains the Ethernet
LAN equipment in the MDU, offers free WiFi services
in the building’s common areas. There are 15 wireless access
points, one at each end of each floor of the atrium. ValuePoint
Networks, which has designed commercial WiFi
solutions for hotels and commercial properties, supplied
the WiFi system. All of the access points feed into network
controllers that allow bandwidth throttling, captive portals,
and so forth.
The building’s management and security systems also
make use of the network through video surveillance and
remote access control to the apartments. In the future, a
dedicated television channel may be deployed to provide
residents with community information.
Do residents have a choice of service providers No. All services
are provided to all residents, and are included in the rent.
There is no way to “opt out” of services, though residents
theoretically could choose additional providers if they desired.
At this point, however, NPG is the only provider that
has deployed service to the property.
Who provides support If residents have an issue or technical challenge,
whom do they call Mitchell Park Plaza employs a
dedicated IT department, and provides technical support
for all internal issues. If there is a loss of signal from the
NPG headend, or if multiple users are experiencing a similar
problem, NPG’s 24-by-7 support is available to dispatch
a technician to the property.
Business
Who owns the network Does the property owner have “skin in
the game” Who paid for what NPG owns the network up
to the demarc point, and receives a monthly bulk payment
26 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

for services. Foutch Brothers owns and provided everything
from the building perimeter inward.
Was there a door fee No.
If residents are billed directly, who handles billing and collection
Foutch Bros. LLC is responsible for collecting rent for each
unit, which includes the cost of the technology amenities.
How are the services marketed, and by whom Foutch Bros.
highlights the advantage of the bulk pricing for the triple
play services – about $40 compared to an average of $125 if
bought separately – to help close leases.
What has the return been on this implementation, in dollars or
otherwise
Steve Ward, NPG: We were able to land 258 customers in one
fell swoop, with an assurance of less churn going forward.
Steve Foutch, Foutch Bros.: It’s the ability to leverage the buying
power of those 258 units to NPG, and then pass the savings
on to residents, while providing them with clear incentive
to commit to a lease.
Why did the property owner decide to structure the deployment in
this way, from a business perspective
Steve Foutch: Mitchell Park Plaza is the only MDU in St. Joseph
using this technology. The ability to offer it as an amenity
to tech-savvy professionals, empty nesters and Gen Y renters
helps set the property apart, and has created a demand
that’s unprecedented in this area.
Onsite Experience/Lessons Learned
What was the biggest challenge
Steve Ward, NPG: Working in the same space with multiple
construction workers who were also on strict deadlines,
and trying to make sure everything worked. The drywallers
were sanding the walls, and you can imagine what drywall
dust does to this kind of equipment. Also, because we were
in there while things were being built, we didn’t have electricity
in all the rooms where we needed it. They basically
had to come in and wire up a breaker for us so we could
test our units.
Steve Foutch, Foutch Bros.: Contract negotiations were the biggest
hurdle in making the deal work. We had to ensure we
could cover the cost of the monthly bulk subscription fee
whether units were leased or not, while being able to offer
the triple-play services to residents at a low enough price to
ensure the services were a significant, attractive differentiator
for the property.
What was the biggest success
Steve Ward: Building a fiber network and activating 258 rooms
with voice, video and data at one time.
Steve Foutch: The implementation has been a huge marketing
success in creating excitement – and demand – for the
units.
How did the vendor interact with residents during installation
Were there any guidelines or requests from the owner over limiting
residents’ pain points during installation
Logic diagram for the northwest equipment room, with includes both
aggregation and distribution. The other three rooms include only
distribution equipment.
Steve Ward: The property owner’s only stipulations were that
we meet the schedule before the residents moved in. We
were able to do that, in part with the help of our technology
vendor, Alloptic, which was very active in the installation
process, including the original site survey.
How has the network affected life at the community How has it
helped reposition the community
Steve Foutch: Having triple play services already turned on
when a resident moves in provides another point of differentiation.
What would you say to owners who want to deploy a similar network
What issues should they consider before they get started
Steve Ward: I would highly recommend this solution for future
MDUs. The ROI works well and the flexibility of the
Alloptic solution was a lifesaver. The original plan of four
closets turned into six actual drops, because we had to go to
the security room and fitness area, too. Because we had the
flexibility of the RFOG-PON hybrid, we were able to accommodate
the building’s needs. Also, when the property
owner already has internal conduit in place, with home runs
to each unit, it makes the install go much more smoothly.
Steve Foutch: You need to make sure you have the economies
of scale so the bulk agreement pencils out versus the rent
bump you’re able to get from it. BBP
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 27

Cover Story
Fiber to the Home
Is Green Technology
Evidence is mounting that fiber to the home – in addition to all of its other
benefits – is a plus for the environment. A new model from PricewaterhouseCoopers
helps providers make the environmental case for fiber.
By Steven S. Ross and Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties
New capital projects have always had to pass an ROI test
– for return on investment. Today, they need to pass an
ROE test, too – return on environment. It’s no longer
prudent to assume that oil will remain cheap and plentiful, or
that climate change will wait until the far-off future, or that
the oceans can absorb any amount of pollutants. Before any
large project is approved, people are asking, “Is this part of the
problem, or part of the solution”
Fiber-to-the-home network builders need to be able to answer
this question, just like builders of power plants or data
centers or office buildings. Often they need to answer more
detailed questions, too, like, “If we used this material instead
of that material, or this design instead of that design, how does
that affect the environmental payback period”
Gauging a network’s environmental impact isn’t just a way
of justifying the project, or of optimizing its design. As federal
and state policies change and carbon taxes, cap-and-trade rules
or other “green” regulations take effect, a hefty price tag may
be attached to environmental damage. If network builders are
going to be charged for their environmental impact – or financially
rewarded for building green – they’ll need to know what
that impact is. (See box on facing page.)
The telecom giants are already moving in this direction.
Verizon has told its suppliers it wants energy-consumption savings
of 20 percent for new equipment. And Qwest is looking
to fiber and low-energy components for its spread-out network.
But until recently, few deployers have had the tools to answer
Evidence is beginning to emerge
showing that fiber-to-the-home
networks are, in fact, a key part of
the solution. And new tools are
becoming available to calculate the
environmental costs and benefits
of any particular network.
You can learn more about FTTH
and sustainability at the Broadband
Summit, April 27–29, 2009,
from Mike Smalley of Carina
Technology, Michael Render
of RVA and others.
these questions for themselves and for their customers. It seems
intuitively clear that a powerful communications network will
reduce the need for travel, but how do the environmental benefits
of lowering travel compare with the environmental costs
of putting the network in the ground
Fiber Is Part of the Solution
Now, evidence is beginning to emerge showing that fiber-tothe-home
networks are, in fact, a key part of the solution. And
new tools are becoming available to calculate the environmental
costs and benefits of any particular network.
Recently the Fiber-to-the-Home Council commissioned
Ecobilan, a Paris-based PricewaterhouseCoopers subsidiary, to
develop an environmental model for a typical US deployment
of FTTH. (The full report is available at www.ftthcouncil.org,
and information about Ecobilan’s earlier measurements of the
impacts of FTTH in Europe can be found in our April 2008
issue or the latest FTTH Primer, both on www.bbpmag.com.)
Here’s what Ecobilan found:
• An FTTH network is likely to be net-positive environmentally
after only four to six years, even if telecommuting is the
only benefit.
The environmental costs Ecobilan looked at covered the
entire network life cycle, from equipment manufacture to laying
the fiber in the ground to final disposal. The researchers
also examined many different types of environmental effects
– not just greenhouse gas emissions, but other impacts as well,
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cover story
such as release of toxic substances, depletion of the ozone layer
and the likelihood of causing algae blooms. Their conclusions
about environmental impacts were:
• Producing the optical equipment (OLTs and ONTs) accounts
for more than three-quarters of the environmental impact of
building the network.
A Carbon Cap-and-Trade System
It is hardly a secret that the Obama Administration
wants to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions – it was part
of the candidate’s stump speech during the primaries,
on his Web site during the final election campaign, and
is part of the “New Energy for America Plan” that can be
viewed on the spiffy new www.whitehouse.gov site.
While some think the whole idea is unnecessary, and
others believe a simple tax on creation of CO 2
emissions
could do the job, the Administration is leaning toward
a “carbon cap-and-trade” program. Big emitters would
have to limit their actual emission to some extent, but
would also be allowed to buy “carbon credits” from those
who can more easily conserve energy and resource use.
SELLING OFFSETS TO FREQUENT FLYERS
Frequent flyers are already familiar with offers to voluntarily
“soak up” the CO 2
emissions they cause by taking a
trip. For a flight across the Atlantic from the East Coast,
for instance, green consumers might pay $10 each for
the two or three metric tons of CO 2
represented by their
presence on a 747.
The money, usually minus a commission to the exchange
that brokers it, is handed to an organization that
might be reducing fuel use – a wind farm, for example.
Thus, the flyer essentially subsidizes clean energy. A
number of exchanges have sprung up in the US and in
Europe to handle such deals.
In the same way, FTTH network builders could sell
their energy savings, and perhaps their residential customers’
energy savings, to coal-burning companies like
electric utilities. Corporations using fiber-borne bandwidth
to cut their own energy demand might do the
same. The effect would be to subsidize fiber and make
coal more expensive, providing an incentive to find alternative
energy sources.
Though it sounds dicey at first glance, FTTH is already
eligible for credits in some European countries. And the
worldwide market for traded carbon was almost $120
billion in 2008, up from less than $80 billion in 2007. The
forecast for 2009 is $150 billion, though it may be lower
due to the poor economy.
THE VALUE OF A CARBON CREDIT
How much would the credit actually be worth The flyer
example suggests that a ton (actually, a metric ton, or
2,205 pounds) of emissions is worth $2 or $3 after commissions.
But almost the same price is also charged for
short-range flights; different sources put the average at
closer to $20 a ton for these small, “retail-level” sales.
Wholesale prices are at the lower end of the range.
One big exchange that focuses on trades among electric
utilities, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, sold almost
32 million tons of CO 2
credits at auction in December
for $106 million – about $3 a ton.
Down the road, carbon-emitting companies should
be willing to pay something close to what the federal
government might tax them. The policy wonks have been
citing tax figures ranging from $20 to $50 per ton of CO 2
,
probably starting low and increasing over time. There’s a
broad understanding that such taxes would have to be
phased in, and that this is not a good year to start.
But the auction shows that big emitters – especially
electric utilities that rely on coal – are already in the market,
buying credits now. Prices are lower, and some of
them are required to do so by state governments anyway.
Some European governments have set up a capand-trade
system as well. The anticipation is that credits
would be traded worldwide. As the box on the energy
model for FTTH points out, burning coal satisfies half the
US electricity demand.
FUTURE CREDITS ALREADY IN DEMAND
An example often mentioned is Ameren, which emitted
about 70 million tons of CO 2
in 2008 by burning coal to
generate electricity in Illinois and Missouri. Its emissions
would be capped, slowly falling to 20 percent of the current
level by 2050 under the preliminary Obama Administration
plan. So Ameren would eventually need to buy
credits for the other 80 percent. A more likely near-term
scenario would be a 5 or 10 percent cap in three years.
But even that would send Ameren into the market looking
for 3.5 to 7 million tons’ worth of credits, costing
roughly $200 million a year.
Ameren, an S&P 500 company, is already in the market,
buying “future credits” now at a discount. That’s
rather a good indicator of industry’s expectations.
What could FTTH network builders and their customers
share In our December issue, we looked at calculations
commissioned by Connected Nation, which
estimated 3.2 billion pounds of CO 2
emissions saved annually
by bringing broadband to an extra 7 percent of
US households – not necessarily FTTH. That’s about 1.5
million tons, or a $40 million annual “carbon tax benefit.”
To look at it another way, that’s enough to pay the interest
on $500 million to $1 billion in borrowing.
The new FTTH Council study cited in the main article is
a much more precise foundation for making these calculations.
No investor would bank on it until a federal capand-trade
system is signed into law, of course. But this
study is an important first step in setting up the account.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 29

Cover Story
• Powering the network, even a passive optical network, also has
significant environmental impacts. For example, the energy
consumed in operating the network for 10 years releases about
the same amount of greenhouse gases as are released by building
the network.
To reach its conclusions, Ecobilan had to make hundreds
of assumptions about how the FTTH network would be built,
what kinds of components and materials would be used, how
many customers would be served, what kinds of fuel are used
to generate electricity, and so forth. The researchers tried to
use assumptions that were typical of fiber networks being deployed
in the United States today – for example, they assumed
a GPON network that was part aerial and part underground.
The result, of course, is a picture of an “average” network
that doesn’t correspond to any individual fiber-to-the-home network
in existence today. And the numbers are already too conservative
– Verizon alone is stimulating the market emergence
of network components that use less energy today than they did
last year. But all of the assumptions are spelled out in detail, and
potential deployers can leverage the existing study themselves or
work with Ecobilan to substitute information about their own
planned networks for the “average” network that Ecobilan modeled.
This will enable them to generate more precise estimates of
the environmental impacts of their planned networks.
Telecommuting Alone Recoups
the Environmental Costs
The biggest environmental benefit from FTTH networks today
– in fact, nearly all of it – comes from telecommuting. This
savings, according to Ecobilan, is large enough to offset the
environmental impact of building and operating the network
within four to six years, depending on network take rates.
Most of the research on FTTH and telecommuting in the
US has been done by Michael Render of RVA LLC, and Ecobilan
relied on his historical research in developing its model.
Render told Broadband Properties, “We have demonstrated
consistently that fiber users are spending more time on average
working from home. Those who have the opportunity are
spending significantly more time.”
Render also says the potential for telecommuting is far
larger than current use patterns would indicate. “Companies
have to certainly look at their procedures, in some cases changing
their own internal regulations. Line people can’t easily
work from home, but often more staff can,” he says. “And the
idea of a blend, in the office so many days and home on other
days, might be attractive to many workers and companies.”
Render notes that in California, FTTH provider Paxio has
been trying to work with companies to develop virtual private
networks that employees can use. A big advantage for Paxio is
that once a company is sold on the idea, it assists employees in
setting up access. It may be less costly for the provider to market
to relatively few companies than to many employees, and
doing so is more likely to ensure that the telecommuting links
actually get used.
Even Better Than Telecommuting:
Home-Based Businesses
Even when companies are skittish about letting their employees
work from home, fiber may give workers the opportunity
to cut their ties to the office and go into business for themselves
– eliminating the commute altogether, and adding to
the environmental savings. An RVA survey published in 2007
found that 10 percent of respondents were using their FTTH
connection to run a home-based business, with 90 percent of
these saying that having a high-bandwidth fiber optic connection
was either “very important” or “somewhat important” to
their business activities.
“There are some municipalities that are trying to use their
broadband to train people in promoting opportunities for inhome
businesses in their area, and the dollars that brings into
communities,” Render says. He notes that many smaller communities
have only one or two sources of outside income, such
as agriculture or a single factory. The rest of the local economy
simply circulates money already in the community, “from
laundromat to restaurant and back.”
“Economic development is a huge opportunity for these
rural communities,” Render adds. “Now you have people in
microbusinesses bringing in capital. RVA is a small business in
Tulsa, but we sell reports throughout the world. And we talk to
small consulting operations having national reach from rural
areas such as in Washington state, and others doing advanced
video editing, which really requires the bandwidth.”
Reducing Business and Health-Related Travel
Another prime target for energy savings is in the travel people
do while they’re on the job – whether that’s travel across town
or across the world.
Render notes that fiber-based communication makes it
easier for companies to grow without having to build new offices
or shuttle between offices. “We have come across cases in
some of these small towns where companies were buying VPN
services to make expansion easier,” he says. “If you have a sudden
50 percent growth, for instance, it is cheaper and faster to
rent space across town than to build an add-on structure next
to the existing workspace. And videoconferencing, from the
point of view of avoiding travel, even between buildings and
nearby towns, in addition to work from home, can be a big
time and energy saver.”
The flexibility this offers to fiber-connected businesses has
contributed to the continued strength of FTTH deployment in
rural areas. “We’re still collecting data from smaller LECs, but
I have not seen any real drop-off,” Render says. “I expect that
there will be more a leveling off rather than a decline in 2009.”
The public sector, as well as the private sector, is using fiber
connections to avoid local travel, Render adds, citing “new uses
such as video arraignment of people arrested – you get face-toface
interaction, judge to jail, without transporting a prisoner
to the courthouse.”
The use of videoconferencing and other Web-based collaboration
technologies to reduce long-distance travel in the era
of global business is only beginning, but it holds out enormous
30 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

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Most of the research on FTTH and
telecommuting in the US has been
done by Michael Render of RVA LLC,
and Ecobilan relied on his historical
research in developing its model.
Render told Broadband Properties,
“We have demonstrated
consistently that fiber users are
spending more time on average
working from home. Those who
have the opportunity are spending
significantly more time.”
promise for future energy savings. A study by the American
Consumer Institute estimated that greenhouse gas emissions
would be reduced by 200 million tons if 10 percent of airline
travel could be replaced by teleconferencing over the next 10
years. And case studies show that 10 percent is not an unreasonable
goal: For example, pharmaceutical company Glaxo-
SmithKline reports reducing travel costs by 20 percent after
installing a telepresence system. (Telepresence, an immersive
videoconferencing technology, relies on high-bandwidth, lowlatency
connections.)
During 2008, telepresence moved definitively out of the
“early adopter” stage and into the mainstream; Frost & Sullivan
principal analyst Dominic Dodd says, “Today, many
corporations view telepresence in particular as a very realistic
alternative to business travel, with ROI values that can justify
its initial high price tag.” Frost & Sullivan expects the global
telepresence market to grow to $1.4 billion by 2013.
Travel to medical appointments can also be reduced
through new applications for home-based medical monitoring
and video consultations with physicians. (See “Healthy Business”
in this issue.) As we reported last month, data collected
by ConnectKentucky indicates that 37 percent of Kentucky
broadband users say online access to health care information
has saved them an average of 4.2 unnecessary trips to receive
medical care in a single year – and that’s without any of the new
high-tech solutions. Fiber to the home can enable true homebased
health care and save a much larger number of trips.
Beyond Travel: Cloud Computing
Reducing travel isn’t the only way for FTTH to prove its worth
as a green technology. Another major opportunity for energy
reduction is in the data center.
Even though information technology is net positive for
the environment (every kilowatt-hour of electricity used by IT
reduces overall energy use by a factor of 10, according to the
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy) information
and communications technologies still account for about 2
percent of global carbon emissions, and energy costs are edging
toward 50 percent of the IT budget. Concern about energy use
in corporate data centers has inspired projects like the “Green
Grid,” whose members are developing standards to measure
data center efficiencies.
The bandwidth and reliability of fiber are helping businesses
move computing out of their own data centers and into
the “cloud” – accessing their applications, storage and even raw
computing power over the Internet instead of via a local area
network. Cloud computing became a catchword – and a mainstream
phenomenon – in 2008, after a long startup period. (The
first attempts at delivering software as a service, a decade ago,
failed in part because communication networks were not fast
enough or reliable enough.) Analyst James Staten at Forrester
Research calls cloud computing a “disruptive innovation.”
Cloud computing has great potential for energy savings for
several reasons. First, it enables the collaborative technologies
that allow companies to avoid business travel. Beyond travel
reduction, the economies of scale at massive data centers allow
major improvements in cost and energy efficiency. IBM, which
is opening huge cloud computing centers around the world,
quotes Sanjay G. Dhande, director of the Indian Institute of
Technology, saying, “Cloud computing enables server-centric
virtualization, which helps the IT ecosystem to achieve a
smaller footprint, efficient resource utilization and server con-
The Fiber-to-the-Home Council, the IMCC and
Broadband Properties Magazine
Congratulate
For becoming a Silver Sponsor at the
2009 Broadband Properties Summit.
For more information on Connexion Technologies,
visit www.connexiontechnologies.net.
You are cordially invited to come see
Connection Technologies at the upcoming
April 27 – 29, 2009
Hyatt Regency DFW • Dallas, TX
New Business Models For Fiber Communities
To Exhibit or Sponsor, contact: Irene Prescott at
irene@broadbandproperties.com, or call 316-733-9122.
& For other inquiries, call 877-588-1649,
or visit www.bbpmag.com
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 31

