bbpmag.com - Broadband Properties

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