toward a fiber-connected world - Broadband Communities Magazine

Transcription

Toward a Fiber-Connected World
Green Cities:
Leading-Edge
Keynote
On Jobs,
Energy
LANDMARK
URBAN
PROJECT
DELIVERS
GIGABIT FTTH
REPORT ON
DEPLOYMENTS
OF FTTH
ACROSS
AMERICA
REMARKABLE
GROWTH OF
TELEMEDICINE
IN FTTH
COMMUNITIES
Graham
Richard
Lev
Gonick
Michael
Render
Rob
Scheschareg
Honorary Summit
Chairman,
Broadband Leader
CIO and VP for IT,
Case Western Reserve
President, RVA,
Leading FTTH
Researcher
President,
MedConcierge
GET CONNECTED AT THE
InterContinental Dallas
A Towns&Technologies
e v e n t
April 26 – 28, 2010
SUMMIT
Toward a Fiber-Connected World
Get Connected…
At The Summit
Daniel O’Connell
National Sales Director
Verizon Enhanced Communities
Lin Atkinson
General Manager, National Accounts
AT&T Connected Communities
Dave Schwehm
Senior Director, National Sales
Time Warner Cable
Eric Fichtner
Executive Vice President,
Products and Services
Connexion Technologies
William (Bill) Revell
Vice President, National MDU Sales
and Services Operations
Comcast Cable
Biggest and Best…
Summit Ever
Some Of Our 100 Expert Speakers
Bill Ablondi
Chris Acker
Matthew Ames
Tom Anderson
Cheryl Barraco
Parks Associates
Forest City Enterprises, Inc.
Miller & Van Eaton, PLLC
Alloptic
Avalon Bay Communities, Inc.
Director, Home Systems Research
Dir, Building Tech Srvcs Group
Telecommunications Law
VP of Marketing
Director of Telecommunications
Mark Bershenyi
Roger Bindl
Shannon Boyle
Ian Davis
Mark Ellison
Archstone Smith
Viodi View & Viodi TV
Cox Communications
Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr
NRTC
Director of Contracts
Contributing Editor/Producer
Dir of MDUs & Single Family Dev
Lawyer
Sr. Vice President
Nathan Geick
Joe Geroux
Dan Glivar
Tammy Gonzales
Richard Holtz
Suddenlink
Charter
Holland & Hart/Time Warner Cable
Brighthouse
Infinisys
Multifamily Director
Director of MDUs
Lawyer
Gen Manager Commercial Markets
CEO
Art Hubacher
Mike Kolb
The Hon. Hilda Legg
James MacNaughton
Karla Martin
Costlow & Hubacher
RUS
W. James MacNaughton, Esq.
RealPage, Inc.
Lawyer
Overbuild Specialist
Former Director
Lawyer
Senior Manager
Get Connected…
At The Summit
AGENDA AT-A-GLANCE
Sunday, April 25
7:00 am–1:00 pm
Contractor Move-In
1:00 pm–7:30 pm
Exhibitor Move-In
1:00 pm–6:00 pm
Registration Open
5:00 pm–7:30 pm
Association Board Meetings, Pre-Conference Activities
Monday, April 26
7:00 am–6:00 pm
Registration Open
7:00 am–1:00 pm
Exhibitor Move-In
7:30 am–8:30 am
Continental Breakfast Sponsored by Suttle
8:00 am–10:20 amMultifamily Workshop: Future of Multifamily Design: What building styles, systems and applications will dominate
tomorrow’s multifamily community?
10:30 am–11:20 am Case Study: Switched Digital Video: Speaker: Dave Schwehm, Sr. Director, National Sales, Time Warner Cable
11:30 am–12:20 pmGeneral Session: Wecome Address by Joe Savage, FTTH Council / Latest FTTH Deployment Stats from
Michael Render, RVA
12:20 pm–1:00 pm
Working Lunch with Special Presentation: “Metrics: Defining and Measuring Performance.”
1:00 pm–1:50 pm
General Session Presentation
2:00 pm–2:50 pmCase Study: The Real Value of an Owner’s Marketing Efforts for Providers: Speaker: Dan O’Connell, Director of
National Sales, Verizon Enhanced Communities
FTTH TRACK
3:00 pm–4:00 pmCreating Local Video Content: Workshop
MULTIFAMILY TRACK
What is the Cost of Having Two
Triple-Play Providers Serving One
Community?