Cover Story
A Deep Dive Into the Ecobilan Model
The FTTH Council’s goal in commissioning the Ecobilan
study was to start developing a standard approach for
evaluating FTTH solutions, using globally accepted life cycle
assessment (LCA) methodology. The study meets a set of
international standards called ISO 14040, for environmental
assessment based on consistent and relevant data, but it
does not cover all possible deployment scenarios. Use it as a
starting point for your own discussions.
FTTH Scenarios and Assumptions
The study models the entire network from the central office
(CO) to the user. It covers the passive components of the outside
plant fiber network (the cable and the hardware) as well
as the active equipment components in the access network.
It does not consider the infrastructure associated with the
metro or long-haul portions of the network, on the theory
that it is in place and would be expanded in any event. Thus,
it may slightly understate the impact of rural deployments
far from intercity fiber trunks, which require expansion of
the long-haul networks that might otherwise not take place.
On the other hand, it does not include the very latest versions
of FTTH equipment coming onto the market, with
lower energy consumption both in absolute terms and in
energy-per-bit efficiency.
The study integrates the environmental impacts associated
with the fiber networks from their construction to the
end of their useful life, excluding maintenance.
Based primarily on conversations with vendors and deployers,
Ecobilan made the following critical nationwide assumptions
to generate its “typical” GPON model. Network
deployers should make adjustments based on their individual
circumstances.
• Electricity is generated using 48.56 percent coal, 3.37
percent oil, 16.42 percent natural gas, 19.30 percent
nuclear, 7.49 percent hydro and 2.11 percent renewable
sources (data from the International Energy Agency).
• Passive equipment has a life of 30 to 50 years, while active
network elements last 5 to 10 years.
• LTA and CTC cable are used in equal amounts. A 72-fiber
LTA cable is mainly made of HDPE (high-density
polyethylene) and polyester with glass, while the CTC
cable of same fiber count is made mainly of HDPE, PVC
(polyvinyl chloride) and the glass fiber.
• Aerial cable is an outdoor cable consolidated with FRP
(glass and a polyester resin) and additional polyethylene.
• Buried cable is an outdoor cable armored with steel.
• Indoor cable is 24-fiber H-Pace, made mainly of LSOH
(low smoke zero halogen), which was modeled as if it
were polypropylene.
Network Life Cycle
Benefits of telecommuting, versus six major environmental impacts,
assuming no customer growth; the environmental cost of building
the network is paid back in six years. Most of a fiber network’s energy
impact is in construction, not operation.
The life cycle of a fiber-to-the-home network.
Assuming 25 percent customer growth, the payback is in four years.
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Environmental Impacts Modeled by Ecobilan
Impacts over the network life cycle.
Beyond their environment-friendly
aspects, FTTH solutions can offer
considerable additional social and
economical benefits for the emerging
digital era – better health care,
more efficient industry, enhanced
educational opportunities, flexible
security systems and more.
• Drop cable is a monomode optical fiber made mainly
of photopolymerisable material (acrylic resin) and glass
fiber, which was modeled as silica.
• Cable distances were estimated based on answers to a
questionnaire sent to US deployers.
• Each ONT weighs 780 grams (1.7 pounds), and is a
50/50 mix of steel and HDPE.
• An OLT rack is a 50/50 mix of steel and HDPE as well.
One PON OLT uses two OLT racks.
• Splitters weigh 500 grams (just over 1 pound) and are
made of HDPE.
• Distribution boxes weigh 3 kg (6.6 pounds) and are also
made of HDPE.
• Each OLT serves 410 users, and each user has an ONT.
Operating impacts.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 33

Cover Story
• There is a 1-to-32 split ratio for fiber.
• One distribution box is used per 24 homes passed.
• A delivery truck covers an average distance of 621 miles
and carries 89.5 miles of cable.
• Construction excavations are 3.2 feet wide and of variable
depth and length; 20 gallons of diesel fuel are needed to
excavate 10,000 cubic feet. Eighty-five percent of holes
are made in grass, the other 15 percent in concrete (street
and sidewalks).
• Cable ducts are HDPE with an external diameter of 2.5
inches and internal diameter of 2 inches.
• Wooden poles are used for aerial fiber, with 10 new poles
required per mile.
• For plowed direct buried deployment, the width of the
trench is assumed to be 2 feet (60 cm). The cable plowing
machine has a 225-horsepower diesel engine.
• The multifiber services terminal handhole enclosures are
made of of PVC and weigh about 17.7 kg (40 pounds)
each. Average distance between two manholes is 1 km
(0.6 mile).
• For horizontal drilling deployments, the drilling machine
is powered by a 261-horsepower diesel engine.
• ONTs are used for 10 hours per day and draw 12 watts.
They spend 14 hours in standby “sleeping” mode at 2
watts.
• OLTs draw 0.6 watt per user, 24 hours a day.
• At the end of life, 50 percent of the cable’s HDPE is incinerated
and 50 percent landfilled. All of the glass fiber
is incinerated.
• Initial take rates are 30 percent. Two different scenarios
assume, respectively, zero growth and 25 percent annual
growth in the number of subscribers in the first several
years after buildout of the network. (The latter assumption
is more realistic, and probably underestimates actual
growth rates.)
• Ten percent of workers in fiber-to-the-home communities
telecommute an average of three more days per week.
(Note: this amount is assumed to be constant over time,
though evidence exists that telecommuting increases the
longer one is a fiber subscriber.)
• Commuters’ vehicles get an average of 24.5 miles a gallon
(the data comes from the US Department of Transportation’s
“Summary of Fuel Economy Performance,”
March 2004).
• Ninety-seven percent of US cars are gasoline-powered, 3
percent are diesel, and a negligible number use alternative
fuels (data from R.L. Polk & Co.).
• Temperature control in the telecommuter’s home, during
telecommuting hours, requires 532.3 kilowatt-hours
per square meter of floor space per year.
The complete report is at www.FTTHCouncil.org.
solidation.” Google, one of the largest
cloud computing providers, says its data
centers use about half as much electricity
as a typical data center does.
Finally, cloud computing allows data
centers to be located in places where sustainable
energy is available and inexpensive.
Microsoft, Yahoo, Ask.com, Intuit
Inc. and Sabey Corp. have all recently
bought land in central Washington state
to build large data centers where they
can access hydropower from dams. And
it’s been reported that several companies,
including Morgan Stanley and Google,
are planning to build new floating data
centers powered by tidal energy.
and communications technology into
the generation, delivery and consumption
of electricity – could reduce US
energy consumption by between 56
and 203 billion kWh in 2030, yielding
a reduction of between 1.2 percent and
4.3 percent in projected retail electricity
sales. EPRI also says a smart grid
can make it easier to integrate renewable
resources such as solar and wind power
into the system and to deploy plug-in
hybrid electric vehicles.
The key to a smart grid is a broadband
network enabling two-way communica-
Conserving Electricity
As Michael Render notes, tying energysaving
devices via fiber to the electrical
grid represent another environmentally
positive opportunity for FTTH. “Smart
metering, with a way to tie back information
to the consumer, has a demonstrated
conservation effect and also saves
money for consumers,” he says.
The Electric Power Research Institute
(EPRI) estimates that a “smart
grid” – which incorporates information
Electric Power Research Institute’s concept of how a home might participate in a smart grid to allow
dynamic energy management.
34 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

cover story
The bandwidth and reliability of fiber
are helping businesses move computing out
of their own data centers and into the “cloud” –
accessing their applications, storage and even
raw computing power over the Internet instead
of via a local area network.
tions between all of the electric transmission
and distribution components, the
electric meters and end user devices.
Fiber-to-the-home networks, because
they offer the most reliable and
high-capacity broadband available, are
already being used in a number of smart
grid initiatives. For example, Pulaski
Electric System (PES) in Pulaski, Tennessee
(whose FTTH system is featured
in this month’s Municipal Deployment
Snapshot), is implementing an advanced
metering infrastructure and other
smart-grid applications, using communications
via fiber and wireless.
The PES system gathers meter data
from electric, water and gas meters and
other endpoints and sends the information
to the operations center over the fiber
network. The data can be integrated into
billing, outage management, forecasting
and customer service applications. PES
executive vice president Wes Kelley says
the company anticipates power savings
through faster outage detection and
restoration, and especially by eliminating
hard-to-read rural routes. PES also
has plans to help customers increase
their own energy efficiency, putting
them in greater control of their power
use and expenditures. Customers will be
able to get real-time notifications about
consumption status and current energy
costs, and receive signals when load control
events are in effect.
Chattanooga, Tennessee; Glasgow,
Kentucky; and Bristol, Tennessee, three
other cities whose municipal electric
utilities operate fiber-to-the-home networks,
have also embarked on smart
grid projects.
Even in cities without a utility-driven
smart grid program, homeowners and
MDU owners are creating their own
“smart buildings,” using broadband to
help monitor and control energy usage,
including both electrical appliances and
heating/cooling systems. Communications
within the building may be carried
over anything from a simple wireless
mesh (see our report from the Consumer
Electronics Show in this issue) to
fiber optic backbone. The more sophisticated
systems use broadband connections
both to program the devices and
The Emerging Internet Economy
March 30 & 31, Washington DC
• Hear how the Internet drives
economic growth.
• See FTTH plans by the CIO of
San Francisco and the CTO of Seattle.
• Meet the visionaries of Lafayette and
Glasgow networks.
• Learn from notorious municipal
network failures.
• Get the scoop from Obama
administration insiders.
Register by February 28
to save $300.
to continuously gather and analyze data
on usage patterns.
The opportunities for FTTH networks
to save energy and reduce environmental
damage seem limitless. Simply
shifting newspaper subscriptions from
physical to online media will save 57.4
million tons of greenhouse gases over the
next decade, according to the American
Consumer Institute, and downloads of
music, video and other media are saving
even more. New applications will offer
still more opportunities.
To sum up: FTTH delivers more
than broadband! BBP
About the Authors
Steve can be reached at steve@broadband
properties.com, and Masha at masha@
broadbandproperties.com.
Cloud computing allows data centers to
be located in places where sustainable energy
is available and inexpensive.
Register for F2C at freedom-to-connect.net
Hear telecom guru and F2C Founder David Isenberg
speak at the Broadband Properties Summit.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 35

New Business
OFFICIAL CORPORATE HOST
Models for Today’s
Fiber Communities
April 27-29
Hyatt Regency DFW
Dallas, TX
877-588-1649 • www.bbpmag.com
PLATINUM SPONSOR
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Biggest and Best Summit Ever
Blockbuster Agenda of Multifamily Sessions
Broadband-enabled Economic Growth Success Stories
FTTH for the 21st Century Community
“Excellent opportunity to network as well as stay
up to date on issues facing the owner.”
- Colette Hepp, National Programs
Manager, Laramar Group
Get Connected at the Summit
It’s the Leading Conference on Broadband Technologies and Services

Biggest and Best…
Summit Ever
Here’s Why You Should Join Hundreds of
Others at the Summit
Broadband Properties is working with the FTTH Council and the
IMCC to bring you the best Summit ever.
Over 1,000
Attendees Expected
The 2009 Broadband Properties Summit is
the leading venue for information on digital
and broadband technologies for buildings
and communities. The annual event is the
premier offering in the Towns & Technologies
series of trade shows and conferences
from Broadband Properties Magazine.
With a focus on residential properties, developments
and municipalities, the Summit has
become a must-attend event for large-scale
and wholesale buyers and users of broadband
technologies, equipment, and services.
Network builders have identified it as the
best place to learn the latest on competitively
distinguishing their properties and systems
in this rapidly changing marketplace.
For the sixth year in a row, Broadband Properties
Magazine is taking the BBP Summit back
to Dallas. The Summit will include industry
leaders and decision makers at a world-class
event. Close to 900 property owners, developers,
telcos, cable companies and industry
leaders attended the 2008 event.
THIS EVENT WILL SELL OUT!
Secure your seat today by calling
877-588-1649, or visit our website
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The leading source of marketing ideas and strategies for
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Who should attend
Attendees include those involved in the design and development of
communities – and in large-scale and wholesale buying and selling
of broadband services and technologies.
– REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS – PROPERTY OWNERS – INDEPENDENT
TELCOS – MUNICIPAL OFFICIALS – PRIVATE CABLE OPERATORS –
TOWN PLANNERS – ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONALS –
ARCHITECTS AND BUILDERS – SYSTEM OPERATORS – INVESTORS –
UTILITY ORGANIZATIONS – SYSTEM INTEGRATORS
At the BBP Summit you will learn how to:
- Get your customers and constituents on board with your plans.
- Increase the ROI of your buildings.
- Improve the appeal of your properties.
In our sessions and networking activities you will discover:
- The latest broadband strategies of cities and communities.
- “Lessons learned” from others –what to emulate and what to avoid.
- A wealth of information that is truly up-to-the-minute.
Top-quality content and world-class speakers in a program
designed with your current needs in mind.
Activities and Sessions Include:
- New Case Studies on How Broadband Spurs Economic
Development
- Applications to Generate Profits For Network Operators
- Cornerstone Awards For Today’s Leading Broadband Communities
- World-Class Keynote Speakers
- Extensive Q&A’s With The Experts
- Evening Receptions and Networking Events
“... great presentations with information that was
very helpful to us ... great practical information.”
- Candy Riem, Manager of Business
Development, Midwest Energy
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 37

Get Connected…
At The Summit
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Biggest and Best…
Summit Ever
EXHIBITORS
CSI Digital
momentum
#18
To Exhibit or Sponsor, contact:
Irene Prescott at
irene@broadbandproperties.com,
or call 316-733-9122.
©2006
Exhibit Hall will
again sell out.
Get your booth now!

Get Connected…
At The Summit
AGENDA AT A GLANCE
Sunday, April 26
7:00 am–1:00 pm Contractor Move-in
1:00 pm–7:30 pm Exhibitor Move-in
5:00 pm–7:30 pm Association Board Meetings, Pre-Conference Activities
Monday, April 27
7:00 am–6:00 pm Registration Open
7:30 am–8:30 am Continental Breakfast
8:00 am–10:20 am Multifamily Development Workshop - From Design to Move In
10:30 am–11:20 am Case Study/Comcast: The Future of Video Services: Speaker: Derek Harrar
11:30 am–12:00 pm General Session: Welcome & Research Presentation: Latest Fiber Deployment Stats from Mike Render of RVA
12:00 pm–12:30 pm Lunch with Slide Show of Properties
12:30 pm–1:00 pm General Session: Welcome & Overview: Joe Savage, President, Fiber-to-the-Home Council / Keynote: TBA
1:00 pm–1:50 pm General Session: Near-Term And Future FiOS services. Intro: Dan O’Connell. Speaker: Mark Wegleitner
2:00 pm–3:00 pm General Session: Property Owners’ Forum
FTTH Track MDU Track Editor’s Choice Track
3:10 pm–4:00 pm Competitive Differentiation and Case Study: AT&T IPTV Demo Improving Your Bottom Line With A
Revenue Generation with Healthcare
Complete Service Delivery Platform
Services over Fiber
4:10 pm–5:00 pm Gaming — How to Profit State of the Art Triple Play How WiFi Enhances The
From Its Soaring Growth
Business Case For Fiber
5:00 pm–6:30 pm Exhibit Hall Opens: Refreshments Sponsored by Comcast
6:30 pm–8:00 pm Opening Night Cocktail Reception Sponsored by Time Warner Cable
Tuesday, April 28
7:00 am–6:00 pm Registration Open
7:30 am–8:00 am Continental Breakfast Sponsored by Suttle
8:00 am–8:50 am General Session: Multifamily Structured Cabling Made Easy
9:00 am–9:30 am Morning Keynote: TBA
FTTH Track MDU Track Editor’s Choice Track
9:40 am–10:40 am LIGHT BRIGADE WORKSHOP: Business Models for Knowing Your Network:
Fiber-in-the-Building: How to Build Multiprovider Communities What Service Providers are
an FTTH Network (emphasis on
Using to Get an Edge and Create
non-residential)
New Services
10:40 am–12:30 pm Exhibit Hall Open / Refreshment Break
12:30 pm–1:40 pm Cornerstone Awards Luncheon Sponsored by Verizon Enhanced Communities
2:10 pm–3:10 pm Economic Development: Case The Evolution of Bulk Services The Role of RFOG in Competing
Studies of How Fiber Networks
for the All-Fiber Market
Attract Businesses and Create Jobs
3:20 pm–4:20 pm Energy Management with Due Diligence - Evaluating an Using Fiber To Expand Business
Fiber Networks Acquisition or Existing Community Services For Cable Companies
4:20 pm–4:50 pm Refreshment & Networking Break Sponsored by Comcast
FTTH Track MDU Track Editor’s Choice Track
4:50 pm–6:00 pm LIGHT BRIGADE PRESENTATION: Round Table 1: FiOS Overlay of Innovations to Speed Fiber to
How Municipalities Can Justify Fiber an Existing Community the MDU
by Migrating from ITS to FTTx Roundtable 2: U-verse Recondition
Networks
of an Existing Community
Roundtable 3: Multiprovider
Marketing Agreements
6:00 pm–7:30 pm Exhibit Hall Cocktail Reception Sponsored by DIRECTV
7:30 pm–9:00 pm Networking Dinners
Wednesday, April 29
7:00 am–2:00 pm Registration Open
7:30 am–8:30 am Continental Breakfast
FTTH Track MDU Track Editor’s Choice Track
8:00 am–9:00 am LIGHT BRIGADE PRESENTATION: Protect Your Customers: A Guide to TBA
Testing and Troubleshooting Short the Standards, Regulation and
Course Introduction (hands on later) Codes Governing Multifamily Wiring
9:00 am–10:00 am Report On Roundtable Sessions / General Session Presentation TBA
10:10 am–11:00 am Keynote Speech: Rey Ramsey, CEO, One Economy
11:00 am–2:00 pm Exhibit Hall Open (Made-in-Texas Ballroom)
11:10 am–12:10 pm TBA Regulatory Update TBA
12:30 pm–2:10 pm Working Lunch: 3rd Annual Multifamily Legal Leaders Panel (Buffet Lunch Served in Enterprise Foyer)
2:00 pm–5:00 pm LIGHT BRIGADE 3-HOUR HANDS ON SESSION (Separate registration and fee required)
2:15 pm–7:30 pm DISH Network PCO Summit (Separate registration required)
Exhibit Hall Events
Food/Social Functions
40 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

