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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