4:10 pm–5:00 pm
Options for Local Video Content: Panel Owner Discussion Roundtable: Marketing Agreements and Industry Trends
EDITOR’S CHOICE TRACK
Inside Plant: Making FTTH Affordable
for Tough Projects
Integrated Solutions: Collaborations
of Multiple FTTH Vendors
Provider Discussion Roundtable:
Marketing Agreements and Industry
Trends
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 AT&T Connected Communities
Tuesday, April 27
7:00 am–6:00 pm
Registration Open
7:30 am–8:00 am
Continental Breakfast
FTTH TRACK
MULTIFAMILY TRACK
8:00 am–9:00 am
The Growth of Telemedicine in FTTH
Communities
Regulatory Update
9:10 am–10:30
Property of the Month FTTx Deployments
RURAL BROADBAND
(Sponsored by the Rural Telecommunications Congress)
Connecting Rural Leaders
10:30 am–12:30 pm Exhibit Hall Open / Refreshment Break
Secure your seat today by calling 877-588-1649,
or visit our website at www.bbpmag.com
Biggest and Best…
Summit Ever
12:30 pm–1:50 pm
Awards Luncheon Sponsored by Verizon Enhanced Communities / Keynote: The Hon. Graham Richard
2:10 pm–3:10 pm
Fiber Is a Green Technology
3:20 pm–4:20 pmHow FTTH Enables the Smart Grid
4:20 pm–5:00 pm
Providers Panel
Organizing for Broadband
Points of Demarcation: Have the Lines
Become too Blurry to See?
Sustaining Rural Broadband
Refreshment & Networking Break Sponsored by Comcast
5:00 pm–6:00 pmUTOPIA: From Near-Disaster to
Exemplary Performer
What is the Value in Bulk Services?
6:00 pm–7:30 pm
Exhibit Hall Cocktail Reception Sponsored by DIRECTV
7:30 pm–9:00 pm
Networking Dinners
Rural Broadband Policy
Wednesday, April 28
7:00 am–2:00 pm
Registration Open
7:30 am–8:30 am
Continental Breakfast
FTTH TRACK
MULTIFAMILY TRACK
8:00 am–9:00 amAnchor Institutions With FTTH: Fiber
Due Diligence: How do you Evaluate
to the School, to the Library and More an Existing Multifamily Community?
9:10 am–10:10 am
EDITOR’S CHOICE TRACK
FTTH Council Certification
General Session: Stimulus Briefings
10:20 am–11:00 amKeynote – Lev Gonick, CIO Case Western Reserve: Landmark FTTH Deployment Brings 1Gbps to Inner City Homes
11:00 am–2:00 pm
Exhibit Hall Open
11:20 am–12:10 pm Highly Demanding FTTH Deployments The Value Proposition for the Consumer Marketing Strategies and Tactics
for ILECs
12:30 pm–2:10 pm
General Session: 4th Annual Multifamily Legal Leaders Panel (Buffet Lunch Served)
2:00 pm–5:00 pm
Workshop: TBA
Exhibit Hall Events
Food/Social Functions
Plus
Private Cable Operator
Summit – Sponsored by DISH Network
Attend BOTH the Industry’s largest trade show and DISH Network’s annual PCO Summit
at the same venue.
To Exhibit or Sponsor, contact: Irene Prescott at
[email protected], or call 316-733-9122
Get Connected…
At The Summit
Sponsors
Official Corporate Host
Diamond SPONSOR
Platinum SPONSOR
Enhanced Gold SPONSOR
Gold SPONSOR
Special SPONSOR
Silver SPONSOR
FEATURED SPONSORS
Media Sponsor
Research Sponsors
SOLUTIONS. COMMUNICATIONS. TRANSFORMATION.
Biggest and Best…
Summit Ever
Exhibitors
UDK
DESIGN NINE
broadband architecture + engineering
Get Connected…
At The Summit
2010 Summit Chairmen
Special Summit Chairman
The Hon. Hilda Legg
Honorary Summit Chairman
Tim Nulty
Joe Savage
The Hon. Graham Richard
Vice Chair
Broadband Properties Magazine
East Central Vermont
Community Fiber Network
President
The FTTH Council
Former Mayor and State Senator
National Broadband Champion
START PLANNING NOW FOR SUMMIT 2010.