Biggest and Best…
Summit Ever
NEW EXPANDED SUMMIT
Blockbuster Agenda of Multifamily Sessions
“OUT OF THE LAB AND INTO THE COMMUNITIES”
MDU chairmen:
Chris Acker
Director, Building Technology Services Group,
Forest City Residential Management, Inc.
Henry Pye
Vice President, Resident Technology Solutions,
Realpage, Inc.
Steve Sadler
Director Ancillary Services,
Post Apartment Homes, L.P.
Terrific Multifamily Housing Agenda
MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2009
8:00 am – 10:20 am
Multifamily Development Workshop – From Design to Move-in
Bring your network plans and drawings. Panelists will review each step of
the design, construction, and deployment process for an MDU development.
Focusing on the process and common challenges, the panelists will
discuss how to design, coordinate, bid, contact, construct, and deploy voice,
video and high-speed Internet services to a multifamily development.
10:30 am – 11:20 am
Case Study/Comcast: The Future of Video Services
A review of Comcast’s vision for the future of video services.
1:00 pm – 1:50 pm
Near-Term and Future FiOS Services
A review of near-term and future FiOS services.
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Multifamily Owners Forum
What do owners really think about the critical challenges facing the industry
3:10 pm – 4:00 pm
Case Study: Vendor Presentation: AT&T U-verse IPTV Demo
AT&T provides a live, real demonstration of current and near term U-verse
Internet protocol services.
4:10 pm – 5:00 pm
Case Study: Vendor Presentation: IMCC/Private Cable Operators –
State of the Art Triple Play
The Independent Multifamily Communications Council will present a case
study showing particular PCO-led projects, including lessons learned by
PCO representatives, service vendors, and owners.
TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2009
8:00 am – 8:50 am
Multifamily Structured Cabling Made Easy
Presenters will review with full scale examples four common multifamily
structured cabling layouts:
1. Cable Company/PCO and AT&T U-Verse xDSL
2. Cable Company/PCO and AT&T U-Verse FTTP
3. Cable Company/PCO and Verizon FiOS SFU ONT
4. Cable Company/PCO and Verizon FiOS Multifamily ONT
9:40 am – 10:40 am
Business Models for Multiprovider Communities
In the absence of bulk services, the one-provider community is disappearing.
Industry veterans will discuss the evolving business models for providers
and owners for communities with at least two providers of voice,
video and high-speed Internet access.
2:10 pm – 3:10 pm
The Evolution of Bulk Services
Critical to many multifamily verticals, bulk services are constantly evolving.
Providers and owners will discuss current, near term, and future bulk
services for multifamily communities.
3:20 pm – 4:20 pm
Due Diligence – Evaluating an Acquisition or Existing Community
4:50 pm – 6:00 pm
Attendee Choice: Multifamily Roundtables
• FiOS Overlay of an Existing Community • U-verse Recondition of an
Existing Community • Modern Marketing Agreements
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2009
8:00 am – 9:00 am
Protect Your Customers: A Guide to the Standards, Regulations and
Codes Governing Multifamily Wiring
Presenters will review the pertinent standards, regulation, and codes governing
structured cabling and infrastructure on multifamily communities
including: fire-ratings, grounding, and installation standards.
11:10 am – 12:10 pm
Regulatory Update
Panelists will provide a comprehensive update regarding federal, state
and local regulation of voice, video and high-speed Internet access services
delivered to multifamily communities.
12:30 pm – 2:10 pm
Luncheon and 3rd Annual Multifamily Legal Leaders Panel
Industry leaders in owner-provider legal relationships will address current
trends and concerns related to voice, video and high-speed internet access
services delivered to multifamily communities.

Bringing Fiber to the MDU:
A Conversation with Verizon Enhanced
Communities’ Eric Cevis
Innovative technologies, marketing strategies and applications are helping
Verizon deploy its FiOS services in multiple dwelling unit buildings.
Verizon Enhanced Communities is the
division of Verizon responsible for deploying
FiOS services to rental apartments,
condos and multi-tenant businesses. By
December 2008, after only three and a
half years of wiring MDUs with its FiOS
services, Verizon had 1 million living
units open for sale – up from 33,000 in
2005 – in buildings ranging from lowincome
housing to luxury condos. Recently
Broadband Properties had the opportunity
to speak with Eric Cevis, the vice president
for Verizon Enhanced Communities,
about the challenges involved in this
rapid and large-scale rollout of triple-play
services to MDUs. Following are excerpts
from that conversation.
Broadband Properties:
The deployment of FiOS in MDUs
has been gathering speed, and
you’ve negotiated some large-scale
agreements with property owners
like Aimco. In the MDU marketplace,
what’s the driving force in terms of
demand Are there specific services
that residents are looking for
Eric Cevis: Most of the excitement is
driven by our FiOS TV offer, maybe because
there hasn’t been a choice in the
market for some time. It’s a combination
of the picture quality, the Interactive Media
Guide (IMG), the video-on-demand
(VoD) offering – more than 14,000 titles,
70 percent of which are free – along with
the 100 or more high-definition channels,
which was a big differentiator for us
in 2008. We’re finding that the video offering
is a pull-through for the voice and
Internet services. When residents see the
Internet service in a bundled offer, with
speeds as high as 50 Mbps downstream
by 20 Mbps upstream (and a symmetrical
offer of 20 Mbps by 20 Mbps, among
others), that has been a game changer for
the marketplace.
Telecommuting is starting to be part of
our conversation with building owners. A lot of
tenants are telling us they’re getting better service
at home with FiOS Internet than on their
corporate LANs!
Learn more about Verizon’s MDU deployment
strategies at the Broadband Summit,
April 27 – 29 in Dallas, Texas.
BBP: So the demand is primarily
for entertainment, rather than
for telecommuting
EC: We’re seeing more and more work-athome
applications, so I wouldn’t suggest
that telecommuting isn’t also driving
Internet sales. In these economic times,
first because of high gas prices and then
because of the need to save money, more
people want to work from home. Some
who have been laid off from their job
and are either seeking work or starting a
home-based business or consulting practice
have the need for our FiOS Internet
service.
Telecommuting is starting to be part
of our conversation with building owners.
A lot of tenants are telling us they’re
getting better service at home with FiOS
Internet than on their corporate LANs!
BBP: Are property owners finding
that FiOS helps them rent or sell
apartments
EC: Yes, they are. I’ve spoken at several
conferences about “technology as an
amenity” – the same way people look
for granite countertops, exercise rooms,
or pools, now they’re asking if buildings
are FiOS-wired. So renters are getting
more value for their money, and owners
are also charging more in rent. A recent
survey by Parks Associates validates our
sense that there is a certain willingness
on the part of tenants to pay a little more
for an apartment wired with Verizon’s
FiOS services.
BBP: How important are services
beyond the triple play
EC: I think we’ll see a lot more of these
– that’s where the future is. We’ve done
some pilot projects in New York, bringing
in new applications that further leverage
residents’ broadband connections.
We’re getting a lot of interest for security
applications, letting residents use
“nannycams” to monitor what’s going on
42 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

developer at their comfort level. The
better the partnership, the better penetration
levels we get.
We have a program called “Community
Rewards.” It’s an incentive-based
program for the leasing or management
staff. The more penetration you drive for
voice, video and data, the more gifts you
can accumulate – high-definition televisions,
digital cameras, and so forth.
Some owners let the incentives go to individual
employees, others feel that’s too
competitive, and they make them available
to the team as a whole.
Eric Cevis, vice president for Verizon Enhanced Communities
in the house when they are away. We’ve
been working with an application development
company to develop a technology-enabled
concierge platform that will
benefit both property owners and their
residents. For instance, this platform
would allow property managers to automate
some functions, allowing residents
to complete a work order online alerting
them of a lightbulb outage in a common
area. Residents, on the other hand, could
– with this platform – request the front
desk to bring their car around at a certain
hour, or give certain people access
to their apartment while the resident is
at work or on vacation, as the visit will
be recorded on a videocam.
We’re always looking for ways to
help our customers understand the true
advantage they have with their bandwidth
while trying to increase the average
revenue per user.
Gaming has also continued to be a
focus for us – you have a “first-shooter
advantage” with FiOS because you’re getting
off a couple of shots before your opponent
does. My 18-year-old loves that!
And we’re looking into home networking.
In talking with our strategic
partners, they say people are asking for
things like, “How can I turn the air conditioning
on while I’m on my way home
from work, so the house is cool when I
get there How can I turn the lights on
and off while I’m away, so the house
doesn’t look empty And did I remember
to close the garage door before I left”
You should be able to do these things
with a PDA or a Verizon wireless device.
BBP: Are building owners interested
in these nontraditional applications
EC: They’re very excited to hear about
them. It makes them think of us as a strategic
partner that can bring more valueadded
services to benefit their communities
and draw in more residents. Some
of the biggest property owners and developers
in Virginia and New York City
have started test-bedding some of these
applications with us.
Innovations in Marketing
BBP: What have you been doing to
market FiOS in MDUs
EC: The first thing we had to do was educate
the property owners on the value of
fiber optics at their property. We spent a
lot of time driving awareness that FiOS
exists, that there’s a choice in the marketplace
now, and that we believe it’s a
differentiated choice.
Once a developer agrees to allow Verizon
to deploy FiOS on the property,
in some instances we may pay them for
the right to market the services on their
property. If a property gives us exclusive
marketing rights (which isn’t the same
as saying we’re the exclusive provider),
we’ll pay them a little more for those
rights. Our goal is to partner with the
Marketing Twists
In the leasing offices we like to provide
a FiOS TV demo account so residents
can experience FiOS TV in real
time. Once you see it, the picture quality
sells itself. Depending on the weather
and the jurisdiction, we host pool parties
or barbecues at the communities to
get residents to ‘test drive’ FiOS services.
Additionally, we try to alert residents
that FiOS is available by getting into the
property’s newsletters and on their community
Internet Web site. We’re constantly
looking for ways we can partner
with the property to drive awareness of
the FiOS product line and to educate
residents on the value of the service to
them.
We’ve got a nationally dispersed marketing
team with a person dedicated to
each building. When allowed, we use
door hangers, direct mailings, and unique
rebate offers to sell FiOS at a building
once it’s wired. Often we will even send a
welcome kit to new tenants moving into
the building with a rebate offer.
BBP: Do you have residents marketing
to each other
EC: Yes, we have a “Refer a Friend” program.
If you’re a FiOS customer you can
host a FiOS party in your apartment
and for each neighbor who signs up and
stays with the service for 30 days the referring
customer can earn $25.
Also, when possible we try to have
a more permanent presence on the
property. For instance, in Peter Cooper
Village/Stuyvesant Town in New York
City, Verizon has a retail store right next
to the leasing office where anyone – residents
and passers-by – can come in and
get more information about FiOS or
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 43

VATS – the Verizon Advanced Terminal System –
is a preconfigured cabinet with preconnectorized
cable that lets you plug and play tenants as they
sign up for services. We’re finding a 25 percent
cost savings compared to the technology
we had been using.
order services, for instance right after a
resident has signed the lease. There’s a
lounge where you can watch FiOS TV
and surf the Internet at the fastest speeds
because these are services that need to
be experienced. In the store, there are
cubby areas where customers can sit
down and a Verizon representative will
answer questions about the different
FiOS packages available and discuss
current promotions. We love it because
it’s right next to the leasing office, and
we’re going to see if we can negotiate retail
space in other big properties.
At Peter Cooper/Stuyvesant Town,
we have planned many activities out
of the store to make tenants aware that
FiOS is available. We’ve hosted events
such as outdoor concert series and gaming
contests – that’s been a great way to
get tenants engaged – like Guitar Hero
on the Oval. Many of these events help
drive awareness and give people a chance
to experience FiOS.
This year, we’re looking to migrate
to more of a revenue-sharing model. Instead
of paying a one-time fee per living
unit in order to market services on the
property, this model will allow them to
benefit more from greater penetration.
MSOs have been doing this for a while,
but we’ve now built systems to support
this initiative. This would be primarily
in rental space, because there is constant
traffic. As building owners look at this
proposition, they will realize that they
could be a part of the revenue mission
on the property themselves.
Technology Innovations
BBP: One factor that spurred the
deployment of FiOS in MDUs was
the availability of bend-insensitive
fiber. In theory, it was supposed to
make it a lot easier to deploy fiber
inside buildings.
EC: And that’s exactly what’s happening
in practice, particularly in urban
environments like New York City where
space is a commodity. With the cable
TV franchises we’ve announced in New
York and Washington, which allow us
to offer FiOS TV, and the one we’re expecting
in Philadelphia, we will be doing
more and more work in high-rise
and mid-rise applications, and bendable
fiber allows for more efficient and costeffective
deployment. In suburban lowrise
apartments we are still using traditional
microduct as well – it’s great to
have choices and some flexibility.
In urban environments, where you
have to bend the fiber around tight turns,
you would degrade or even lose the signal,
and we don’t have that problem anymore.
In addition to getting a better signal,
bend-insensitive fiber is shortening
the installation interval, and it’s much
more aesthetically pleasing. So it’s cutting
the overall cost of implementation.
MDUs represent about a quarter of
the households in Verizon’s wireline communication
territory, so this is clearly an
important business for Verizon. And in
the current economic environment, with
people not being able to buy single-family
homes, a large percentage of our work
is overbuilding and retrofitting of existing
MDU buildings. Because there will
be more rentals than people purchasing
homes, it will present an opportunity to
scale this business for Verizon.
BBP: Beyond bend-insensitive fiber,
have any other new technologies
been particularly important to
deploying fiber in MDUs
EC: Well, there’s VATS – the Verizon
Advanced Terminal System – which is
a preconfigured cabinet with preconnectorized
cable that lets you plug and
play tenants as they sign up for services.
We started using this in 2008, and we’re
finding a 25 percent cost savings compared
to the technology we had been using.
VATS is bringing down installation
time, too.
We’re always looking for ways to
scale the business and bring down capital
costs. We’re also constantly pushing
on the manufacturers to reduce the size
of the ONT [optical network terminal].
We are testing a prototype of one that
looks like a modem and sits on a desk in
the office. Customers have complained
about the big size of the cabinet, and we
like to put one in every living unit – we
prefer to take the signal all the way into
the home when possible – so we worked
with manufacturers to build something
as small as the size of a modem box. The
aesthetics are much better.
We are also using a recessed ONT,
which goes between two-by-fours in the
sheetrock. A lot of property owners love
that, because it’s not taking any space
away from the residents. And we’re putting
rack-mounted ONT units in closets
to serve a whole floor.
BBP: Another problem with deploying
fiber in MDUs has been that
apartment buildings and complexes
are so different, there was no way to
standardize the installations. Is this
still true, or have you found ways
to standardize
EC: We’re getting to the point where we
can handle the different requirements in
a more standardized way. We don’t have
to be as customized anymore. We want
to be able to scale this operation, and our
belief is that by working with the manufacturers
we now have tools that give
us the flexibility we need. Of course,
we still have our engineers review each
building to verify that we have the right
deployment design for that particular
building. The key is in being able to get
similar tools off the shelf to deliver on
that design.
For example, we’ve got multifiber
drops, which let you pull three or five
fibers simultaneously, saving our FiOS
technicians from the rework of pulling
one fiber at a time. I don’t think we’ve
seen the end of what the manufacturers
will create for us. If there’s a mind to
create it, they’ll do it.
44 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

Working with
Property Owners
BBP: When you first started
marketing FiOS to MDU owners,
some of them were dubious about it.
What were the major sticking points,
and how did you address them
EC: Their main concern was, “Am I going
to be out of service for a long period
of time Because I don’t want you disturbing
my rent revenues.” But what
they’re seeing now is good world-class
customer service end to end, providing
a competitive choice to their residents.
They’re also seeing that they’re not the
first ones to get FiOS in their buildings
– there are a million living units wired
with FiOS. We have deployed FiOS services
in developments owned by many of
the largest real estate companies in the
country to some of the smaller, regional
builders and with the owners of low- and
moderate-cost properties. The feedback
has been positive, the analyst reports are
good, and people believe Verizon has listened
to its customers and has made the
necessary changes or improvements.
When property managers told us
the single-family ONT was too large,
we came back with a smaller unit and
an integrated power supply. And when
we installed Peter Cooper Village [with
11,000 living units] in record time, that
catches the attention of other property
owners. Having account managers from
the marketing team on the premises on
a weekly basis, as a single point of contact,
also really makes a difference.
We hold conferences where we bring
customers in, and they tell us what’s
working and what’s not. At our first
conference Verizon got beat up, but at
the most recent one folks stood up in
the audience and said Verizon is doing it
right, they listen to the customer.
BBP: What’s the secret to working
effectively and efficiently with property
managers during a deployment
EC: We use a “net promoter score,” which
shows how many customers are willing
to be promoters versus detractors, and
we hold our employees accountable for
making every experience a promoter
experience. Our portfolio manager is
responsible for making sure that what
was sold is what was implemented. They
can bring in the functional resources
responsible for providing the best customer
experience.
The portfolio manager’s job is to lay
out the implementation plan for each
day, week and month, and do reviews
on a weekly basis, constantly communicating
with the property managers. It’s
clearly helping the property managers
to understand that they’re not in this by
themselves. They have got a single point
of contact, a liaison to get whatever resources
are necessary to deliver on the
job. We host cutover meetings where
we bring our engineering, construction
and operations people and the property
manager brings their team in – the more
you communicate, the better the project
goes at the end of the day.
We’ll ask when is the certificate of
occupancy date, when do we want the
Customers have complained about the big size
of the cabinet, and we like to put one in every
living unit – we prefer to take the signal all the
way into the home when possible – so we worked
with manufacturers to build something as small
as the size of a modem box. We are testing an
ONT prototype that looks like a modem and
sits on a desk in the office.
I like that I’m coming in as a new entrant.
Competition is a good thing. We believe in our
product – a differentiated product is a powerful
proposition. We’ve never had a problem
competing as a service provider in this industry.
tenants in – we won’t jeopardize those
crucial dates. We’ll wire one building
first and make sure it’s right before going
forward with the rest of them. In 2008
we created a sales engineering function –
I call them the interpreter between engineering
and sales. They talk to the building
owner, put the drawings out there,
and make sure we’re all talking the same
language. It helps us scale the business.
We’ve got a five-point playbook to
make sure every property gets the same
level of communications. Six to nine
months after we finish building out, we
go out there and refresh the marketing
campaign. We show the owners how
FiOS can help them increase their occupancy
rate and bring in incremental
revenue. Some of the owners that have
flipped their buildings are loving it, because
when they resell their property, it’s
at a higher dollar amount.
BBP: Property owners have told us
their tenants are now demanding
a choice of providers. Is it more of
a challenge to deploy, market and
operate FiOS services when there
are multiple providers in a building
EC: I like that I’m coming in as a new
entrant. Competition is a good thing.
We believe in our product – a differentiated
product is a powerful proposition.
We’ve never had a problem competing
as a service provider in this industry. I
like to see media reports of the CFO at
Comcast saying Verizon is taking market
share from them.
In the past, many people saw us as
the telephone company. Today we’ve
gone in a short time from a telco to a
broadband and entertainment powerhouse.
I’m in a happy place because of
the product that we have to offer. I like
the fact that it’s fair and open competition.
People are looking for value when
they spend money on products and services,
and we can strongly deliver on
that need. BBP
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 45

