Download It - Broadband Properties

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Motorola’s Passive Optical LAN (POL) solution includes the AXS1800 enterprise aggregation switch, the ONT1120GE intelligent POL workgroup terminal (WGT), the WT21004 WGT with power over Ethernet and the AXSvision advanced management system for the enterprise. The solution simplifies LAN management and allows for the optimization of IT resources. Benefits of POL solutions include: • Rapid return on investment and low total cost of ownership at half the cost of copper-based LANs • Ease of installation and operation • High security • All-fiber reliability • Reduced environmental impact. Bell aliant: ftth in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia May was a good month for Canada’s Bell Aliant. At the beginning of the month, the company announced that it was accelerating its rollout of FTTH by raising its investment to $350 million over 2011 and 2012. This accelerated investment, which will be internally funded, will add about $100 million annually to Bell Aliant’s current capital program run rate and bring fiber-to-the-home services to more than 600,000 homes and businesses, or approximately one-third of Bell Aliant’s competitive territory, by the end of 2012. (Bell Aliant expects to pass 140,000 homes and businesses with FTTH by the end of 2010.) Later in the month, Bell Aliant launched FibreOP for Business, an Internet service for small and medium-sized businesses in New Brunswick that offers speeds of 20 Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream. Kelly Duplisea, VP for customer solutions at Bell Aliant, says, “Offering new services like FibreOP for Business provides the foundation for business growth and also helps attract and retain new and existing talent in the future – a key ingredient for business success.” At the end of May, Bell Aliant annnounced that it was bringing FibreOP to Nova Scotia and would offer Internet speeds of 170 Mbps downstream and 30 Mbps upstream on the new network. This is the first time such Internet speeds will be available to residential customers in the region. FibreOP services will be available in Sydney, Nova Scotia, as early as this fall. Bell Aliant will invest $15 million in the Sydney area to bring FibreOP services to more than 30,000 homes and businesses. This investment is part of Bell Aliant’s previously announced 2010 capital program. The province of Nova Scotia is contributing $2 million to the project. In its second-quarter financial report, Bell Aliant said its FTTH expansion continues on plan with strong IPTV and Internet bundle performance. Manitoba Gets Fiber Rollout MTS Allstream in Manitoba will invest $125 million over the next five years to accelerate deployment of its FTTH network, branded as FiON. By the end of 2015, MTS expects to deploy fiber to about 120,000 homes in 20 Manitoba communities, where it will provide its MTS Ultimate TV service and veryhigh-speed Internet services. Together with the company’s existing VDSL networks, this fiber deployment should make advanced broadband and television available to about 65 percent of Manitoba homes. FiON customers today have access to Internet services with speeds up to 25 Mbps, but MTS envisions offering future broadband speeds of more than 100 Mbps. MTS launched its FTTH network this January in Winnipeg and announced in April that it would expand the initiative to include the city of Selkirk and outskirts. The company plans to have the Selkirk network fully deployed by 2011. Municipal Fiber Smart-Grid Projects in the Tennessee Valley BVU, the municipal telecom and electric utility for Bristol, Va., and surrounding areas, will deploy a smart-grid system on its FTTH network, using a communications platform from Tantalus Systems. BVU was the first municipal utility in the United States to offer triple-play services over fiber, and Tantalus says adding smart-grid applications will give it a “home-run” network. With the wireless Tantalus LAN, not every customer premises has to be connected directly to fiber. Rather, each fiber connection can serve as a collection point for the data from several smart meters. This configuration ensures a smooth evolution as time-of-use pricing, load shedding, customer signalling and advanced distribution automation applications become more prevalent. <strong>Broadband</strong> is credited for breathing new life into the region, according to Wes Rosenbalm, BVU’s president and CEO, who says, “Here, triple play has translated into high-paying jobs, incredible educational opportunities and a local economy built to thrive during tough times.” He adds, “Our sights are now set on implementing a smart grid that will have the same positive impact on the way energy is distributed and managed. The ability to leverage [the FTTH network] for additional cost and energy savings will continue to pay off for years to come.” EPB of Chattanooga, Tenn., has increased the Internet access speeds on its FTTH network to 150 Mbps and is also proceeding with its implementation of smart-grid technology. Using funding from a Department of Energy stimulus grant, EPB will purchase IntelliRupter PulseClosers and the IntelliTEAM SG Automatic Restoration System from S&C Electric Company. The Intelli- Rupter PulseCloser verifies that the line is clear of faults before initiating closing. PulseClosing reduces stress on system August/September 2010 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 33