This year’s event will be at a new location – an excellent hotel in a vibrant
neighborhood full of superb dining and other attractions.
The InterContinental is convenient to the two main airports in Dallas –
DFW and Love Field – and adjacent to Addison Airport, ideal for private aircraft.
It’s the leading event for network builders and deployers.
The Summit is widely recognized as the number one venue for information
on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities.
Activities and Sessions Include:
• Newest Case Studies on How Broadband Spurs Economic Development • Applications to
Generate Profits for Network Operators • Awards for Today’s Leading Broadband Communities
• World-Class Keynoters • Evening Receptions and Networking Events
Programs now being planned involve:
• The latest broadband strategies of cities and communities • Lessons learned from others –
what to emulate and what to avoid • Sessions on getting your customers and
constituents on board with your plans. • Panels on increasing the ROI of your buildings.
• Roundtables on improving the appeal of your properties.
Who Should Attend:
Attendees include all those involved in the design and development of communities, including:
• 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
Hurry!
Register Now While Reduced
Rates Are Still In Effect
Special Limited Time Offer — Expires Soon
$450
Use VIP Code:
Summit2010
Goor
tovisit
www.bbpmag.com
and Click on Register
our website at www.bbpmag.com
Biggest and Best…
Summit Ever
Expanded Multi-Housing Program
An Agenda Developed by Industry Leaders
MDU Co-Chairmen:
Chris Acker
Director, Building Technology Services Group,
Forest City Enterprises, Inc.
Henry Pye
Vice President, Resident Technology Solutions,
RealPage, Inc. 
Steve Sadler
Vice President, Ancillary Services,
Post Apartment Homes, L.P.
The 2010 Advisory Panel of Property Owners Includes:
Brian McIntire
Director of Information Technology – Buckingham Companies
Cheryl Barraco
Director of Telecommunications – Avalon Bay Communities, Inc
Michael Halbrook
Ancillary Business Manager – Mid-America Apartment Communities
Jeffrey Bond
Vice President, Ancillary Services – Related
Jorge de Cardenas
Sr. Vice President Information Technology – American Campus Communities
Karen Seemann
Director Ancillary Income – Essex Property Trust
Kent McDonald
Director of Communications Services – AIMCO
Mark Bershenyi
Director of Contracts – Archstone Smith
Michael Burnette
Vice President, IT – Place Properties
Robert Bishop
Vice President – Riverstone Residential Group
Steve Merchant
Vice President of Revenue Strategy – Equity Residential
Terry Fulbright
Vice President, Director of Ancillary Services – UDR, Inc.
Woodrow Stone
Sr. Director, PMO – Pinnacle
Get Connected…
At The Summit
Identifying the Value:
Multifamily Emerges from Recession
(Confirmed and Invited Speakers as of 12/15/09)
Monday, April 26
8:00 am – 10:20 am
Future of Multifamily Design: What Building Styles,
Systems and Applications will Dominate Tomorrow’s
Multifamily Community?
While it is still not clear when development will begin
anew, it is obvious that multifamily development will
be far different from the pre-recession status quo. The
expert panel will present views regarding the new postrecession world of multifamily development.
• Henry Pye – Vice President, Resident Technology
Solutions, RealPage, Inc.
• Ron Nickson – Vice President of Building Codes,
National Multi Housing Council
• Chris Wood – Hanley Wood
• Mark Humphreys – Architect
10:30 am – 11:20 am
providers are keenly aware of the cost of delivering their
product, owners may not be aware of their own costs
and obligations in providing their residents with digital
choices. This panel will dive below the pristine surface to
explain why some may find deeply buried costs.
• Steve Sadler – Vice President, Ancillary Services,
• Mark Bershenyi – Director of Contracts,
Archstone Smith
• Lin Atkinson – General Manager,
National Accounts, AT&T Connected Communities
• William (Bill) Revell – Vice President, National
MDU Sales and Services Operations,
Comcast Cable
• Joseph Geroux – Director of Business
Development, Charter Communications
• Eric Fichtner – Executive Vice President,
Products and Services, Connexion Technologies
Case Study: Switched Digital Video
The what, why, when and how of Time Warner Cable’s deployment of Switched Digital Video (SDV). What does it
mean to property owners, and how will it affect your common areas, such as fitness centers and community rooms?