Telemedicine
Healthy Business:
Home-Based Telemedicine
Delivered Over Fiber
Developers can differentiate their properties, and broadband providers
can differentiate their packages, by offering a home “health and wellness
amenity.” Consumers say they’re ready to use it – and to pay for it.
By Rob Scheschareg ■ MedConcierge
The old saying about “Doing well by doing good”
still applies today. Property managers, private cable
operators, fiber-to-the-home providers and network
operators all have the opportunity to provide an
amenity that not only adds to the well-being of their customers
but also generates incremental revenue streams and creates competitive
differentiation during challenging economic times.
That amenity is home-based health and wellness services.
Property managers, developers and communication service
providers are leveraging their high-speed networks to offer
advanced health and wellness services that can attract baby
boomers, active adults, employers and municipalities to their
properties, communities and networks.
“We see the growing demand among residents for health
and wellness services delivered over fiber-based broadband communication
networks,” says Thomas Reiman, president of The
Broadband Group, a technology consulting firm. The Broadband
Group is now introducing MedConcierge’s video consultation
service to its clients, including some of the country’s
largest developers.
Consumers Need Online Health Services
A number of new online services help consumers manage and
improve their own health and that of their family members,
young and old. Demand for these services is exploding as consumers
see they can gain faster access to doctors, better understand
their medical conditions and symptoms, and ultimately
make health care decisions that are more informed, more accurate
and more cost effective. Evidence of this growing demand
is documented in several surveys conducted within the
last year:
• Video consultation with doctors is the top-rated non-entertainment
application for consumers 55 and older. (Market
research firm RVA)
• 78 percent of consumers want to interact with health care
providers online. (California HealthCare Foundation, an
independent philanthropic organization)
Learn more about broadband-based
telehealth and telemedicine
services at the Broadband Summit,
April 27 – 29 in Dallas, Texas.
• 70 percent of consumers are likely to use an online health
care video consultation service when it is available to them.
(Market research firm TNS Global)
• 146 million US adults searched online for health information
within the past 12 months. (Health care market research
firm Manhattan Research)
• In the past year, the number of visitors to health-related
sites grew four times faster than the growth in overall Internet
users. (Marketing research company comScore)
Why are consumers so eager to find new models for health
care Currently, they have two options – in-person doctor visits
and do-it-yourself research – and neither of these options is
working well. According to Stanford University professor Dr.
Alan Greene, 210 million Americans are without access to a
doctor on the day they need one. When they do see a doctor,
the average time they spend with the doctor during an office
visit is 7.5 minutes.
In January, MedConcierge conducted health service assessments
in several communities to find out how residents manage
their own and their families’ health care, and to gauge their
level of interest in using video consultation services. We found
less than 30 percent of respondents satisfied with their current
level of access to their doctors.
The do-it-yourself approach is no better. Unable to procure
timely appointments with their doctors, consumers are turning
to online information. While our health service assessments
found 71 percent of respondents researching health information
online on behalf of themselves or their family, this information
doesn’t necessarily help them make good decisions.
46 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

According to Stanford University professor
Dr. Alan Greene, 210 million Americans are
without access to a doctor on the day they
need one. When they do see a doctor,
the average time they spend with the doctor
during an office visit is 7.5 minutes.
There is an overwhelming amount
of biased, generic or outright incorrect
health-related information available to
consumers on the Web, on TV and in
print. This is producing anxiety among
consumers, who are becoming increasingly
responsible for health care decision
making and cost sharing. Based on this
information, many patients diagnose
themselves inappropriately, ending up
by spending money on ineffective treatments,
medications, supplies, and physician
and emergency room visits. In our
health service assessments, 93 percent
of the respondents doing online health
research said they would prefer to have
a live conversation with a doctor during
these online sessions to review, discuss
or suggest alternatives to the information
they find.
Consumers need a third option –
health care that is easily accessible, responsive
and effective. Property managers
and communication service providers
are advantageously positioned to meet
this significant, and growing, need.
According to Parks Associates analyst
Harry Wang, “Service providers are in
a unique, once-in-a-lifetime position to
enter and service this growing service
industry. The home will be the central
location in the new preventative care
model in health care applications, with
broadband enabling home medical services,
telemedicine applications and patient
monitoring.”
Based on our early results, we think
consumers will use this “third option”
for a number of purposes, including getting
second opinions; gaining a deeper
understanding of their medical conditions
or the treatments they’ve been prescribed;
finding out whether they need
emergency help for sudden-onset pain
or other symptoms; and seeking advice
about alternative or complementary
treatments their primary doctors may
not have told them about.
Many providers are already getting
ready to meet this demand. In a poll
that I took during a FTTH Council webinar
in December 2008, 21 percent of
participants indicated they were evaluating
or finalizing plans for rolling out
health and wellness services in 2009.
Videoconferencing with doctors was the
service that generated the highest level
of interest (92 percent).
Advantages to Network Owners
By providing online health and wellness
services to residents and subscribers,
property developers and managers and
communication service providers can
generate additional revenue streams.
Health care affects 100 percent of residents
and subscribers, and the demand
for improved health services will only
Telemedicine
increase in the years ahead. Health care
demand, while not quite recession-proof,
is not driven by economic cycles. In fact,
history has shown that during recessionary
periods the shift of responsibility for
health care services to consumers accelerates.
The current economic downturn
is unlikely to be an exception.
Video consultation services offer
property managers and network operators
several new revenue streams without
incurring any capital expenditures.
By simply adding a video channel or a
link on the community portal, they can
collect a percentage of:
• each video consultation fee
• each subscription purchased
• sales of equipment, supplies, vitamins,
etc.; and
• advertising revenues.
Our health service assessments indicate
that residents are indeed willing to
pay for such services. Forty-four percent
of respondents said they “probably” or
“definitely” would purchase an Internet
or cable TV package that included the
MedConcierge TV service over one that
didn’t, and another 33 percent would
consider it, based on further information.
In addition, nearly a third of respondents
“probably” or “definitely”
would pay for a service that enables live
Video Consultations with Doctors
Can Save Money for Consumers
Even avoiding a few unnecessary emergency room visits could be extremely
beneficial for consumers. Out-of-pocket costs for an office or ER
visit, including travel expenses, average $696 nationally; for persons age
45 – 64, the average cost for an ER visit was $832 in 2003 (according to the
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) and is certainly much higher
today. Time savings are also significant: Average ER wait time was 56 minutes
in 2006 and is growing as more people use the ER as their primary
source of care and as the number of ERs declines. (According to the Centers
for Disease Control, ER usage increased by 32 percent from 1996 to 2006,
while the number of ERs fell from 4,900 to below 4,600.)
In a 2008 study by Milliman, a health care actuarial firm, videoconferencing
with doctors was shown to save employers, insurers and the
government between $3.36 and $6.96 per member per month in health
care costs. The majority of savings are in non-emergent ER visits and inperson
physician visits. Other areas of potential savings that are still under
study include chronic disease management, early disease detection and
care management.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 47

Telemedicine
video consultations with doctors over
the Internet, and 36 percent of those
are willing to pay more than $100 per
month. In trials of the service, we are
also finding that the service is generating
revenues from advertising and from
purchases of health care supplies and
educational materials.
Online health services are also a
competitive differentiator. They showcase
the ability of fiber communications
to improve the quality of life and provide
an enhanced lifestyle. For example,
Jeff Joseph, president of Electronic Lifestyle
Solutions, which will be offering
the MedConcierge service in the community
and military housing projects
it serves, calls it “a tremendous lifestyle
amenity for residents that set ELS communities
and projects apart.”
These services help sell both living
units and higher-tier broadband
packages faster and at premium prices.
Nearly 40 percent of respondents in
our health service assessments said they
would be “likely” or “very likely” to purchase
a higher-tier broadband service if
it included the MedConcierge service.
Differentiating Communities
with Telehealth
As the results from the RVA study show,
and as our health service assessments
confirm, physician videoconferencing
especially attracts baby boomers and
active adults. The typical user will be a
married individual with children, in the
45 – 65 age range, who is also involved
in making health decisions for a parent.
Other target communities include
assisted living facilities, corporate housing,
and master-planned communities
with private fiber-to-the-home networks.
But it’s important to note that telehealth
doesn’t appeal only to older generations
– even younger families that are interested
in improving their health and
general wellness find these services more
compelling than an extra TV channel,
e-mail function or walking trail.
Yet another benefit of a physician
video consultation service is that it is
based on a secure, private videoconferencing
platform fully integrated with
content, databases and information
systems. Such a platform is far more
Some of the Firms Entering the
Residential Telemedicine Arena
Communication Service Providers
Hargray Communications
Smart City
Highlands Fiber Network
valuable than a public, no-cost videoconferencing
facility like Skype. Network
owners can derive additional revenue
from any excess capacity, leasing
it to their customers for purposes such
as telecommuting or distance learning.
Or, they can use it to communicate with
their customers, enabling premium levels
of customer service, product/service
education and sales, and technical support.
Internally, they can also use it to
reduce travel costs and enhance operational
efficiency and staff training.
Finding a Partner
Network owners don’t have to reinvent
the wheel if they want to offer an online
health service to customers. Application
partners like MedConcierge take care
of enrolling enough doctors so that patients
can always find a physician on call
(we have agreements with 30,000 doctors
around the country).
The application partner also takes
responsibility for managing liability
and risk. This is not as difficult an issue
as you would imagine. The growth of
markets for telemedicine over nearly 30
years, for personal emergency response
systems (20+ years), health information
and education aggregation (10+ years)
www.hargray.com
www.smartcity.com
www.highlandsfibernetwork.com,
www.isomedia.com
Assisted Living Facilities
Benchmark Assisted Living
www.benchmarkquality.com
Market Research
Parks Associates
www.parksassociates.com
Forrester Research
www.forrester.com
RVA, LLC
www.rvallc.com
Developer & Community Technology Consultants
The Broadband Group
www.broadbandgroup.com
CSI Associates
www.csiassociates.net
Technology Integrators
Electronic Lifestyle Solutions www.electroniclifestylesolutions.com
ClearVision Technologies
www.c-v-t.net
and remote health monitoring (5+ years)
have provided regulatory guidance,
benchmarking for insurance carriers to
underwrite coverage, and precedents
for legal firms to draft protective covenants,
subscription license agreements
and waivers. Risk can be mitigated even
further if the application partner understands
the health information privacy
and security requirements, and takes
responsibility for them by contracting
directly with residents and subscribers.
With a need – and a demand – for
more cost-effective and accessible health
services and a favorable value proposition
for network owners, we believe that
telemedicine delivered over fiber to the
home is a strong competitive differentiator
today that will generate recurring
monthly revenues well into the future,
as it proves itself an integral component
of health services of tomorrow.
About the Author
Rob Scheschareg is cofounder of MedConcierge,
LLC, a provider of personal concierge
health care services for consumers. You
can reach Rob at 781-953-9649 or rob@
medconcierge.com.
48 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

Deep Packet Inspection
Market Headed for the
$1 Billion Mark
One of the few markets considered immune from
the general economic downturn is deep packet inspection,
says a report from Light Reading Insider.
Why do network operators need DPI and DPC (deep packet
capture) to deliver next-gen services Analyst Simon Sherrington
says, “DPI looks as if it has the potential to become a
core technology in next-gen networks, underpinning service
creation and delivery, security and operations management.
DPI has the potential – if operator behavior is appropriate
and enables positive regulatory frameworks to emerge – to
enjoy widespread, if not near universal, deployment.”
Sherrington says:
• Worldwide revenues for DPI products will reach the $1
billion mark by 2012.
• Vendors are changing their product positioning to promote
DPI as an engine for service differentiation and
The “Knowing Your Network”
panel at the Broadband Summit
will reveal how an in-depth view of
your network can help you create
new services. To register online,
go to www.bbpmag.com.
revenue growth.
• Service providers still face the same longstanding imperatives
to manage unwanted traffic in their networks, as
well as spiraling volumes of wanted traffic. BBP
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 49

leading distributors
The Hottest Distributors
and VARs for 2009
Distributors are expanding the reach and sophistication of design and
logistics services, and traditional vendors are adding others’ products and
services to their own product lines, becoming distributors themselves.
A BBP Staff Report
Meet your new bank. Under
pressure from a weakening
economy and with ever more
sophisticated logistics software, distributors
are, more than ever, partners
with network deployers and equipment
vendors. With vendor help, distributors
are “fronting” some of the cash deployers
would normally tie up in inventory
by pre-ordering and warehousing. That’s
a well-known function of the distribution
chain, but the volume of deals (and
the time horizons; 60- and 90-day credit
is becoming common for creditworthy
but cash-strapped customers) seems to
be increasing.
Over the past few months we’ve
heard of daily just-in-time deliveries to
construction-site points so remote they
are described by mile markers and GPS
coordinates. We’ve seen distributors who
once made almost all of their revenue by
fabricating custom drop cables, move into
preparing prepopulated cabinets. We’ve
seen headends almost entirely prewired,
dollied into central offices a half-high
rack at a time. (See “Gorham Telephone
Brings IPTV Services to Kansas” in this
issue.) And we’ve seen field points of
presence overhauled during peak traffic
periods, with the data traffic offloaded to
a temporary, trailer-mounted, distributor-supplied
doppelganger.
Some distributors, like Graybar and
EMBARQ Logistics, are multibilliondollar
global companies. Some have
fewer than 10 employees. Some are part
of companies that make fiber cables,
such as AFL and Corning Cable Systems,
but that carry lines of pedestals
and other network equipment, and custom-fabricate
cables themselves.
Indeed, for the big fiber vendors,
which are trying to broaden their markets
as greenfield residential construction
falters, one key to success is to offer ever
more comprehensive VAR services to
ever-smaller operators. As a result, some
of these familiar fiber suppliers offer design
services and systems integration using
products other than their own.
Some made our list because of the size
of their catalog offerings. Others made it
because we heard from contractors and
developers about superior VAR services.
We also took a few tips from some fiber
suppliers and equipment makers about
their satisfaction with their own supply
chain.
Once FTTH started to reach the
mainstream market, smaller operators
and contractors increasingly required
both quick parts shipments for maintaining
and expanding older FTTH
networks, and help with basic network
design for new, smaller builds. For developers
wishing to use fiber in place
of copper, the distributors have offered
a boon. Just as you can go to the local
“coax guys” and ask for a quick-anddirty
cable network installation, you can
now do the same with fiber – getting
much more bandwidth, lower operating
costs, and higher reliability. The materials
cost won’t be much different. And
with comprehensive distributor VAR
services, the design costs won’t be much
different, either.
Fiber standardization has helped, too.
As we noted last year, by 2005 the only
major interoperability issues in fiberto-the-premises
deployments revolved
around differences in the point-to-point
and GePON fiber universe (equipment
built to IEEE standards) versus the
BPON/GPON world (ITU standards).
Now we have vendors such as Calix whose
equipment automatically senses what
kind of a network it is plugged into.
All of this has made distributors’
jobs easier. They have figured out which
connectors behaved well when matched
with other specific vendors’ connectors.
Cabinets, pedestals and other enclosures
have evolved to meet accepted industry
standards as well.
Compare this to the RF/coax world,
where there are almost 200 interfaces
and the cost of the electronics is high.
That makes for technology that’s hard to
stock and hard to service. Fiber components,
on the other hand, are standard
and comparatively cheap and, especially
in the GPON world (and increasingly
in the EPON/P2P world), interoperable
from one vendor to another.
Over the years, many distributors
we’ve talked to claim, in fact, that fiber’s
stocking risk is even lower than coax –
with fewer variables and more comprehensive
standards. There are, however,
more types of fiber cable than there
are coax and Cat 5/6, even if there are
fewer connector classes and variations in
the electronics.
One new wrinkle: So much of the
equipment itself is made in China that
50 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

leading distributors
it was inevitable that Chinese vendors
would start selling directly in the US.
To do so, they have enlisted distributors,
especially for test equipment, connectors,
and bulk fiber.
Traditional content aggregators like
KT are also looking a bit like equipment
distributors, and suppliers of satellite
headends for MDUs and small network
deployers have had to expand into more
sophisticated site design. DIRECTV
started it with its MFH series, most successfully
MFH2 and 3. DISH Network
joined in last year. Work has increased
for distributors that handle the detailed
design and the installation.
Among distributors and VARs, it has
become clear that there’s a simple pathway
to success with fiber for those who
have been serving the telcos: Start with
cables, connectors and boxes, then move
to active components like OLTs and
ONTs, and passives like splitters. Add
testing equipment, splicers, and training
courses.
For those serving the cable TV industry
today, fiber nodes, cable and connectors
along with digital headends and
network monitoring software are the
ticket. BBP
Hints For Working
with Distributors
Developers, small deployers and their contractors
should regularly re-evaluate their use of distributors,
taking these issues into account:
• Some distributors concentrate on fast delivery service
and low price, but supply little or no reliable help
with design choices. Others have expanded their VAR
and logistics help. But you may have to ask your existing
distributors in detail about what they might be
able to do to help.
• Choose the distributor most appropriate for your
technology, cash and logistics situation.
• Distributors are more likely to expend effort on your
project if you concentrate your buying with them.
Consider it a “quantity discount.” But many distributors
tell us they value the steady customer/contractor
even more, even if the contractor is buying only a few
select items – drop cables or splicer consumables or
duct – each time.
• Willing to consider off-brand fiber, test equipment
and components You’re not alone in this economy.
But try to compensate by working with quality-oriented
distributors who can track the supply chain
and guard somewhat against counterfeits and offspec
product. Many can pretest subassemblies and
fiber spools.
• Extra-worried about quality, especially for cable
(cheap to buy, expensive to deploy) Provide for preship
or on-site testing and certification.
• Demand rush orders only when you need them,
and provide honest delivery dates. Why end up
with excess inventory when you can share your concerns
about delivery with the distributor and come
to mutual agreement Often, the initial phase of an
order may need to be rushed, but deliveries can be
stretched out. This helps distributors juggle supply
against multiple contractors’ demands, in an industry
where demand is still hard to predict.
• Similarly, if you come up short on a job, you should
be able to forecast the problem a few days ahead
and place a fill-in order appropriately. Many distributors
are great at supply-chain management, too, and
can help your cash flow in many ways.
• Train yourself and your personnel ahead of time. Several
distributors told us they were amazed to be selling
training materials with rush orders! Fiber installations
are, of course, less forgiving than are copper builds.
• Get more than one price quote.
• If a developer or property owner must approve purchases
or delivery dates to keep within cash flow or
security parameters or to keep tenants happy, have
the developer or owner on the phone with you.
• Establish credit ahead of time, especially if you are
extending business to distributors you have not used
in the past.
• Allow multiple distributors handling one project to
communicate with each other. But make sure your
organization, and the cooperating distributor organizations,
each have a single point of contact to reduce
the chance for confusion.
• Coax installers are well known for ignoring fire and
other safety standards. Fiber suppliers have been
more careful, requiring that distributors certify use
so that, for instance, a fire-rated fiber is used indoors
where necessary. Note that whereas single-family
residences may have looser fire rating rules than multifamily
for coax, this is not always the case for fiber.
• Many distributors for fiber are entirely online. But before
you fill out the Web site form, it would be wise to
talk to a live person at the distributor about the latest
technologies. There are new items coming out every
day in this business.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 51

