TecHnoLoGy - Broadband Properties

BroadbandPropertieswww.bbpmag.com2008TOP100This year’s listing shows new emphasis on companies that sell equipmentand software for network monitoring, provisioning, and customer service.A BBP Staff ReportThis year’s Top 100 continues atrend from last year, with growthin the number of awardees on thenetwork management side of the business.Most exciting: billing and networkmonitoring software that can seamlesslyhandle the triple play and a whole lotmore. This year’s listing also rewardssuppliers of fiber and systems for bothinside and outside plant – a new class ofequipment made possible by bend-tolerantfiber – and developers of entirelynew PON technologies.TOP 100 AT A GLANCECriteriaThe editors look for organizations thatare advancing the cause of fiber to thepremises. The ways they might do thisare many:• Deploying fiber networks. We lookfor large deployments, or for innovativebusiness plans and technologyconfigurations.• Helping others deploy networks, bysupplying key hardware, software,design services, construction servicesand so forth.• Introducing innovative technologies,even if the technologies havenot been commercially deployed atthe time the list is compiled. We’realways on the lookout for technologiesthat change the rules – by reducingearly deployment costs, forinstance, or making builds significantlycheaper overall.To be listed among the BroadbandProperties Top 100, organizations canbe based anywhere in the world, butmust do at least some business in theUnited States. Last year, we noted thatHigh-Speed Broadband Providers................................... | 44Private Cable Operators and Fiber Optic Amenity Providers. ...... | 49Network Testing, Monitoring and Management Services........... | 55Video Programming Aggregators................................... | 59Network Planning, Design, Engineering, Construction.. . . . . . . . . . . . | 61Fiber-to-the-Home Electronics .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 63Customer Premises Equipment .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 69Fiber Management.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 75Fiber and Fiber Cable................................................ | 77Management Solutions. ............................................ | 79Test Equipment...................................................... | 81Prysmian – a major fiber and copper cablevendor worldwide (it was spun out ofPirelli) was expanding its fiber businesshere, selling such products as its blownfiber and massive fiber ribbon cables.But it had been making a bigger FTTximpact in the US only since 2006. Itdidn’t make the Top 100 last year, butwas an easy call this time.Corporate form and overall organizationalsize are not important. Nonprofitentities such as municipal fibernetwork operators are eligible. Individualsare not eligible, but companies withas few as three full-time employees havebeen selected in the past four years.As recently as four years ago, we gavespecial emphasis to organizations withthe guts to deploy fiber to the home –specific housing developers, for instance,and VoIP providers. Two years ago,the list still included many technologycompanies that certainly enabled fiberbuilds, but whose emphasis was deeperin the network – bringing fiber to theneighborhood, for instance, or specializingin carrier Ethernet. We admired theirnetwork management technologies andtheir contribution to First Mile fiber.But the bar continues to rise. Today,there’s broad understanding among policymakers,financiers, real estate owners,and developers that the greater risk isin not having fiber on the property. Sobeing a “fiber pioneer” is not necessarilythat courageous. And any company32 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | July 2008