• Dave Schwehm – Senior Director, National Sales,
Time Warner Cable
(concurrent session) 4:10 pm – 5:00 pm
Owner Discussion Roundtable:
Marketing Agreements and Industry Trends
What is the value of on-site marketing rights and owner
assistance? Verizon will answer this question by reviewing
a number of FiOS-deployed communities with differing
degrees of on-site marketing and owner assistance.
• Daniel O’Connell – National Sales Director,
If you are dazed and confused by the latest version of a
marketing agreement or by the whiz-bang technology a
provider says you can’t live without, this is the session for
you. We will explore industry trends in the comfortable
and protected confines of an “owner only” setting. No
glossy marketing material or legalese will add to the confusion; we’ll have only honest and frank discussion about
the impacts on our industry and our residents. This is an
excellent forum for smaller owners who may not have the
in-house expertise to sort through a confusing and often
costly decision-making process.
• Steve Sadler – Vice President, Ancillary Services,
2:00 pm – 2:50 pm
Case Study: The Real Value of an Owner’s Marketing
Efforts for Providers
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
(concurrent session) 4:10 pm – 5:00 pm
What is the Cost of Having Two Triple-Play Providers
Serving One Community?
Provider/Vendor Discusion: Marketing Agreements
and Industry Trends
Residents demand choice. Providers are focusing on tripleplay services and actually appear to want to compete
with each other. On the surface, it sounds like paradise for
owners and residents, but what lies beneath the surface
(or behind the walls) may not be so pleasant. Although
MSOs, ILECs, PCOs, OEMs, and other vendors and service
providers to multifamily communities will review common challenges and solutions.
Solutions, RealPage, Inc.
Biggest and Best…
Tuesday, April 27
Summit Ever
8:00 am – 9:00 am
Regulatory Update
Panelists will discuss changes in the regulatory landscape
and the impacts of these changes (or proposed changes)
on the multifamily industry.
• Cheryl Barraco – Director of Telecommunications,
Avalon Bay Communities Inc.
• Matthew Ames – Telecommunications Law,
Miller & Van Eaton
• James W. MacNaughton, Esq. – Telecommunications Specialist, Law office of W.J. MacNaughton
2:10 pm – 3:10 pm
Providers Panel: What Do Providers Want From
Multifamily Owners, Managers and Builders?
Owners have often discussed the issues, both contractual and operational, that affect their properties; now
providers will have a chance to discuss the multifamily
market from their perspective.
• Chris Acker – Director, Building Technology
Services Group, Forest City Enterprises Inc.
• Dave Schwehm – Senior Director, National Sales,
Time Warner Cable
• William (Bill) Revell – Vice President, National
MDU Sales and Services Operations,
Comcast Cable
• Lin Atkinson – General Manager, National
Accounts, AT&T Connected Communities
• Mike Olson – Vice President of Sales, DIRECTV
• Eric Fichtner – Executive Vice President,
Products and Services, Connexion Technologies
3:20 pm – 4:20 pm
Points of Demarcation: Have the Lines
Become too Blurry to See?
What does the “point of demarcation,” or “demarc,” really
mean? When is it appropriately applied? Has the demarc
reached the end of its illustrious life, to be replaced by
another all-defining term? Or are owners and providers
gearing up for yet another battle that is likely to leave
them both weary?
• Mike Olson – DIRECTV
• Richard Holtz – CEO, InfiniSys
• Shannon Boyle – Director of MDUs and Single
Family Development, Cox Communications
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
What Is the Value in 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.
• Karla Martin – Senior Manager, Resident
Technology Solutions, RealPage Inc.
• Gregory McDonald – Director of
Telecommunications, Camden Property Trust
• Jerry Grasmick – Vice President, Dish Network
• Nathan Geick – MDU Division Director,
Suddenlink Communications
• Robert Grosz – Executive Vice President and
General Manager, Pavlov Media
• Ian Davis – Lawyer, Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr
Wednesday, April 28
8:00 am – 9:00 am
Due Diligence: Evaluating an Existing
Multifamily Community
Better, faster, cheaper: How do providers and owners
give residents what they want for a price they want?
Solutions, RealPage Inc.