leading distributors
Industry Segments
Areas Covered
Company
PCO/MDU
FTTx
Wireless
Telcos
Cable TV
Hospitality
Municipality
Outside Plant
Custom Cables
Inside Plant
Wireless
Structured Wiring
Test Equipment
Opto-Electronics
Network Service/
Programming
Software
Design/Construction
Headends
Logistics
4COM Inc. 3 3 3 3
Advanced Media
Technologies 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
AFL Telecommunications 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Cables Plus USA 3
Clearfield Inc. 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Corning Cable Systems 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
DAWNco 3 3 3 3 3 3
EMBARQ Logistics 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Graybar 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
KT Communication 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Mega Hertz 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Metrotek 3 3
Multicom Inc. 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Multilink 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Nickless Schirmer & Co. 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
North American Cable
Equipment Inc. 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Pace International 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
PDI-SAT 3 3 3 3 3 3
Pico Macom 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Power & Telephone
Supply Company 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Preformed Line Products 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Satellite Engineering Group 3 3 3 3 3 3
Skywalker
Communications 3 3
SMS - Satellite
Management Services 3 3 3 3 3 3
Toner Cable Equipment Inc. 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
TVC Communications 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
52 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

leading distributors
4COM Inc.
1660 S. Hwy 100, Suite 590
Minneapolis, MN 55416
P: 800-737-0852
F: 952-591-5909
Contact: Tyna Hinds
E: tynah@4com.com
www.4com.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU
Products: Network Services/Programming, Headends
4COM makes access to television programming services fast,
easy and worry-free. By using our professional staff to manage
the administration of your satellite programming needs, you
can better focus on important things such as subscriber acquisition
and the success of your operations. We understand that
each system you operate is unique, so 4COM’s flexible services
are geared to fit those needs. Whether you are expanding an
existing system or building from the ground up, 4COM will
work with you to determine the best options for your customers.
To learn more about 4COM’s programming options, contact
us today at 800-737-0852 or sales@4com.com.
Advanced Media Technologies Inc.
720 S. Powerline Road, Suite G
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442
P: 888-293-5856
F: 954-427-9688
Contact: Rob Narzisi
E: rnarzisi@amt.com
www.amt.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Fiber-to-the-
Home, Telcos, Cable TV, Hospitality, Municipalities
Products: Outside Plant, Test Equipment, Opto-Electronics,
Cables
Advanced Media Technologies Inc. (AMT) is a performance
leader among CATV and broadband electronic equipment
providers. As a value-added reseller of high-performance products
from the world’s most recognized manufacturers, AMT
targets emerging technology applications in broadband with
a complete line of products for CATV, IPTV and FTTH.
AMT’s product offerings also include many of the industry’s
leading manufacturers such as Motorola, Amino, Blonder
Tongue, Pacific Broadband Networks, EGT, RGB Networks,
Adtec, Drake, Olson Technology and Emcore. AMT specializes
in prebuilt headends ranging from small DSS systems to
fully digital high-definition headends.
AFL Telecommunications
170 Ridgeview Circle
Duncan, SC 29334
P: 800-235-3423
E: customerservice@afltele.com
www.AFLTELE.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Fiber-to-the-
Home, Wireless, Telcos, Cable TV, Hospitality,
Municipalities
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Wireless, Structured
Wiring, Cables, Test Equipment, Opto-Electronics,
Network Services/Programming, Design/Construction,
Headends, Logistics
Headquartered in Spartanburg, South Carolina, fiber producer
AFL offers fiber optic products, engineering expertise, integrated
services and content solutions for voice, video and data networks.
For the FTTH market, AFL offers an “FTTH Made Easy” program
that consists of end-to-end system integration including
the best-in-class FTTH and wireless platforms. Our product
portfolio includes PON and point-to-point electronics, RF/IP
video solutions, bandwidth management, system integration and
FTTx business modeling capabilities. AFL offers a wide range of
products including fiber management systems, optical splitter/
WDM, closures, NIDs, demarcation and fiber optic cable as well
as fiber fusion splicers, test equipment and related accessories.
As a DIRECTV Master System Operator (MSO), AFL is authorized
to establish system operators and provide access to DI-
RECTV’s programming and services. AFL’s expertise includes
system integration of both MFH2 and MFH3 solutions.
Cables Plus USA
8504 Glazebrook Avenue
Richmond, VA 23228
P: 866-678-5852 or 804-716-9007
www.cablesplususa.com
Products: Data Communication Connectivity Solutions,
Fiber Optic Cable, Connectors, TFOCA, Network
Cables, Fiber Patch Panels, MTP/MTO Cassettes
and Custom-Designed Cable
CablePlus sells all kinds of network infrastructure. It was
founded in 2002 mainly to serve the military, but it has grown
along with the fiber and Ethernet business, and its customer
base is also expanding. It is ranked number 1,278 of the top
5,000 companies listed in Inc. Magazine’s “2007 Fastest
Growing Private Companies in America,” and 54th in the telecommunications
category. Revenue this year was about $5.5
million. The company has about 12 full-time employees.
Clearfield Inc.
5480 Nathan Lane
Plymouth, MN 55442
P: 763-476-6866
F: 763-475-8457
Contact: Nikki Moen
E: nmoen@clfd.net
www.clearfieldconnections.com
Segments of industry served: Fiber-to-the-Home
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Structured Wiring,
Cabling, Opto-Electronics, Network Services/
Programming, Design/Construction, Headends
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 53

leading distributors
Clearfield Inc. designs and manufactures FieldSmart – a modular
fiber management platform using the patented Clearview
Cassette as an “Any Application, Anywhere” multiplier to meeting
the fiber management needs of the broadband service provider.
Product lines include the latest generation Fiber Distribution
System (FDS) for the inside plant, the Fiber Scalability
Center (FSC) for the outside plant, and Fiber Delivery Points
(FDP) for access networks. The FDS, FSC and FDP product
lines support a wide range of panel configurations, densities,
connectors and adapter options, and are offered alongside an
assortment of passive optical components and a complete line
of fiber and copper assemblies for indoor plant, outside plant
and access environments.
Corning Cable Systems
800 17th Street NW
Hickory, NC 28601
P: 800-743-2671
F: 828-901-5488
Contact: Stephanie Kosty
E: Stephanie.kosty@corning.com
www.corning.com/cablesystems
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Fiber-to-the-
Home, Wireless, Telcos, Cable TV
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Wireless, Cables,
Test Equipment, Opto-Electronics, Design/Construction
A history of innovation has made Corning Cable Systems an
industry leader in optical networking products for voice, data
and video network applications. Corning’s Evolant Solutions
for Evolving Networks offers innovative products optimized
for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks as well as design, installation
and testing services. The revolutionary ClearCurve
bend-insensitive product suite allows optical cable to be bent
around tight corners and stapled with minimal attenuation
loss, enabling fiber network installations in challenging multidwelling
unit (MDU) deployments. As a leading manufacturer
of optical cable, hardware and equipment products, Corning
Cable Systems makes FTTH deployments faster, easier, more
reliable and more efficient.
DAWNco
3340 S. Lapeer Road
Orion, MI 48359
P: 248-391-9200
F: 248-391-9207
Contact: John A Joslin, Director of Sales & Marketing
E: Sales@dawnco.com
www.dawnco.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Telcos, Cable
TV, Hospitality, Municipalities
Products: Headends
DAWNco provides satellite communications products including
satellite antennas, satellite receivers, high-stability “Digital
Ready” LNBs, headend equipment and component parts.
DAWNco also provides fiber optic communication products
including fiber links to pass audio/video, fiber links to pass
broadband, fiber links to pass satellite signals and fiber links
to pass data. Call to speak with a knowledgeable technical
sales representative.
EMBARQ Logistics
600 New Century Parkway
New Century, KS 66031
P: 800-755-3004
E: contactel@embarq.com
www.embarqlogistics.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Fiber-to-the-
Home, Telcos, Municipalities
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Wireless, Structured
Wiring, Cables, Test Equipment, Opto-Electronics,
Design/Construction, Headends, Logistics
EMBARQ Logistics is a distributor and logistics services provider
serving carriers, manufacturers, contractors and service
providers throughout North America. With TL 9000 certified
teams in logistics, network deployments and customer support
and an extensive roster of telecom manufacturers, EMBARQ
Logistics offers equipment and deployment solutions to meet
your entire network, outside plant, central office, headend and
customer premises needs. EMBARQ Logistics’ national distribution
network and best-in-class IT systems provide customers
a highly reliable infrastructure to meet a wide variety of logistics,
deployment solutions and equipment needs. EMBARQ
Logistics has expertise in provisioning communication equipment,
as well as in logistics services, engineering, integration
and deployment services.
Graybar
11885 Lackland Road
St. Louis, MO 63146
P: 314-573-5363
F: 314-573-6267
Contact: Julie Ray
E: Julie.ray@graybar.com
www.graybar.com/adc
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Fiber-to-the-
Home, Wireless, Telcos, Cable TV, Hospitality,
Municipalities, Utility
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Structured Wiring,
Cables, Test Equipment, Opto-Electronics, Logistics
Graybar, a Fortune 500 corporation and one of the largest
employee-owned companies in North America, is a leader in
the distribution of high-quality electrical, telecommunications
and networking products, and an expert provider of supply
chain management and logistics services. Through its network
of more than 250 North American distribution facilities, it
stocks and sells products from thousands of manufacturers.
Visit our interactive map for sales contact information: www.
graybar.com/spmap
54 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

leading distributors
KT Communication
2409 N Stadium
Columbia, MO 65202
P: 877-485-3557 or 573-446-3693
F: 574-446-9054
Contact: Kristy Thurman
E: kristyt@ktcom.tv
www.ktcom.tv
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Wireless, Telcos,
Cable TV, Hospitality
Products: Wireless, Network Services/Programming,
Headends
KT Communication specializes in providing video content for
traditional technologies such as C band, DBS transport, digital
overlay and wireless. We are also actively pursuing video content
using proprietary methods for IPTV delivery. Our extensive
experience of over 20 years, our superior customer service
and our customer management tools assist in every aspect to
save money and simplify your business for video content.
Mega Hertz
4100 International Plaza, Suite 150
Fort Worth, TX 76109
P: 800-883-8839
Contact: Doug Sherar
E: dougsherar@GO2MHZ.com
www.GO2MHZ.com
Segments of industry served: Telcos, Cable TV
Products: Structured Wiring, Cables, Test Equipment,
Opto-Electronics, Design/Construction, Headends
Mega Hertz is a value-added reseller (VAR) of unique multivendor,
multitechnology system solutions (MVSS) that support
the deployment of advanced video, voice and data technologies
in fiber/coax-based broadband/IP networks. MHz is focused
on providing migration path products and solutions required
in the all-digital network transition taking place within the US
by broadband/IP service providers. MHz’s Engineering & Integration
Group provides presale engineering, design, project
management, installation, activation and training, as well as
Level 1 product support for MHz advanced video, voice and
data end-to-end solutions.
Metrotek
6880 46th Ave. N., Suite 100
St. Petersburg, FL 33709
P: 727-547-8307
F: 727-547-0687
www.metrotek.com
Products: Connectors, Adaptors, Cable Assemblies,
Attenuators, Links, Splices, Tools, Test Equipment
Metrotek is a fiber optic specialty distributor with a large inventory
of fiber optic equipment, supplies and accessories. It carries
almost any fiber optic product used in the telecom or datacom
industries. Its catalog includes most major manufacturers.
Multicom Inc.
1076 Florida Central Parkway
Longwood, FL 32750
P: 407-33-7779
F: 407-339-0204
Contact: Scott Brietz, Sales Manager
E: muticom@multicominc.com
www.multicominc.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Fiber-to-the-
Home, Cable TV, Hospitality, Municipalities, Design,
Rack & Balance Headends, VoIP
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Structured Wiring,
Cables, Test Equipment, Opto-Electronics, Design/
Construction, Headends
Multicom is a full-line stocking distributor and manufacturer
of products used for end-to-end integration of communication
solutions including all FTTH applications, cable TV and VoIP
services. Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, since 1982, Multicom
is your “One Stop Resource Center,” stocking over 7,000
products from more than 85 of the world’s major manufacturers
to completely build and maintain communications systems at
cost-effective prices. These products are used to acquire, process
and distribute signals over fiber optics, coax and copper cable. As
a value-added supplier, Multicom is proud of its ability to design
distribution systems for any application, as well as rack, balance,
and crate headends for a complete plug-and-play solution.
Multicom’s affiliate company, Mconnect, offers a cost-effective
VoIP phone service for SOHO, residential and business
customers. It also extends resellers an opportunity to participate
in the growing VoIP industry with no upfront costs. Flexible options
include private-label branding or reselling of the Mconnect
brand. For more information, call 1-800-423-2594, e-mail to
multicom@multicominc.com or visit www.multicominc.com
Multilink
580 Ternes Avenue
Elyria, OH 44035
P: 440-366-6966
F: 440-366-6802
Contact: Matt Ternes
E: mternes@multilinkone.com
www.multilinkone.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Fiber-to-the-
Home, Telcos, Cable TV, Municipalities
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Cables,
Test Equipment
Multilink is an industry-leading designer, developer and manufacturer
of products for voice, data, video and CATV applications.
Multilink manufactures a full line of fiber optic products
including preconnectorized housings and cable assemblies,
splice closures, slack storage devices, cable markers and tags,
fiber-node cabinets and environmentally controlled enclosures.
Additional products include MDU steel security enclosures,
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 55

leading distributors
plastic demarcation boxes, plastic and steel moldings designed
for copper and fiber distribution in buildings, and FTTx products.
The company’s presence in the fiber optic product solution
arena has allowed it to become an end-to-end bundled solution
communications product supplier and integrator rather
than a component manufacturer provider.
Nickless Schirmer & Co. Inc.
6820 Power Line Drive
Florence, KY 41042
P: 859-727-6640
F: 859-727-6658
Contact: Paul Nickless
E: pnickless@nsccom.com
www.nsccom.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Fiber-to-the-
Home, Telcos, Cable TV, Hospitality, Municipalities
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Headends
We’ve been serving the RF, fiber optic and video communications
needs of private cable and municipal system operators
since 1991. Our customers know us for the quality of our service
both before and after a sale. Whether you need a single
component or a complete turnkey system, we’ll provide you
with the best product to meet your needs – at a cost that will
best fit your budget. Our product lines include Adtec Digital,
Avcom of VA, Belden, Blankom, Blonder Tongue, Corning
Gilbert, DH Satellite, Drake, KTech, Microwave Filter Co.,
Middle Atlantic, Pico Macom, Quintech and Standard.
North American Cable Equipment Inc.
1085 Andrew Drive, Suite A
West Chester, PA 19380
P: 800-688-9282
F: 610-429-3060
Contact: Kirk Davies
E: kdavies@northamericancable.com
www.northamericancable.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Telcos, Cable
TV, Hospitality, Municipalities
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Structured Wiring,
Cables, Test Equipment, Network Services/Programming,
Design/Construction, Headends
North American Cable Equipment Inc. (NACE) is a full line
stocking manufacturer and distributor of commercial and residential
satellite and CATV installation materials. NACE has
stocking locations in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Nevada and Florida
and sales offices in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky and
Florida. Product lines include commercial headend electronics,
coaxial cables, multimedia cables, security cables, category
cables, residential satellite and CATV installation materials,
surge protectors, residential digital agile modulators with infrared
capabilities, tools, patch cords, television mounts and much
more. NACE also has a fully staffed headend assembly laboratory
that builds professional-quality private cable systems.
Pace International
3582 Technology Drive NW
Rochester, MN 55901
P: 800-444-PACE (7223)
F: 507-285-0428
Contact: Opie Williams, VP Sales
E: opie@paceintl.com
www.paceintl.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Fiber-to-thehome,
Telcos, Cable TV, Hospitality
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Structured Wiring,
Cables, Test Equipment, Opto-Electronics, Software,
Design/Construction, Headends, Logistics
Pace International is an industry-leading national distributor
of hardware, content and installation tools for communications
companies in the multiplatform industry. As an authorized distributor
for DISH Network, the company offers the full lineup
of hardware and content to operators. Pace carries some of the
multiplatform industry’s most recognized brands including AFL
Telecommunications, Applied Instruments, B.E.S., Channel
Master, CommScope, DISH Network, DeWalt, Foxcom, MVP,
Thomas & Betts, Peerless, Platinum Tools, R.L. Drake, Stanley,
TOA, TrippLite, Televes, Tradewind, Winegard and many
more. Pace offers end-to-end hardware and content solutions for
PCOs, REITs, retailers, property owners, operators and telcos
targeting triple play communities. Turnkey services include system
design, technical support, “Built, Balanced, and Burned”
analog and QAM headends, billing and customer support. The
company provides its proprietary MVP (Master Vendor Procurement)
services to Fortune 100 clients in the consumer electronics
industry. Founded in 1972, Pace International operates
from its headquarters in Rochester, Minnesota, and through
facilities in Denver, Colorado and Ningbo, China.
PDI-SAT
6353 West Rogers Circle, Suite 6
Boca Raton, Florida 33487
P: 800-242-1606 or 561-998-0600
F: 561-998-0608
www.pdisat.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Hospitality
Products: DIRECTV Programming and Hardware,
In-Home Jumper Cabling and Structured Wiring,
3GHz Fiber End-to-End Solution, Engineering and
Design Consultation, Technical Support, Training
PDI-SAT, a division of PDI Communications Inc., plans, constructs
and implements DIRECTV satellite programming at
MDUs, hotels and institutional settings. It builds its own preracked
headend equipment and can handle design and construction
of the headend, property backbone and in-unit structured
wiring. It can also work with outside affiliates to take the role
of system operator, handling all service calls. With about 1,000
sites managed, PDI-SAT is a leading supplier of equipment,
programming and engineering services. The company is also a
registered Training Center for SBCA certification of installation
technicians throughout North America and a master distributor
56 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