components as well as voltage sags experienced by customers upstream of a fault. This equipment, running on the FTTH network, will help EPB achieve the highest level of electric service reliability and power quality in North America and reach its goal of a 40 percent reduction in customer outage minutes. Morristown Utility Systems (MUS) of Tennessee is adding smartgrid functionality to its network with technology from Tantalus Systems. The utility will leverage its FTTH network for advanced metering of electricity and water, as well as for energy management programs that will enable it to interact with customers in cost-saving and conservation initiatives. “Leveraging our fiber network for smart-grid applications gives us a head start on implementing the energy efficiency and demand-response programs proposed by the TVA,” says Jody Wigington, Morristown’s general manager. “We’ve offered FTTH to our 15,000 customers for five years. By deploying a Tantalus system, we’re now in a position to build out the value of the network and set the stage for time-of-use pricing and tightly coordinated load control. This will go a long way toward reducing consumption and keeping the valley clean and green.” MUS is also deploying ETI Software’s SOLO Field Tech Assistant for the maintenance of its FTTH network. SOLO Field Tech Assistant supports technicians in tasks such as closing work orders, assigning services and devices, refreshing STBs and swaping ONTs. The LENOWISCO Planning District Commission extended its FTTH network to the community of Blackwater in southwestern Virginia, using funding from the Rural Utilities Service and the Virginia Tobacco Commission. This extension will make affordable, high-speed Internet services available to 90 residents and businesses. The funding also paid for a new public Internet access site at the Blackwater Post Office, equipped with 10 computers, where residents can access the Internet without charge six days a week and avail themselves of free computer and Internet training workshops. The commission will also provide free highspeed Internet services for two years to the Blackwater Volunteer Fire Department and has established a community website for Blackwater. Muni Systems and Video CDE Lightband, the broadband provider for the city of Clarksville, Tenn., chose Amino Communications as the long-term provider of MPEG-4 set-top boxes. CDE Lightband serves more than 59,000 customers via a 960-mile FTTH network. The Amino STBs support CDE’s 200 channels of digital television, an interactive programming guide and VoD service. LUS Fiber in Lafayette, La., launched an IPTV offering powered by Microsoft Mediaroom. The new service, available on LUS Fiber’s FTTH network, features whole-home DVR, instant channel changes, picture-in-picture browsing and enhanced search capabilities. “During the deployment of our LUS Fiber system, a number of our customers asked us for more advanced video features,” says Terry Huval, director of LUS and LUS Fiber. “Microsoft Mediaroom provides the platform that will deliver the features our customers want and, because it’s a Web-based system, it offers us endless possibilities for future applications and expansion.” To implement the new system, LUS must replace all the set-top boxes currently in use. In North Carolina, the latest of several attempts to delay or prohibit municipal broadband was defeated in July during a late-night legislative session. <strong>Broadband</strong> activists in the state organized to keep community broadband options open, and apparently they made their voices heard. One of the communities most pleased by this news is Salisbury, which has named its FTTH provider Fibrant Communications. Fibrant has completed its buildout in one neighborhood and is close to finished in about half of the city. As BBP went to press, the company expected to launch services in August. In addition to its previously announced selections of Zhone for FTTH equipment and Ericsson for IPTV, Fibrant selected Momentum Telecom to provide digital voice solutions and ETI Software Solutions to provide the énconcert BSS/OSS software suite, which supports customer care, work order, billing and provisioning. Énconcert is preintegrated to Fibrant’s FTTH and IPTV technologies as well as the city’s enterprise utility billing system; it will allow the city to send out a single billing statement for all services. Fibrant will also deploy ETI’s TV Ticket to help market its services, whether self-activated, prepaid or complimentary services. In addition, Fibrant will deploy ETI’s SOLO Field Tech Assistant, which lets field technicians open and close work orders, manage and assign devices and turn up services independently without contacting a dispatcher. UTOPIA, the FTTH network operator owned by a consortium of Utah cities, announced that one of its member cities, Brigham City, is now the fastest city in the state, according to the NetIndex report released by broadband speed tester Ookla. Brigham’s average download speed of 21.66 Mbps approaches three times the state average of 8 Mbps and puts it on par with the top five fastest countries in the world. Upload speeds in Brigham City are particularly impressive: UTOPIA customers in Brigham City have average upload speeds of 26.08 Mbps, far above the second-place ranking of 4.18 Mbps and the state average of 2.56 Mbps. As part of UTOPIA’s financial restructuring, five of its cities have formed the new Utah Infrastructure Agency, which plans to borrow an additional $60 million or more to continue building out the fiber network to new subscribers. The agency’s plan anticipates adding about 20,000 more customers over the next several years. New Municipal Projects Starting Up Danville Utilities in Virginia is proposing a $2.5 million pilot project for the final phase of its nDanville network, residential FTTH deployment. A demographically diverse neighborhood of about 1,200 homes in the Averett community has been identified as the first 34 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | August/September 2010
Page 1 and 2: Fiber to the Home At an Inflection
Page 3 and 4: Applicant State Award Amount Potent
Page 5 and 6: Calix Reaches 100-Customer Mileston
Page 7 and 8: phone, Internet, data and hosting s
Page 9 and 10: optimum lightpath’s Business Cust
Page 11: was available to 12.9 million premi
Page 15 and 16: the WiredWest committee on its gove
Page 17: household energy management. The IE

Download It - Broadband Properties

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?