• Kent McDonald – Director of Resident
Technology, AIMCO
• Mike Kolb – Overbuild Specialist,
11:20 am – 12:10 pm
The Value Proposition for the Consumer
Owners and providers get together to discuss current and
near-term service offerings that will provide value to the
owner’s residents and the provider’s subscribers. How can
provider offerings complement those of the owner?
• Steve Merchant – Vice President of Revenue
Strategy, Equity Residential
• Lin Atkinson – General Manager, National Accounts, AT&T Connected Communities
• Michael Baer – Regional Sales Manager, Insight
• Tammy Gonzales –General Manager Commercial
Markets, Bright House
• Vin Lipinski – Vice President Business Development, DirecPath
12:30 pm – 2:10 pm
4th Annual Legal Leaders Panel
Listen to the legal leaders for multifamily and service
providers discuss today’s hot issues. Gain valuable insight
into the terms and conditions in service and marketing
agreements that are relevant to today’s market.
• Mary Kane – Senior Counsel, Comcast
• Ian Davis – Lawyer, Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr
• Art Hubacher – Lawyer, Costlow & Hubacher
• Matthew Ames – Telecommunications Law,
Miller & Van Eaton
Get Connected…
At The Summit
Broadband for Rural Prosperity
Sponsored by the Rural Telecommunications Congress
RTC Officers and Directors
Greg Laudeman – President
Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute
Bill Shuffstall – Secretary
Extension Educator – Pennsylvania State University
Eric Ogle – Treasurer
Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, Univ. of Tennessee
Jane Smith Patterson
The e-NC Authority
Harry L. Roesch
Senior Telecommunications Advisor – Appalachian Regional Commission
Galen Updike
Arizona Telecommunications Development Mgr. – Govt. Information Technology Agency (GITA)
Mark R. Perkell
President – VOR Consulting Services, LLC
Mickey Seidel
Senior Manager – Adesta LLC
One-Day Rural Forum At The Summit
CONNECTING RURAL LEADERS. Educating rural leaders in order to lay the foundation for costeffective broadband deployments that have real economic benefits.
RGANIZING FOR BROADBAND. Hybrid, innovative, and other non-traditional organizational
O
forms for broadband, including how to develop capacity and engage customers.
SUSTAINING RURAL BROADBAND. How to make broadband as integral and sustainable a part of
rural life as churches, fences, streams, and tractors.
RURAL BROADBAND POLICY. What can be done at local and state levels, and how RTC can
support collaboration across the country, to advance policy that will lead to broadband for rural
prosperity.
Editor’s Note
The Fiber Future Is Here
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Scott DeGarmo
PUBLISHER
Nancy McCain
[email protected]
Corporate Editor, BBP LLC
Steven S. Ross
[email protected]
Editor
Masha Zager
[email protected]
ADVERTISING SALES
Irene G. Prescott
[email protected]
Marketing Specialist
Meredith Terrall
[email protected]
DESIGN & PRODUCTION
Karry Thomas
Contributors
Joe Bousquin
David Daugherty, Korcett Holdings Inc.
Richard Holtz, InfiniSys
W. James MacNaughton, Esq.
Henry Pye, RealPage
Bryan Rader, Bandwidth Consulting LLC
Robert L. Vogelsang, Broadband Properties Magazine
Broadband Properties LLC
PRESIDENT & CEO
Scott DeGarmo
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Himi Kittner
VICE PRESIDENT,
BUSINESS & OPERATIONS
Nancy McCain
Audience Development/Digital Strategies
Norman E. Dolph
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
Robert L. Vogelsang
VICE CHAIRMAN
The Hon. Hilda Gay Legg
BUSINESS & EDITORIAL OFFICE
Broadband Properties LLC
1909 Avenue G
Rosenberg, Tx 77471
281.342.9655, Fax 281.342.1158
W W W.BROADBANDPROPERTIES.COM
Broadband Properties (ISSN 0745-8711) (USPS 679-050)
(Publication Mail Agreement #1271091) is published 9 times
a year at a rate of $24 per year by Broadband Properties LLC,
1909 Avenue G, Rosenberg, TX 77471. Periodical postage
paid at Rosenberg, TX, and additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Broadband
Properties, PO Box 303, Congers, NY 10920-9852.
CANADA POST: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608.
Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, PO Box
25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
Copyright © 2010 Broadband Properties LLC. All rights
reserved.
14
1.
A New Year’s resolution for 2010:
Install more FTTH. Here are three good
reasons to do it.
Demand for content is accelerating. Global IP traffic will
increase by 44 percent this year,
according to Cisco forecasts. Much of the
growth that Cisco anticipates comes from
“anywhere, anytime” viewing – Internet
video delivered to the PC or the TV and
video on demand delivered by cable companies and telcos. These video streams
are growing not just in number but also
in size: Nearly half of all U.S. households
now have high-definition televisions, and
3DTV is coming soon.
Consumers are switching more of their
news and entertainment viewing to the
Internet, and their constant-bit-rate Internet use is destroying service providers’ oversubscription models, which had
worked for a decade. Worried about consumers’ defecting from traditional cable
TV, service providers are now responding
aggressively – by offering a new over-thetop video model, TV Everywhere!
2. Demand for communication is
accelerating even faster. “Content is not
king,” says Internet researcher Andrew
Odlyzko. “Communication is king.”
His theory, based on historical analysis
of both Internet and pre-Internet technologies, suggests that video’s greatest
potential is as a two-way communications medium. According to Yankee
Group analyst Benoît Felten, service
providers offering 15 Mbps to 20 Mbps
symmetrical Internet access can easily
provide high-definition, TV-based communications services to the mass market
at very low cost. (For more details, see
the article in the Broadband Apps section
of this issue.) If Felten is correct, highdefinition video communications could
be the killer app for fiber to the home –
and it’s economically feasible today. Even
more compelling video technologies,
such as 4D immersive holographic spaces
(think Star Trek’s holodeck) are awaiting
commercialization. Before long, we’ll be
able to walk through imaginary spaces
with people halfway across the country.
| BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproper ties.com | January 2010
3. Demand for mobile applications
is accelerating fastest of all. Cisco forecasts that mobile data traffic will double
every year through 2013. The iPhone,
the Droid and their ilk have ushered in
a new era of low-cost, easy-to-use mobile
apps that consumers have embraced. The
Kindle e-reader has become the “most
gifted” product of all time on Amazon.
com. Netbooks and similar devices have
become enormously popular despite the
recession, and industry analysts forecast
rapid growth in this segment. These devices, like smartphones, are heavy users
of wireless broadband.
What do mobile applications have to
do with fiber to the home? The onslaught
of wireless data is bogging down cellular
networks, to the point where AT&T’s
head of mobility admitted at a recent
investors’ conference that the company’s
wireless service in New York City and
San Francisco was substandard.
Cell tower operators are adding new
towers at the rate of 18,000 per year to
alleviate the problem, and wireless operators are upgrading to 4G technology. But
every mobile data device must somehow
connect to the wired network, and today
the cell towers’ Internet connections are
mostly outdated, copper-based T1 lines.
Part of the solution to wireless network
congestion lies in connecting cell towers
to the Internet via fiber. Telecom companies that have committed to doing
this, such as CenturyLink, are discovering a new and lucrative revenue stream.
They’re also finding that once they bring
fiber to cell towers, they can easily connect nearby homes and businesses as well,
which makes FTTH in those neighborhoods a very attractive proposition.
[email protected]
Everyone benefits when you’re wired for DIRECTV.
Whether you’re a property owner or a resident, find out why
over 50 million Americans enjoy DIRECTV every day!
Why OWNERS want DIRECTV
Why RESIDENTS want DIRECTV
>> Single Dish Solution: All residents
can access DIRECTV programming via
a centralized dish system
>> No Contract Required: Switching
is quick and easy – Ask how!
>> Customizable Programming Options:
Select programming that meets the
needs of your property, including
bulk options
>> Local Service Network: Residents
get fast and free installation and quick
customer service from our knowledgeable
local dealer network
>> The Highest Customer Satisfaction
Ratings: DIRECTV has had higher
customer satisfaction ratings than
cable for nine years running*
>> FREE & FAST Standard Professional
Installation
>> Nobody offers more HD than DIRECTV:
Plus, residents can enjoy the latest in 1080p
programming and Dolby® Digital 5.1 surround
sound – same as Blu-ray discs
††
>> No Dish Required:
And no equipment to buy
>> Exclusive Programming: Exclusive
sports packages not available on cable
like NFL SUNDAY TICKET™, and MEGA®
MARCH MADNESS ® plus premium
content on The 101® Network
DIRECTV is proud to be one of Broadband Properties Top 100 Companies to do business with for 2009.^
For more information on why your building should have DIRECTV, call 888-342-7288.