leading distributors
of DIRECTV receivers, including buydown subsidized equipment
for SMATV dealers handling MDU and hotel accounts. It
is also one of only three master system operators for DIRECTVsupplied
MDUs and is the largest DIRECTV “Super Affiliate”
Free-to-Guest dealer in the US. It can help with broadband Internet
into both the MDU and lodging/institution marketplace
(including WiFi mesh networks), and arrange PPV-VoD (Pay
Per View - Video on Demand) into the hotel and institutional
marketplace. The firm has a branch office in San Diego.
Pico Macom
6260 Sequence Drive
San Diego, CA 92121
P: 800-421-6511 or 858-546-5050
F: 858-546-5051
www.picomacom.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, FTTx, CableTV,
Hospitality, Municipality
Products: Inside Plant, Cabling, Opto-Electronics, Design/
Construction, Headends
Pico Macom, a Steren Group company, is a worldwide leader
in the engineering, development and manufacture of an extensive
line of broadband solutions for the franchised cable, private
cable and other industries. Pico Macom offers complete endto-end
solutions including headend and electronics equipment,
distribution products, subscriber products, test and measurement
equipment, and drop installation materials. Our newest
products include a complete series of fiber optic equipment,
digital-to-analog demodulators, the Macom Professional Series
of headend equipment and the CableNet premium connectivity
line. Our technology is installed in thousands of broadband
systems and networks around the globe, in residential units, hotels,
motels, schools, hospitals, private and smaller-to-medium
cable environments. A Certified Minority Business Enterprise.
Power & Telephone Supply Company
2673 Yale Avenue
Memphis, TN 38112
P: 901-866-3252
F: 901-866-3082
Contact: Keith Cress or Melanie Herrington
E: keith.cress@ptsupply.com /
melanie.herrington@ptsupply.com
www.ptsupply.com
Segments of industry served: Telcos, Cable TV
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Structured Wiring,
Test Equipment, Opto-Electronics, Logistics
Power & Tel offers the complete product solution for today’s
telecommunication service provider. As your need list grows
– FTTH, IPTV, VoIP, central office/headend, OSP, wireless,
customer premises, home networking, testing – we have the
product and solution portfolio to build your entire network.
Fiber Networks,
WE DESIGN THEM
WE BUILD THEM
WE TURN THEM UP
YOUR FIBER DESIGN AND BUILD
DEPLOYMENT PARTNER
Full fiber network design, underground construction, aerial
construction, splicing, testing, turn up and project
management services.
Atlantic Engineering Group
P.O. Box 790, Braselton, GA 30517 • 706-654-2298 • www.aeg.cc
403537_AEG.indd 1
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES 11/28/08 8:59:54 | 57 AM

leading distributors
Remember that Power & Tel works where you work. So whether
it is our wide-ranging inventory or our people and service capabilities,
we are focused on meeting your everyday needs.
Preformed Line Products
660 Beta Drive
Mayfield Village, OH 44143
P: 440-461-5200
Contact: Jean Reilly
E: inquiries@preformed.com
www.preformed.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Fiber-to-the-
Home, Telcos, Cable TV, Municipalities, Solar
Products: Outside Plant, Cables
Preformed Line Products (PLP) is a worldwide designer, manufacturer
and supplier of high-quality cable anchoring and
control hardware and systems, fiber optic and copper splice
closures, and high-speed cross-connect devices. Our core markets
are divided into four distinct categories: communications,
energy, special industries and solar. Our customer base includes
telecommunications network operators, cable television
and broadband service providers, power utilities, corporations
and enterprise networks, government agencies and educational
institutions. We also serve several specialized areas under our
special industries and solar market categories.
The Fiber-to-the-Home Council, the IMCC and
Broadband Properties Magazine
Congratulate
For becoming a Silver Sponsor at the
2009 Broadband Properties Summit.
For more information on DISH Network,
visit www.dishnetwork.com/commercial.
You are cordially invited to come see
DISH Network at the upcoming
April 27 – 29, 2009
Hyatt Regency DFW • Dallas, TX
New Business Models For Fiber Communities
To Exhibit or Sponsor, contact: Irene Prescott at
irene@broadbandproperties.com, or call 316-733-9122.
& For other inquiries, call 877-588-1649,
or visit www.bbpmag.com
Satellite Engineering Group
11605 South Alden Street, Olathe, Kansas 66062
P: 800-932-1555 or 913-324-6000
F: 913-324-6050
www.sateng.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Cable TV,
Municipalities
Products: Satellite, CATV, Broadcast, VSAT
Satellite Engineering Group was founded in 1979 with a primary
focus on global sales and distribution of cable TV, broadcast,
video, IP and satellite-related products and services to large
and small private, franchise and government operators. SEG has
assisted in deploying networks that are any of, or a combination
of, copper, fiber, IP or wireless. Its technical staff can provide
the expertise to assist in the procurement of products and services
for a wide array of projects. SEG has regional sales staff in
Atlanta, Dallas, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland and Syracuse.
Skywalker Communications
9390 Veterans Memorial Parkway, O’Fallon, MO 63366
P: 800-844-9555
www.skywalker.com
Segments of industry served: Cable TV
Products: Satellite/cable TV Installation Products and
Consumer Electronics
Skywalker Communications was founded by Lewis and Roger
Criebaum in 1979. Skywalker quickly rose to national prominence
as one of the country’s largest distributors of satellite
television equipment, cable and consumer electronics, with
four full-service locations. In addition to its corporate headquarters
located in O’Fallon, Missouri, fully stocked branch
facilities are located in Indianapolis; Las Vegas; and New Berlin,
Wisconsin. During our first 28 years we learned a lot about
what’s important to our customers – things like low prices,
extensive inventory and prompt delivery. We’re confident that
our expanding product line will continue to meet your needs.
The Internet is an integral part of Skywalker’s marketing, distribution
and retailer support network. Its Web site, www.skywalker.com,
provides a complete product catalog with online
ordering, product details and much more.
SMS – Satellite Management Systems
4529 E. Broadway Road, Suite 100
Phoenix, AZ 85040
P: 602-386-4444
F: 602-386-4443
Contact: Don Bowen
E: dbowen@smstv.com
www.smstv.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Cable TV,
Municipalities, Programming & Equipment Distributor
Products: Programming, Headends
Satellite Management Services is the oldest and most respected
supplier of goods and services to the private cable industry. We
58 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

leading distributors
are your single source for design, headend and distribution
equipment and a national distributor of virtually all of the programming
options available. We are also an authorized VAR
of the Dish Network QAM programming platform and have
distribution rights to package IP-based video programming as
well. The core of the SMS management team has been together
for more than 20 years. Our team members expertly guide customers
through an ever-changing technological landscape with
custom solutions for every broadband scenario. Simplify your
life and make the call to SMS. Call 800-788-8388 or visit us
on the Web at www.smstv.com.
Toner Cable Equipment Inc.
969 Horsham Road, Horsham, PA 19044
P: 800-523-5947 or 215-675-2053
F: 215-675-7543
Contact: Sales Department
E: info@tonercable.com
www.tonercable.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, Fiber-to-Home,
Cable TV, Hospitality, Municipalites
Products: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Test Equipment,
Opto-Electronics, Cables, Headends
Toner Cable Equipment Inc. is a manufacturer and full line
stocking distributor of cable television equipment since 1971.
Our services include custom-built headends, FTTx, technical
sales staff, same-day shipping and television system design assistance.
Our products include modulators, processors, satellite
receivers, character generators, fiber optic equipment, equipment
cabinets, RF amplifiers, coax cable, taps, splitters and
connectors. Our extensive in-stock inventory of more than 100
manufacturers includes companies such as Blonder Tongue,
Drake, Motorola, Olson Technology, Pico Macom, Force, Ortel,
CommScope, Pacific Broadband Networks, Times Fiber,
Noyes and AFL Telecommunications. Call for free catalog.
TVC Communications
800 Airport Road, Annville, PA 17003
P: 888-644-6075
www.tvcinc.com
Segments of industry served: PCO/MDU, FTTx, Cable TV
Products: Customer Premises, Opto-Electronics, Cables
Whether you use fiber optic cable, twisted pair or coaxial cable,
TVC Communications delivers the products and technical support
needed to build today’s communications infrastructure.
Backed by close working relationships with top manufacturers
and a deep understanding of the applications and technology
behind the products we sell, TVC has proven itself to be a valued
partner to both the broadband cable and telecommunications
industries.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 59

TECHNOLOGY
RFOG Enables All-Fiber
Access Alternative for Real
Estate Owners and Developers
The new RFOG standard promises a win-win solution for cable providers and
property developers alike. It brings DOCSIS fiber all the way to the premises.
By Mark Conner ■ Corning Cable Systems and Shawn Esser ■ Motorola
Property owners and real estate
developers can command a premium
if their properties have
broadband access through an all-fiber
network. In fact, according to Michael
Render of RVA LLC, several studies his
company has conducted over the past
three years indicate that those familiar
with all-fiber residential access “would
spend $2,000 to $4,600 extra on average
to purchase a home with a direct fiber
connection if the choice came down to
two similar homes. This represents 0.5
percent to 1.1 percent of home values.”
But despite the value home buyers
place on all-fiber access, there have been
very limited options for deploying allfiber
networks to properties. In North
America, only one large, well-known
service provider, Verizon, is deploying
fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks
throughout a significant portion of its
footprint. Many small, progressive service
providers, such as independent
telephone companies, utility companies
and municipalities, are also rolling out
all-fiber networks.
If your property is not located in
one of these areas, there probably is no
option for an all-fiber network. And, if
your property is in one of these areas, it
almost certainly has only one all-fiber
access network choice; there is no competitive
alternative for the developer or
property owner to get fiber to the property.
Having a second provider for an allfiber
network is very desirable.
Find out more about RFOG at the
Broadband Properties Summit in Dallas,
April 27-29. Tap into the insights of a panel
representing key electronics and passive
solution providers as well as cable operators,
and learn how to put RFOG to work for you.
The obvious alternative providers for
all-fiber networks are multiple system
operators (cable MSOs). Their systems
blanket North America, and cable operators
have been using fiber in the access
network for decades in their hybrid fiber
coaxial (HFC) architecture. The fiber
reaches down to the neighborhood, and
coaxial cable is used to deliver services to
the customer premises. Cable operators
have been very successful in delivering
triple-play services over their HFC networks.
Using an evolutionary strategy,
they continually improve their HFC networks
to deliver more services and ensure
their long-term competitive position.
Thus far, cable operators have been
reluctant to take fiber all the way to the
premises. Cable operators will not be replacing
HFC networks in any significant
way yet, but all-fiber service delivery to
businesses and new homes does become
attractive when it is cost-effective and
exists transparently alongside existing
HFC networks.
On the surface, it would seem easy
for the cable operators to extend the
fiber from their HFC networks to the
premises. There have been all-fiber solutions,
such as broadband passive optical
networks (BPONs) and Ethernet passive
optical networks (EPONs), for many
years, but for good reasons, cable operators
have not deployed these, except in
some very rare cases. One large hurdle
to these solutions is that they require the
rest of the cable operators’ infrastructure
to change – from the set-top boxes
and DOCSIS (a registered trademark of
CableLabs) cable modems in the home,
to the equipment required to process
video, voice and data services in the
headend offices.
In addition, these PON systems
require different provisioning and billing
systems from what cable operators
are using to manage services over their
HFC networks. Replacing these systems
would represent both a heavy investment
and a major disruption to their opera-
60 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

TECHNOLOGY
tions to serve what would initially be a
small portion of their subscriber base.
A relatively new solution known as
RF-over-Glass (RFOG) allows cable operators
to effectively deploy fiber to the
premises, either as a first or second service
provider, and affords property owners
and real estate developers the value
of having an all-fiber network. RFOG
is transparent with the rest of the cable
operators’ infrastructure, and if implemented
properly, it lays the groundwork
(that is, fiber) to migrate to future PON
solutions, such as Gigabit passive optical
networks (GPON), EPON or future
10-Gigabit PON technologies.
RFOG has its beginnings among cable
operators and members of the Society
of Cable Telecommunications Engineers
(SCTE), where the development of a formal
specification is well underway. Cable
operators and their equipment/materials
vendors are working together to address
the compatibility roadblocks that have
stifled adoption of other PON technologies.
Careful consideration is being given
to help ensure RFOG’s success. Not only
must it be capable of delivering residential
service, but because many planned
communities include small and medium
businesses (SMBs), it must be able to
serve these customers as well.
RFOG networks, if properly designed, can be
eventually used for conventional PON access.
Electronics for RFOG
From an electronics standpoint, RFOG
borrows from its HFC brethren in that it
uses the same fiber optic transmitter and
receiver technology for video, voice and
data transmission. The RFOG device
located at the premises, called an optical
network unit (ONU), contains a detector
to receive downstream content and a
transmitter to send return signals back
to the headend. There are essentially two
choices for the ONU: a low-cost version
without future migration capabilities
and a more fully featured version with
provisions to support a PON overlay
solution in the future. The basic ONU
(Figure 1) offers a cost-effective way to
provide an all-fiber network.
The future-ready ONU (Figure 2)
can direct PON optical wavelengths to
an expansion port. When higher-bandwidth
services are required by the subscriber,
a PON ONT can be added at
the premises and connected to the ONU
expansion port with an optical jumper.
This enables the network to evolve without
stranding the initial capital outlay.
Design and Deployment
Strategies
While the RFOG electronics provide
compatibility with existing network elements
along with migration capabilities,
the passive structures over which the
signals travel leverage available components
and, when properly designed, offer
a universal, long-term network foundation.
Although network design and
deployment is a topic unto itself, two
important points can be recognized:
First, splitter placement strategy is key
to current and future flexibility in the
network. Multiple approaches are available,
but a centralized strategy offers
easy component cost scaling, system
configuration and testing access.
Second, there is a range of deployment
strategies, from all-spliced to
all-preconnectorized. All-spliced approaches
are lowest in material cost, but
require skilled labor. Preconnectorized
solutions make available labor resources
Figure 1: The basic RFOG solution delivers voice, video and data over an optical network unit and closely resembles HFC solutions.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 61

TECHNOLOGY
Figure 2: With overlay capability enabled, a PON ONT can be added to support additional capacity where subscribers, residential and commercial, require it.
more productive and can reduce time to
market while speeding up the subscriber
connection process.
Established technologies such as
EPON and GPON have gravitated to
common distance, attenuation and split
ratio specifications as well as the use
of a single fiber to reach the premises.
RFOG follows the same basic guidelines
so that an operator building to these
guidelines can operate a wide range of
access technologies over this single design
approach.
Putting It All Together
What does this mean for the system
operator Because the needs of commercial
and residential customers vary and
because each operator’s competitive environment
is unique, it can be expected
that operators will deploy multiple technologies
in the same system. To make
network design, deployment and management
as simple as possible, it is highly
beneficial that just one solution set is
needed for the passive components. This
streamlines the process for engineering
and construction, thereby minimizing
design and deployment cycle times,
lessening crew training requirements
and reducing the inventory of parts that
must be ordered and/or stocked.
Deployment based on standard requirements
also means that changes in
technology are far easier to incorporate.
For example, if increases in commercial
bandwidth demand require migration to
10GePON, this migration can be easily
accomplished by changing or adding to
the devices on the end of the network,
with little or no change to the transport
and distribution cables, splitters, terminals
and drop cables already in place.
During RFOG specification development,
careful attention has been given
to wavelength selection. For cable operators,
1550 nm is a commonly used forward
wavelength, so it is used that way
in RFOG. For the return, consideration
has been given to include a return wavelength
that does not conflict with the
wavelengths used in EPON, 10GePON
and GPON. This makes it possible for
operators to operate both technologies on
the same fiber. RFOG, as a stand-alone
solution, with its familiar use of RF technology
to deliver voice, video and data
services, will be exactly what many subscribers
need. For subscribers needing
more capacity, an overlay with a second
technology provides the extra bandwidth
to support a higher service tier. In some
cases, such as bringing video to the waiting
area of a medical office that already
has voice and data service, RFOG may
actually be the second technology.
The bottom line on RFOG It offers
value to both cable operators and property
owners/developers. Owners and developers
gain through increased property
values in a market where differentiation
is key to maximizing revenues. Cable
operators benefit by having the tools to
capture new business now, and by having
the bandwidth capacity of optical fiber
in the long run. All-fiber access with
RFOG is just another step in how cable
operators can evolve their networks. For
owners and developers, it is another step
in evolving the neighborhood and having
greater choice in all-fiber telecommunications
providers for their projects. BBP
About the Author
Mark Conner is Market Development
Manager, Advanced Access, Corning Cable
Systems, and Shawn Esser is Senior
Product Manager, Access, Optical Transport,
Motorola. Both of them serve on the
committee of the Society of Cable Telecommunications
Engineers that is developing
standards for RFOG. You can reach
Mark at Mark.Conner@corning.com and
Shawn at sesser@motorola.com.
62 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

Mixing GPON and Active
Ethernet: Future Proofing
in the Real World
TECHNOLOGY
FTTP network deployers should feel comfortable mixing GPON and P2P
“active Ethernet” to serve customers best, despite their different pedigrees.
Each has its own strengths.
By David Russell ■ Calix
All good gamblers want to put their money where they
are assured the safest bet with the biggest possible payoff.
For service providers today looking at new-build
opportunities, the “safe bet” is building a fiber network – there
is virtually no uncertainty about its long-term viability and,
because deployment and equipment costs have come down so
dramatically over the last few years, the likelihood of payback
has continued to improve.
New copper deployments, on the other hand, are looking
like bad bets, with little deployment cost advantage and real
questions about copper’s future viability in supporting advanced
applications.
So the question of “Which physical media should I bet
on, copper or fiber” – has been replaced by a new question:
“Which fiber standard should I adopt” Making the right
GPON and P2P “active” Ethernet deployments are growing in number in North America, while
GePON/EPON is less popular and BPON is sinking fast..
David Russell will host a panel
discussion on “Using Fiber to
Expand Business Services for
Cable Companies” at the Broadband
Summit in Dallas, April 27 - 29, 2009.
choice has substantial implications for service providers, as the
different fiber technology and deployment models have different
costs, operating characteristics and potential for future application
support.
In North America, service providers’ decisions about technology
standards have been whittled
down to two: GPON and point-to-point
(also described as P2P or active Ethernet).
Most third-party market research firms
have projected that GPON will account
for more than 80 percent of all North
American FTTH deployments over the
next few years, with P2P accounting for
10 to 15 percent of deployments. A potential
third choice, BPON, is quickly
fading away as Verizon and others shift
from BPON to GPON (see Figure 1). A
potential fourth choice, EPON, which
has proven the most popular standard
in the Asian market, has never gained
much momentum in North America. A
separate study by Broadband Properties
of independent telcos in the US found a
similar trend in the adoption of FTTH
technologies (see Figure 2).
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 63

Broadband Properties’ survey of independent telcos deploying FTTH found that GPON was the most
prevalent standard. For companies deploying fiber today, active Ethernet is also popular.
Matching the Technology
to the Application
In the end, most North American service
providers have chosen GPON for
residential and small business deployments,
while favoring P2P for serving
medium to large businesses. Beyond
the religious arguments of the technology
zealots, there are some very practical,
real-world benefits for each of these
technologies (see the chart at the bottom
of this page) that make them more suitable
for different applications.
But exceptions to these general
trends have abounded. Service providers
for high-rise MDUs might view the
concentrated bandwidth needed to provision
a large MDU as more suitable for
P2P than GPON. Alternatively, rural
service providers with little competition
and little housing growth may not
have the subscriber density to make the
best use of GPON and may opt for the
longer optical reach available with P2P
served out of the central office.
With both technologies appropriate
for different applications in the same
network, a solution is needed that enables
service providers to serve both
GPON and P2P from a common infrastructure
and be flexible enough to be
able to change from one technology to
another easily. This capability is a valuable
component of what we at Calix call
a “Unified Access Infrastructure.”
GPON and active Ethernet are each valuable in different circumstances.
64 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