*Among the largest national cable & satellite TV providers. 2009 American Customer Satisfaction Index, University of Michigan Business School. †To access DIRECTV HD programming, customer must reside in a MFH2™ or MFH3™ capable
property. Plus, an HD Access fee ($10/mo.), HD Receiver (H20, HR20 or greater), HD television equipment, and a qualifying programming package are required. Number of HD channels varies by package. ††“Dolby” and the double-D symbol are
trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. INSTALLATION: Standard professional installation only. Custom installation extra. SYSTEM LEASE: Purchase of 24 consecutive months (for standard and advanced receivers) of any DIRECTV programming package
($29.99/mo. or above) or qualifying international service bundle required. FAILURE TO ACTIVATE ALL OF THE DIRECTV SYSTEM EQUIPMENT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE MULTI-DWELLING UNIT PROGRAMMING AGREEMENT
AND EQUIPMENT LEASE ADDENDUM MAY RESULT IN A CHARGE OF $150 PER RECEIVER NOT ACTIVATED. IF SERVICE IS TERMINATED BEFORE THE END OF COMMITMENT, A CANCELLATION FEE OF $20/MO. REMAINING
WILL APPLY. ALL EQUEMENT IS LEASED AND MUST BE RETURNED TO DIRECTV UPON CANCELLATION, OR RETURNED EQUIPMENT FEES APPLY. CALL 1-800-DIRECTV FOR DETAILS OR YOUR AUTHORIZED MDU DEALER.
Programming, pricing, terms and conditions subject to change at any time. Pricing residential. Taxes not included. Receipt of DIRECTV programming subject to DIRECTV Customer Agreement; copy provided at directv.com/legal and in ﬁrst bill.
©2010 DIRECTV, Inc. DIRECTV and the Cyclone Design logo are registered trademarks of DIRECTV, Inc. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.
Table of Contents
DEPARTMENTS
Cover Story: Green Technology
Editor’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The Bandwidth Hawk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
BBP Marketplace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Advertiser Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Verizon Lights the Path to Green Telephony | 38
By Steven S. Ross ■ Broadband Properties
Verizon’s corporatewide sustainability program centers around its
fiber optic network. By publishing its recommendations and test results, the company hopes to help other telcos achieve similar results.
Networking for Sustainability | 44
IN THIS ISSUE
Provider Perspective
The Choice of a New Generation | 20
By Bryan J. Rader ■ Bandwidth Consulting LLC
Multiple service providers in a multifamily community may create
more complexities than the property owner bargained for. Can a
single provider offer all the choice residents want?
Owners Corner
Put Resident Satisfaction First | 22
By Henry Pye ■ RealPage and Kent McDonald ■ Aimco
Managers responsible for ancillary income in multifamily communities naturally want to maximize ancillary income. But that may
not yield the highest rates of return for the property.
Metrics
The Site Survey | 24
By David Lippke and David Daugherty ■ Korcett Holdings
Before designing a network for a multifamily building, conduct a
thorough site survey. It will help avoid problems later on.
Fiber Deployment Roundup
Stimulus Funds Begin To Flow | 26
By Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties
The first broadband stimulus grant awards were announced in December, and at least two FTTH projects will benefit from them.
– Digital edition bonus section: International Deployments –
Property of the Month
Rybovich Super Yacht Marina and Refit | 32
By Joe Bousquin ■ Contributing Editor,
Broadband Properties
An unusual fiber-to-the-slip network lets yacht owners stay connected while they’re berthed in West Palm Beach.
By AT&T Business Solutions
High-speed communications networks play a critical role in helping to control greenhouse gas emissions.
Pulaski Electric System Leverages
FTTH Network for Energy Savings | 50
A smart grid implemented over a fiber-to-the-home network yields
operational efficiencies for this Tennessee electricity distributor. It
may also help reduce the TVA’s peak production loads.
En-Touch Powers a Green Community | 53
A new master-planned community in Houston is designed around
energy management and use of renewable resources. FTTH gives
residents the tools to manage their resource use.