TECHNOLOGY
Combining different architectures and different deployment types leads to a better understanding among the stakeholders in the economic crisis.
An All-in-One Solution
In an FTTP deployment, over two-thirds of the equipment
costs are at the home or business premises. So any meaningful
solution that encompasses both GPON and P2P must address
a unified approach at the CPE.
In 2006, Calix introduced technology that allowed optical
network terminals (ONTs) to auto-detect what type of optical
line terminal (OLT) they were connected to and automatically
sync with the technology detected. This allowed customers to
deploy ONTs initially with BPON, then upgrade to GPON
merely by changing the OLT card. Once the ONT sensed that
the OLT had changed from BPON to GPON, the ONT resynced
itself as a GPON ONT. With no necessity to change
out ONTs, this approach saved Calix customers millions of
dollars in equipment upgrade costs and truck rolls.
Without this capability, service providers would either not
be able to afford the upgrade from BPON to GPON, or their
business cases would be severely burdened when they upgraded
to GPON due to the high cost of the upgrade. Switching out
the ONT could cost $500 or more per customer, versus a cost
penalty of a few dollars per ONT.
While the migration from BPON to GPON was inevitable,
the capability to auto-detect technology and adapt to changes
of the OLT was seen as having value to service providers as a
way to “future proof” their networks. With this in mind, Calix
discussed with customers their interest in having an ONT that
could support not only BPON and GPON, but also P2P.
The feedback from customers was overwhelmingly positive.
Now Calix customers have another level of “future proof”
secur ity. Should the service provider decide to shift from
GPON to P2P at a given location, or from P2P to GPON,
there will be no truck roll required.
Calix introduced this technology to the market in its
700GX ONT product line. Initially introduced on four different
models of ONTs, the first ONTs offering this capability
support all the same services (10/100/1000 Ethernet, SIP-based
VoIP, IPTV and HPNAv3.1 over coax), except for TDM voice,
when in P2P mode as in GPON mode. The 700GX ONT is
priced about 10 percent higher than a GPON-only ONT.
When the product is installed in the field, the ONT will turn
up as a GPON ONT if connected to a GPON OLT or a P2P
ONU if connected to any Ethernet switch. Calix has introduced
a new platform called the E5-400, which is designed to support
the aggregation of Gigabit Ethernet from GPON OLTs and P2P
Active Ethernet ONTs into 10 Gigabit rings. This product can
be used in conjunction with Calix GPON platforms to provide
universal access under a common management system.
The Unified Access Infrastructure
An all-fiber network that can serve the needs of all customers
in a given serving area is fundamentally more efficient than a
network with multiple overlays that add cost and complexity.
This concept – called a Unified Access Infrastructure – is essential
for the future competitiveness of service providers. As
competition increases, the winner will be the service provider
that can generate the highest revenue at the lowest ongoing
operational and capital cost. BBP
About the Author
David Russell is Solutions Marketing Director at Calix and
a board member of the Fiber-to-the-Home Council. He can be
reached at david.russell@calix.com.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 65

INDEPENDENT TELCOS
Gorham Telephone Brings
IPTV Services to Kansas
To IPTV or not to IPTV Working with an integrator can reduce the headache
– and expense – of delivering cutting-edge services to your customers.
By Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties
Worldwide, about 20 million television viewers now
subscribe to IPTV services over DSL or fiber-to-thehome
networks. So there’s no doubt that IPTV technology
works – and offers the potential for new interactive services
in the future. But telcos often shy away from it, describing
it as difficult and expensive to implement, in part because there
are so many pieces of hardware and software to integrate. Even
some Tier 1 telcos, notably Verizon, are approaching IPTV
gradually and with caution. Smaller LECs tend to find it even
more daunting.
But there are several simple and cost-effective ways for rural
telcos to bring IPTV services to their customers. One way is to
work with an integrator that can help assemble all of the moving
parts and make sure they work together correctly, and even
take over some of the processing of video files. Gorham Telephone
Company in Gorham, Kansas, chose this option after
migrating its 500 access lines to a fiber-to-the-home network.
Mike Murphy, president of Gorham Telephone and one of
the third generation of Murphys who own the company, says
Gorham Tel, like many rural telcos, had delivered video services
over coaxial cable in a portion of its service area before
the upgrade. After deploying fiber to the home in 2006-2007,
it had the option of continuing to deliver video using the RF
technology it was familiar with – again, a path that many allfiber
rural telcos have chosen. (RF video over the network is
not an available option for telcos using DSL.)
But Murphy decided to follow the advice of a consultant
who recommended that IPTV would be less costly than RF in
the long run and would better position Gorham Tel to deliver
new services in the future.
Searching for A Solution
The next question was how to acquire the hardware, software
and, especially, the programming required to offer a compelling
video service. Murphy’s wife and co-owner Tonya Murphy
began looking for ways to acquire IPTV content, rejecting
several options because they were not priced appropriately for
a small company. Her search ultimately led to Power & Telephone
Supply (Power & Tel, www.ptsupply.com), a worldwide
distributor of material for the telecommunications and cable
Learn more about IPTV at the
Broadband Summit,
April 27–29, 2009,
in Dallas, Texas
TV industries, and to Power & Tel’s integrator partner, CSI
Digital (www.csidigital.net). In partnership with Power & Tel,
CSI Digital offers a full standard-definition/high-definition
solution to the independent telco market.
Gorham Tel purchased IPTV equipment from Power & Tel
and contracted with CSI Digital to help put together an endto-end
solution, including (among other things) a customized
IPTV gateway, Amino set-top boxes, Minerva middleware and
programming. The solution met all of the stringent security
requirements imposed by the content providers.
Murphy estimates that working with CSI Digital saved
about half of the cost of implementing IPTV, compared with
a do-it-yourself option. But CSI’s solution didn’t just save
money; it also reduced the time to market for Gorham Tel.
“They shipped everything out to us all assembled, and we just
rolled it in and put the cables up. We were ready to go in a
couple of weeks,” says Murphy. He notes that despite “a few
little hiccups” that were resolved quickly, the solution works
as expected.
Acquiring IPTV programming and
meeting the programmers’ security
requirements can be expensive
for a small provider. An integrator
can help perform these tasks faster
and more cost effectively.
66 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

INDEPENDENT TELCOS
To further reduce costs, Gorham Tel formed an LLC,
Video Solutions, in partnership with two other Kansas telcos
in order to manage the IPTV middleware and the video-ondemand
application and produce some local programming.
The two telco partners, along with other companies, will also
be allowed to make use of the headend facility. (It’s common
for rural telcos to share headends with other providers in order
to achieve economies of scale.)
The IPTV service was rolled out in January, including
high-definition stations and a VoD offering. A DVR feature
is being tested now. Within a few weeks after the service went
live, 150 video customers were enrolled. “The take rate is fairly
good,” Murphy says, adding that he expects to see more users
sign up. In the communities where Gorham did not previously
provide cable, consumers’ only options were satellite and offthe-air
TV, and many of them are expressing interest in the
new fiber-to-the-home offering.
A Service Provider to Service Providers
Eric Patterson, CSI Digital’s VP for Sales, refers to his company
as a “service provider to service providers.” The services
CSI provides include:
• Design, engineering, construction and integration of the
telco’s IPTV hardware, software and programming;
• Encoding the programming in MPEG-4 format, adding
encryption and retransmitting it; and
• Post-implementation maintenance and monitoring.
CSI can also provide wholesale voice and data solutions
(options that Gorham Tel did not avail itself of).
Service providers must still obtain content affiliate rights
from the content providers or from aggregators, but they have
far less work to do at the headend, because they are receiving
content that is already encoded and encrypted. CSI’s solutions
are nonproprietary, and the company says it will work
with whatever hardware/software platforms its customers have
available, and with whatever video channels customers want to
offer in addition to the 270+ existing channels it offers.
“The marketplace has tremendous interest in IPTV,” Patterson
says. “The technology and the cost have come down to
where more and more people can…make a business out of it,
including universities, PCOs, master-planned communities,
CATV providers and military bases. An IPTV solution allows
you to be competitive, offer new services, increase your revenues,
and be on a level playing field. With an IPTV package
you can pretty much offer anything as applications become
available – like VoD, which is common now. Our relationship
with Power & Tel has allowed us to deliver the strongest solution
to the telco and cable markets.”
According to Patterson, IPTV is already superior to RF
video, with robust applications and middleware and far better
picture quality. “There are great customizable electronic
program guides, unlimited community channels and really
nice middleware packages that enhance the subscriber’s experience,”
he says.
Sharing equipment with
neighboring providers, and
operating the video services through
a joint venture, is another way
small telcos can reduce the costs of
providing IPTV to their customers.
With its major competitor, SES Americom, withdrawing
its IP-Prime solution from the marketplace this summer,
CSI hopes to be able to support the dozens of telcos that had
contracts with IP-Prime. CSI Digital and Power & Tel have
launched a transition program to assist IP-Prime customers
that need to re-acquire programming.
“SES Americom’s pullout from the IPTV market has made
little difference in our ability to serve our customers. CSI Digital’s
strong relationship with Avail Media ensures that our customers
receive the best in IPTV programming. They are singularly
committed to the growth and vitality of this industry,”
says Patterson. BBP
About the Author
Masha can be reached at masha@broadbandproperties.com.
The Fiber-to-the-Home Council, the IMCC and
Broadband Properties Magazine
Congratulate
For becoming an Enhanced Gold Sponsor at the
2009 Broadband Properties Summit.
For more information on AT&T Connected
Communities, visit www.att.com.
You are cordially invited to come see
AT&T at the upcoming
April 27 – 29, 2009
Hyatt Regency DFW • Dallas, TX
New Business Models For Fiber Communities
To Exhibit or Sponsor, contact: Irene Prescott at
irene@broadbandproperties.com, or call 316-733-9122.
& For other inquiries, call 877-588-1649,
or visit www.bbpmag.com
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 67

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW
Consumer Electronics and
the Connected Digital Lifestyle
At the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this
January, products for the “connected home” were everywhere in sight,
as were green technologies. And start getting ready for 3DTV!
By Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties
The world’s largest consumer technology trade show
was held in Las Vegas last month, with 2,700 exhibitors
showing a mind-boggling 20,000 new products.
Although attendance was off about 15 percent
from last year, there was no noticeable slowdown on the vendor
side, and the Consumer Electronics Association said its members
reported getting more business done this year than at any
prior show. In fact, they say they are considering restricting the
number of attendees at future shows to this year’s levels, on the
“less is more” theory.
Will the consumer electronics industry help lead the way to
economic recovery, as the CEA boasts It’s certainly possible. If
consumers decide to forgo vacations this year, they’ll have plenty
of new options for home-based entertainment and for staying in
touch with the friends and family they’re not visiting.
At least half of all new gadgets, it seems, are designed to
be connected to the Internet. Inside the home, home automation
options are multiplying and networking has become more
transparent. Consumers don’t just want to view content anytime;
they want to view it on any and every screen, without
having to think about how it gets there, and they want the
whole process to be hassle-free. Vendors are doing their best to
accommodate those wishes.
The proliferation of connected devices isn’t all that’s driving
bandwidth demand. Newer file formats mean bigger files
that require more download (and upload) capacity. We’re still
absorbing the shock of high-definition television, a notorious
bandwidth-eater, and now we have to start thinking about
3D television as well. How soon before we’ll start to see holographic
TVs on the market
Internet Content on the TV
We have been talking about moving Internet content to the TV
for several years now, yet most people are still watching online
videos on their computers (and now on their mobile phones).
Will Internet-to-TV be another case of the “flying car,” a pipe
dream that has been about to materialize for more than 50
years since the first prototypes
Probably not. For one thing, consumers actually want to
watch Internet video on TV. A Diffusion Group survey found
that 83 percent of consumers “believe the TV to be the preferred
platform for viewing over-the-top video services,” and
Strategy Analytics found that “the ability to access the Internet
from the comfort of the living room … is making its way into
the purchasing criteria of today’s tech-savvy consumers who
plan to purchase a TV within the next two years.”
According to the Strategy Analytics survey, viewers particularly
want to use the TV to watch movies from sites like
Attendance may have fallen at CES, but you can’t tell that from the
show floor.
68 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW
Will the consumer electronics
industry help lead the way to
economic recovery, as the CEA
boasts It’s certainly possible.
If consumers decide to forgo
vacations this year, they’ll have
plenty of new options for homebased
entertainment and for
staying in touch with the friends
and family they’re not visiting.
Hulu, Netflix and CinemaNow, which they see as a chance for
“families to spend more social time together.” And they don’t
want to hook up the PC to the TV – they want to bypass the
PC altogether.
The holdup is that televisions are expensive, Internet-connected
televisions are even more expensive, and most people
don’t buy a TV until the old one breaks – so it will be a while before
we see an Internet-enabled television in every living room,
even though the number of flat-panel TVs is pushing two per
household on average. ABI Research, a market research firm,
expects the number of Internet-connected TVs, game consoles
and set-top boxes to exceed 200 million by 2013.
In the meantime, TV manufacturers are busy adding Internet
connections to their devices. Sony, which first announced
its Bravia Internet-enabled televisions two years ago, was showing
new high-definition models this year (broadband connection
of at least 2.5 Mbps recommended). Internet “widgets”
on the Bravia deliver real-time information (weather, traffic,
stock prices, news, Ebay auction results, even movies) to the
TV screen, and the integrated Internet Video Link supports
streaming video. An Ethernet connection plugs directly into
the broadband modem. The Bravia uses a “walled garden” approach
where the video content comes from Sony partners including
Amazon, YouTube, Yahoo, Slacker and others.
LG Electronics is taking the same approach as Sony, with
two new broadband HDTV product lines that offer instant
streaming of movies, TV shows and video, along with Internet
widgets, via Ethernet connectivity directly to the television.
LG’s walled garden, called NetCast Entertainment Access, features
partnerships with Yahoo, Netflix and YouTube.
Panasonic, also taking a similar approach, expanded the
number of Internet-enabled televisions it offers and added to
its online partnerships, which now include Amazon, YouTube,
Picasa, and Bloomberg. Panasonic also announced usability
enhancements to its interface.
Yahoo, a company that has been searching for a mission
in recent years, has found some success marketing its widget
platform to television manufacturers – not just Sony and LG,
but also Samsung, Vizio and Toshiba. Yahoo’s Widget Channel
was developed in partnership with Intel, and is open to application
developers. To date, TV widgets have been developed
not only by Intel and Yahoo but also by companies such as
Associated Press, CBS, CinemaNow, eBay, Joost and MySpace.
These widgets provide capabilities such as games, shopping,
community, information services and movie downloads.
Besides Yahoo, other companies developing Internet-to-TV
software include Sezmi, whose “personal television system”
presents a mashup of broadcast and cable channels, Internet
video and on-demand content; Macrovision Solutions, which
is offering an interactive program guide for Internet-connected
televisions; and Move Networks, whose widely used adaptive
streaming technology can now deliver high-definition programming
to any Internet-connected device. (Move’s software
is an alternative to Adobe Flash, which is also now being ported
to consumer electronics devices.)
Two Japanese companies, Orion Electric and Quixun Co.,
showed a concept model of a broadband TV powered by Intel
architecture. By adding 1 GB of memory and 1 GB of storage
to the TV, embedding Windows XP, and using Quixun’s
ROBRO browser to make all functions accessible through the
remote control, the companies developed a combination TV/
PC/DVR. Orion director Hideyuki Yano says, “I believe that
this broadband TV will facilitate the real merger of TV and the
Internet, and we will be able to provide the real attraction of
the Internet to daily lives.”
Connected Devices Everywhere
Televisions aren’t the only CE devices with broadband connections
– anything that can produce or display a digital file is
now fair game. And with a new international industry forum,
the Internet Media Device Alliance, developing standards and
device profiles, we can expect rapid growth in this area.
The potential for Internet device connections is limitless.
Toshiba’s futuristic “concept designs” included NetworkStationery,
an Internet notepad, plus a water-resistant viewer, devices
powered by fuel cells, and a thin 5mm card-sized device.
Microsoft showed concept designs from a startup company
called Fugoo including a clock that displays news, stock prices
and weather reports along with the time, and a Web-connected
coffee maker that can look up grinding instructions when it
encounters a new variety of coffee bean. (Fugoo envisions them
eventually talking to each other, so the clock can tell the coffee
maker when to start brewing.) Fugoo cofounder John Hui says
his platform is set to “redefine the term ‘household appliance.’”
For the moment, however, entertainment devices are the
ones most likely to be Internet-enabled. Digital photo frames,
one of the highlights of last year’s CES, were back in force this
year – but they’ve evolved into much more than picture frames.
Digital-frame software from Chumby lets users mix photos
and videos from their cameras, computers and the Web; share
photos and e-cards with family and friends; and control all of
their connected screens from a Web-based account. Chumby
(which also manufactures its own WiFi Internet device, the
chumby) offers more than 1,000 Internet widgets ranging from
news and entertainment to videos, music and sports, as well as
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 69

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW
• Alpha Networks’ Internet cameras with bundled software
for home security and surveillance systems.
• CyberLink Live 3 from Cyberlink (not a device, but software
that runs on Windows Mobile smart phones and other
DLNA-compliant devices), which can access a home computer
via the Internet and play media stored there. The software
was demonstrated along with the Acer Aspire M5700,
whose Remote Wake Technology allows it to respond to
calls from CyberLink Live even when it is in “sleep” mode
– an energy-saving setup.
The Vizit photo frame from Isabella Products lets users send pictures to
each other over the Internet.
tens of thousands of Internet radio stations, streaming online
video clips and more.
Ipevo’s Kaleido R7 frame lets users subscribe to content
from photo-sharing Web sites like Flickr and Picasa, as well
as to news or blogs. The Vizit frame from Isabella Products
can receive pictures automatically from a cell phone, e-mail
account, computer or Internet photo management sites. Users
can send pictures from one Vizit to another Vizit, or even to
multiple Vizits – making it easy for far-flung family members
to keep up to date with each other.
GiiNii International’s PixPlus WiFi-enabled frames are set
up to connect with FrameChannel.com or HowStuffWorks.
com. And its Movit Mini frame has a webcam and Skype built
in, so users can not only view photos and videos but conduct
WiFi-based video phone calls as well.
Other devices included:
• Dish Network’s award-winning SlingLoaded HD DuoDVR
ViP 922 – the first high-definition digital video recorder
with placeshifting, allowing users to view their home television
from a laptop.
• Networked Blu-ray disc players such as the BD series from
LG, which let users download HD movies from the Internet
or get ancillary material, such as subtitles or interactive
games, related to movies they’re watching on disc.
• Internet radios such as Socrimex’s WiFi-enabled Scott RXi-
400WL, which connects into the home network to receive
broadcasts from over 5,000 Internet radio stations and to
access over 10,000 podcasts.
• Sony’s WiFi-enabled Cyber-shot DSC-G3 digital camera,
which uploads photos and videos to Web sites with its builtin
browser. After connecting to the Internet via wireless access
points, the camera automatically navigates to the Sony
Easy Upload Home Page, which includes direct links to
popular photo- and video-sharing sites (and also allows access
to other sites chosen by the user). The camera can also
be used to view images already uploaded.
Live and in Color…and Three Dimensions
3DTV is another one of those promises that have perennially
failed to materialize (at least in the consumer marketplace), but
this year the times seem to be a-changin’. Several major movie
studios have announced their commitment to 3D, the CEA
said last summer that it would begin discussing standards for
3D video, and last month a number of 3D products showed up
at CES. Like Internet-enabled TV, 3D seems to be a technology
that consumers are eager for. In a survey by Quixel Research,
over half of the respondents agreed that 3D makes movies and
games (especially games) more enjoyable.
In the absence of standards, it’s difficult to say what the
bandwidth requirements for 3DTV will be – but since the
technology essentially involves sending two different versions
of each frame, it’s likely to be a bandwidth hog, especially when
the images are in high definition.
And some of them are definitely in HD. At CES, Panasonic
showed its award-winning 3D Full HD Plasma Home
Theater System (3D FHD), which lets viewers see 3D images
using a Panasonic 103-inch Plasma HDTV and a Panasonic
Blu-ray Disc player. A Panasonic executive said the system
went “well beyond conventional 3D,” due to its ability to refresh
at very high speeds. The system is used with active shutter
glasses, which let one eye, then the other, view synchronized
TV frames in 1/60-second slices, to get a 3D effect.
RealD’s stereoscopic Cinema System – complete with eyewear,
screen and filtering technology – was demonstrated at CES
on a movie screen in a sneak preview of Dreamworks’ upcoming
Monsters vs. Aliens, and on Sony Bravia televisions as well.
Cinedigm’s digital cinema product, using technology from
Sensio, was demonstrated in a theatrical broadcast of a football
game; the Sensio technology also works with computer and television
screens. Sensio allowed CES visitors to film themselves
and watch the result live in 3D on a high-definition television.
Anything that can produce or
display a digital file is fair game
for networked enhancements.
With a new international industry
forum, the Internet Media Device
Alliance, developing standards
and device profiles, we can
expect rapid growth in this area.
70 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW
Newmark Homes Uses Home
Automation to Market Condos
The “connected home” may look exciting on an exhibit
floor, but how does it play to real home buyers It’s
difficult to tell in a slow market whether a technology
amenity – or any other factor – is making homes sell any
faster, but initial reports from developers indicate that
buyers respond enthusiastically to automation features
built into their homes.
The Z-Wave Alliance, whose members create home
control products using the Z-Wave wireless communications
protocol, says home control capabilities are
now being included as standard features in many new
homes, particularly in the western states. One developer
that has had a positive experience with Z-Wave products
is Newmark Homes, whose condominiums in Austin and
San Antonio have featured home control for more than
a year. So far, the company has sold more than 400 Z-
Wave-equipped condos, ranging from low-end to highend
units.
Newmark Homes is using a solution from garage door
manufacturer Wayne-Dalton. The humble garage door
opener now activates an entire “home control scene,”
turning on garage lights, outdoor security lights and
indoor pathway lighting, as well as disarming the alarm
system and adjusting the thermostat.
Once indoors, the homeowner uses a 12-scene controller,
a little larger than a TV remote control, to control
the rest of the house. Activating the “kitchen scene,” for
example, might turn on the lights in the kitchen, preheat
the oven and start the coffee maker. The scenes can also
be activated from a PC, using a USB device, or over the
Internet. (Not all of the device controls are part of Newmark’s
standard package, but homeowners can easily
add to the system because no hard wiring is required.)
“There are two components, energy efficiency and
security,” explains Don Cox, Newmark Homes’ vice president
for sales and marketing. Security features include
not only lighting the house and driveway as the owner
drives up, but vacation scenes that turn lights on and
off at different times of day to create the appearance of
someone being in the home. For energy efficiency, homeowners
can set lights and appliances to switch off a few
minutes after they leave the house; with the new Internet
It’s difficult to tell in a slow
market whether a technology
amenity is making homes
sell any faster, but initial
reports from developers
indicate that buyers respond
enthusiastically to automation
features built into their homes.
portal, expected to be introduced soon, they will also be
able to control heating and air conditioning remotely.
The home control solution is instrumental in marketing
the condos. Each model home has a digital picture
frame with a PowerPoint presentation about the solution
looping through it. The salespeople have been trained
to demonstrate the 12-scene controller, showing prospective
home buyers how the controller can automate
the lighting in the home. Placards mounted behind light
switches saying “This switch speaks Z-Wave” also stimulate
buyers’ interest.
The basic package that Newmark Homes builds into
the condos adds about $1,000 to the price, and home
buyers often add extras, ranging from $30 for a switch to
$200 for a controller. Newmark Homes installs the system
during the electrical trim-out and then turns it over to a
contractor for programming it after the closing.
Feedback from home buyers has been very positive,
according to Cox. Salespeople report that buyers – especially
in Austin, a city with a large high-tech business sector
– are “intrigued and interested” in the home controls.
And post-sales feedback relayed from the integrator is
also uniformly enthusiastic. “It’s equally appealing across
all price ranges,” Cox says. “The low-end infill condos
have security concerns [that this system addresses]; at
the high end, everyone wants all the bells and whistles.”
Not surprisingly, Cox says Newmark Homes plans to continue
using and marketing the home control solution in
its Austin and San Antonio markets.
Samsung announced that its first 3D monitor, the 2233RZ,
which is compatible with Nvidia’s new GeForce 3D Vision
graphics card, will be available for purchase in April. Samsung
recommends the monitor “for uses ranging from teaching and
using 3D modeling to playing the latest video games,” but
gaming seems to be the major market. The monitor, used with
Nvidia software, automatically converts more than 350 games
to stereoscopic 3D without special game patches.
Also available are active shutter glasses that can be worn
over normal prescription glasses.
ViewSonic launched a 3D-ready line, FuHzion, which includes
a desktop LCD monitor and a portable lightweight projector.
The company says the products are “engineered to be adaptable
and affordable” and “will make 3D standard in the home.”
The holy grail of 3DTV is autostereoscopy, meaning 3D
with no special glasses required. This technology, still much
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 71

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW
more expensive than 3D with glasses, also turned up at CES.
TTE Corporation showed monitors using autostereoscopic
technology from French developer Alioscopy, based on a lenticular-lens
screen surface. (A lenticular lens refers to an array
of lenses arranged so that different images appear magnified
when seen from different angles.) Alioscopy, which has been
working on the technology for 14 years, says it can be applied
to LCD displays and used for media and entertainment, mobile
communications, games, laptops, kiosks, digital signage, automotive,
architecture, engineering and construction, medical,
government and military applications. Digital signage appears
to be the primary application at present – but the technology is
likely to end up in the mass market eventually.
Sunny Days for Cloud Computing
In the last few years, as broadband access has become widespread,
there has been a huge migration of software and computing
capacity from the desktop to larger computers accessed
via the Internet – “in the cloud.” Cloud computing frees users
from software maintenance, upgrading and other chores, and
allows them to pay for services based on usage.
Cloud computing also gives users access to powerful software
they couldn’t run on their own machines. That’s the impetus
behind technology company AMD’s plan, unveiled at
CES, to build a massively parallel supercomputer, the “AMD
Fusion Render Cloud.” AMD will make the Fusion Render
Cloud available to content providers like Electronic Arts and
Lucasfilm to deliver HD content through the cloud.
AMD anticipates that the new computer, which should be
ready in the second half of the year, will be the fastest graphics
supercomputer ever. Content providers can use it to deliver
video games and other graphics-heavy applications to virtually
any Web-enabled mobile device – without sapping the device’s
batteries or making it struggle to process the content. This will
make high-definition entertainment available to smart phones,
set-top boxes and ultra-thin notebooks.
The facility will also allow games and movies to become
even more graphics-intensive. Gaming companies can serve up
virtual world games with unlimited photorealistic detail and
also take advantage of new delivery channels. As Robert Rodriguez,
director of Troublemaker Studios, described the possibilities:
“Imagine watching a movie halfway through on your
cell phone while on the bus ride home, then, upon entering
your home or apartment, switch over to your HDTV and continue
watching the same movie from exactly where you left off,
seamlessly, and at full-screen resolution. Imagine playing the
most visually intensive first-person shooter game at the highest
image quality settings on your cell phone without ever having
to download and install the software, or use up valuable storage
space or battery life with compute-intensive tasks.”
In other cloud computing news:
• ViewSonic introduced a line of small, lightweight desktop
computers intended specifically for cloud computing, in
line with its vision of the “transformation of desktop PCs
evolving into Web-centric displays that communicate to
software applications running on the Internet.”
• PlumChoice, a tech support outsourcer, announced remote
PC support capabilities that let consumers receive on-screen
alerts about critical security, backup and disk health problems,
along with instant technician assistance.
Home Automation Solutions
Is home networking and automation about energy cost savings,
entertainment, security or convenience The answer seems to
be “all of the above.” Here’s a great example of each:
Energy savings: CES gave its Best of Innovations award for
eco-design and sustainable technology to 4Home’s new energy
management system, 4Home Energy, which combines 4Home
software with devices and technology from Echelon, SMC
Networks, and Radio Thermostat Corporation of America.
The solution will be in trials this year with smart meter providers
and utilities, which will provide back-end support for
the system. 4Home Energy has also been licensed by Sensus
Metering Systems, a smart metering and AMI/AMR vendor,
which will use it to create home-area networking and demand
response solutions for its utility customers.
Brad Kayton, COO of 4Home, said the solution was designed
“to help consumers understand their current energy
consumption and to take proactive steps to lower their monthly
utility bill.” The system provides a complete, real-time analysis
of home energy usage, displaying energy consumption down to
a single appliance or light fixture, and recommends options for
72 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW
saving money and conserving energy. Consumers can monitor
and control their energy usage – both at home and remotely –
via a computer, utility provided in-home display, touch panel,
Smartphone, or networked TV. The portal server allows remote
management and diagnostics of in-home devices, as well
as providing wide-area network load control and load shedding
across many thousands of homes.
Entertainment: Crestron won an award for its iServer, a permanent,
integrated iPod-based home audio server that turns
the iPod into a dedicated whole-house audio server. The Crestron
iServer is intended to bridge the gap between expensive
audio servers and basic docking stations. Users can access
iTunes from a home computer, download songs, and play the
music in every room in the house. The iServer synchronizes
automatically with the iTunes Library whenever new content
is added or new playlists are created. Crestron also announced
that December 2008 was the best month in its 40-year history
– which doesn’t prove anything about entertainment as
an anti-recessionary strategy, since the company also makes
devices for lighting control, climate control and other types of
building automation.
Security: Yet another award-winner was Cernium, for its Archerfish
mobile video intelligence solution. Archerfish uses a
combination of video cameras, intelligent software and a custom
Web portal to ‘watch’ businesses and homes for events users
define as important, such as kids coming home from school
or an unwelcome intruder. When a defined event occurs, Archerfish
notifies users with text and video to their mobile device,
e-mail or custom Web portal.
Unlike most video surveillance systems, Archerfish doesn’t
require users to watch video all day, nor does it rely on motion
alarms to trigger the cameras. It applies industrial-grade video
analytics technology (the company makes security software for
airports) that lets users define events they want to be informed
about and how they want to be informed. Craig Chambers,
president and CEO of Cernium, calls Archerfish “the next
evolution in place-shifting technology, enabling better lifestyle
management, enhanced security and greater peace of mind.”
The solution includes an Archerfish SmartBox, two cameras,
cables, and a custom Archerfish Portal.
Convenience: Taking pity on those of us who can never remember
which remote goes with which device, Control4
Archerfish by Cernium Corp. is a mobile video intelligence solution that
“watches” a business or home for predefined events.
showed how it can “provide one-touch control of both new
and existing electronic systems in the home.” Along with 25
partners at its Control4 Partner Pavilion, the company demonstrated
how its platform allows interoperability and integration
between devices of all kinds – everything from HDTVs to
receivers to door locks. Control4 offers both wired and wireless
solutions that can be installed in existing and new homes.
About the Author
You can reach Masha at masha@broadbandproperties.com.
CES Exhibitor Spotlight
(including partners)
4Home
Acer
Adobe
Alioscopy
Alpha Networks
AMD
Cernium
Chumby
Cinedigm
Control4
Crestron
Cyberlink
Dish Network
Fugoo
GiiNii International
Internet Media
Device Alliance
Ipevo
Isabella Products
LG Electronics
Macrovision Solutions
Microsoft
Move Networks
Orion Electric
Panasonic
PlumChoice
Quixun
RealD
Samsung
Sezmi
Socrimex
Sony
Toshiba
TTE (TCL Multimedia)
ViewSonic
Vizio
Wayne-Dalton
Yahoo
Z-Wave Alliance
www.4home.com
www.acer.com
www.adobe.com
www.alioscopyusa.com
www.alphanetworks.com
www.amd.com
www.cernium.com
www.chumby.com
www.cinedigm.com
www.control4.com
www.crestron.com
www.cyberlink.com
www.dishnetwork.com
www.fugoolive.com
www.giinii.com
www.imdalliance.org
www.ipevo.com
www.isabellaproducts.com
www.lge.com
www.macrovision.com
www.microsoft.com
www.movenetworks.com
www.orion-electric.co.jp/
en/index.html
www.panasonic.com
www.plumchoice.com
www.quixun.co.jp
www.reald-corporate.com
www.samsung.com
www.sezmi.com
www.audioscott.com
www.sony.com
www.toshiba.com
multimedia.tcl.com
www.viewsonic.com
www.vizio.com
www.wayne-dalton.com
www.yahoo.com
www.z-wavealliance.org
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 73

Online Gaming Provides
Marketing Opportunities
for Service Providers
The exploding popularity of massively multiplayer online
games presents ripe opportunities for broadband
service providers, says analyst firm Pike & Fischer.
Video game advertising in the United States will reach
an annual $1.4 billion by 2013, P&F estimates. This creates
opportunities for cable operators, telephone companies and
wireless service providers to help advertisers maximize the
effectiveness of their promotions in whole new ways.
Many of these online games, such as the wildly popular
World of Warcraft, have spawned massive social networking
communities. P&F senior analyst Tim Deal says, “These communities
are highly effective in getting users to interact online
outside of the game world, and they serve to create a thriving
ecosystem around a particular online gaming platform. This
ecosystem has created both unheralded revenue opportunities
as well as licensing and intellectual property concerns.”
Find out more about the opportunities
presented by gaming services when
you attend the Broadband Summit
April 27–29, 2009 in Dallas, Texas.
See www.bbpmag.com.
Internet service providers have many other prospects for
capitalizing on gaming-related revenue, Deal says. For example,
they can offer specialized high-bandwidth packages,
co-branded Web 2.0 templates and applications, or proprietary
Internet voice services for gamers. BBP
Advanced Media Technologies ® , Inc. • 720 South Powerline Rd., Suite G, Deerfield Beach, FL 33442
Direct 954.427.5711 • Toll Free 888.293.5856 • Fax 954.427.9688 • www.amt.com • sales@amt.com
Lightbulb_HalfH.indd 1
74 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009
6/5/08 10:15:25 PM

Xelerated Shows Unified FTTx Access for EPON,
GPON, 10G PON, LTE, P2P and WiMAX
From BBP Wires
STOCKHOLM – ASSP-based chipset
vendor Xelerated’s (www.xelerated.com)
new AX family of programmable wirespeed
Ethernet switches is the first line
of devices to allow network equipment
vendors and carriers to use a unified
Ethernet-based FTTx access solution in
a single design. The AX family, a 100
Gigabit-ready series based on Xelerated’s
patented dataflow architecture, is
optimized to deliver IPTV and Videoon-Demand.
Fully programmable, it
allows for easy adaptation to carrier requirements
and new access standards,
such as DSL Forum WT-201 (TR101)
and WT-145. It also enables carriers and
vendors to extend the lifetime of access
equipment to 20+ plus years, and to accelerate
time to market for new, revenuegenerating
services.
Based on a network processor core
embedded into the Ethernet Switch,
the AX switches retain flexibility for
ring, star, dual star and meshed topologies,
while providing low cost and high
performance in the access. They offer
advanced user flow management of quadruple
play services for voice, video, television
and data as well as Carrier Ethernet
services such as E-LAN, E-Line and
E-Tree for business users. I-temp variants
are also offered for hardened outdoor
applications, which are common in
the US, and in Europe for fiber-to-thecurb
or -node deployments.
Specifically, the AX240 and AX340
devices support advanced traffic management
to QOS for quadruple-play
services with fine-granular user flow
management (EIR, CIR, CBS, EBS)
and flow control. Flexible service provisioning
is supported with features like
carrier-grade OAM protocols, such as
802.1ag, 802.1ah, ITU1731. Synchronous
Ethernet and precision time protocol
support wireless and circuit/leased
line emulation. Carrier grade reliability
with memory protection, high service
availability, detect and recover from
incidents within 50 ms, node and link
redundancy and hitless in-service upgrades
are supported.
The AX series is fully software compatible
with the HX300 family of products,
as well as its previous generation
network processor, the X11.
Prepare your community for tomorrow
with Connexion Technologies…
You can provide for the ever-changing technological needs
of residents without touching your budget. By partnering with
Connexion Technologies to install a cutting-edge Fiber to the
Home network in your community, your residents can enjoy the
best entertainment and communications services delivered over
a fiber-optic network. This network will also be ready to handle
almost any new service that comes to market.
Find out more at www.connexiontechnologies.net
or contact us at 919.535.7329.
January/February 2009 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 75

calendar & ad index
March
22–26
OFCNFOEC
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, CA
202-416-1975 • www.ofcnfoec.org
25–29
IPTV World Forum
National Hall
Olympia, London
44 (0) 20 7017 5506
www.iptv-forum.com
April
1–3
The Cable Show
Washington Convention Center
Washington, DC
202-222-2430
www.thecableshow.com
AD INDEX
Advertiser Page Website
ADC/Graybar 5 www.graybar.com/adc
Adesta 1 www.adestagroup.com
Advanced Media Technologies 53, 74 www.amt.com
AFL Telecommunications 53, Inside Back Cover www.afltele.com
Atlantic Engineering Group 57 www.aeg.cc
Blonder Tongue 49 www.blondertongue.com
Broadband Properties Summit 19, 31, 36-41, 58, 67 www.bbpmag.com
Charles Industries 64 www.charlesindustries.com
Connexion Technologies 75 www.connexiontechnologies.com
Display Systems International 59 www.displaysystemsintl.com
Embarq Logistics 3, 54 www.embarqlogistics.com
Enablence Back Cover www.enablence.com
Freedom to Connect 35 www.freedom-to-connect.net
Graybar/ADC 5, 54 www.graybar.com/adc
Great Lakes Data 72 www.cablebilling.com
Multicom, Inc. 13, 55 www.multicominc.com
Nickless Schirmer & Co. Inc. 56 www.nsccom.com
OFC/NFOEC 9 www.ofcnfoec.org
PDI-SAT 56 www.pdisat.com
SMS-Satellite Mgmt. Services 58 www.smstvcom
Toner Cable Equipment, Inc. 7, 59 www.tonercable.com
Verizon Enhanced Communities Inside Front Cover www.verizon.com/communities
17–23
NAB Show
Las Vegas Convention Center
Las Vegas, NV
202-429-5300 • www.nab.org
21–23
NCTA: IP Possibilities Conference
& Expo
Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marine
San Diego, CA
703-351-2025 • www.buildipnow.com
27–29
Broadband Properties Summit
Hyatt Regency DFW • Dallas, TX
877-588-1649 • www.bbpmag.com
May
11–13
BICSI Spring Conference
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, MD
813-979-1991 • www.bicsi.org
September
21–24
BICSI Fall Conference
MGM Grand Hotel & Convention Center
Las Vegas, NV
813-979-1991
www.bicsi.org
27–Oct 1
FTTH Conference
George R Brown Convention Center
Houston, TX
613-226-9988
www.ftthconference.com
76 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2009

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10G-ready platform.
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