Technology
Distributed Splitting
For Rural FTTH Deployments | 62
By David Stallworth ■ OFS
Passive optical network designs developed for cities and suburbs
may not be cost effective in rural areas. OFS cost models led to a
new approach for designing rural networks.
Ribbon Cable Makes Inroads
In Rural Fiber Deployments | 66
By Tony Squires ■ Sumitomo Electric Lightwave
Smaller telcos have traditionally standardized on loose-tube fiber
cables and single-fiber splicing. In the last few years, however,
many of them have re-examined this assumption.
Best Practices for Testing
FTTH Deployments | 69
Service Provider Strategies
By Gregory Lietaert ■ JDSU Communications
Implementing best practices for test and measurement helps technicians diagnose and isolate fiber problems for fast correction.
FTTH in Sweden:
An Entrepreneurial Perspective | 56
Broadband Apps
By Mikael Sandberg and Richard Jones ■ Ventura Team
Sweden’s open-access municipal fiber networks provide opportunities
for new service providers to start up with limited investment. But
providers still must offer great services at low cost.
Is TV-Based Communications the
Killer App for Fiber? | 74
Special Report
Service providers have long sought an application that would make
subscribing to fiber to the home irresistible. It may be right around
the corner.
Notes of a BTOP Reviewer,
Or How I Learned to Love Broadband | 60
Capitalizing on the Triple-Play
Opportunity in Regional Markets | 77
By “Alexander Graham Bell”
The NTIA raised eyebrows when it recruited volunteers to evaluate
broadband stimulus grants. Our anonymous correspondent reveals
(almost) everything about how the process worked.
16
By Chandler Kim, Kevin Krufky and
Wim Van Daele ■ Alcatel-Lucent
IPTV’s complexity has made it impractical for many smaller providers. A new turnkey solution aims to change all that.
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All Hail the Middle Mile
Policymakers at NTIA and RUS seem to be favoring middle-mile projects.
They’re not wrong, but the price is fewer jobs in the short term.
T
he small batch of “noncontroversial, obvious” broadband stimulus
projects released in mid-December
got us to thinking. What caught our
eye were the middle-mile builds, which
totaled $121.6 million. Only 5 percent
of funds requested were for middle-mile
projects, but they received two-thirds of
the $183 million awarded. Sources at
NTIA and RUS say there will be more.
THE INITIAL MIDDLE-MILE LIST
The middle-mile choices so far are hard
to argue with:
The North Georgia Network Cooperative, a nonprofit formed to push economic development, got $33.5 million
to build in eight counties in northern
Georgia and North Carolina. The 260mile regional fiber optic ring will deliver
gigabit speed, reliability, affordability
and abundant interconnection points
for first-mile projects.
The ION Upstate New York Rural
Broadband Initiative – a partnership
between for-profit ION in Albany, N.Y.,
and the Development Authority of North
Country, a public-benefit corporation, got
a $39.7 million grant for 10 new middlemile segments that will add more than
70 rural communities to the reach of its
existing statewide fiber backbone. ION
promises that the open-access backbone
“will enable a host of last mile service
providers to bring their products and
services to numerous underserved and
unserved areas of rural New York.”
The Biddeford Internet Corporation,
a public-private partnership between the
University of Maine and various Internet service providers, got $25.4 million
to construct middle-mile fiber across
remote areas of Maine. Its “Three Ring
Binder” project will enable 100 Mbps
18
(and more) broadband connectivity to
businesses, households and community
anchor institutions, “facilitating rural
economic development, job stimulation,
education, and health care.”
Project Connect South Dakota, built
by South Dakota Network, will use its
$20.6 million grant to upgrade its middlemile network, adding 140 miles of backbone and 219 miles of middle-mile spurs
for 10 Mbps+ service to more than 220
existing anchor institution customers in
rural and underserved areas. Almost 300
more public safety agencies and government units will also benefit.
A less ambitious but extremely wellconceived project by the Consolidated
Electric Cooperative in north central
Ohio got $2.4 million (a $1.0 million
grant and a $1.4 million loan matched
by $1.2 million – well beyond the typical 20 percent match) for a 166-mile
middle-mile open-connectivity fiber optic backbone network that will also connect 16 electric substations. The project
is integral to a smart-grid initiative and
broadband service that will bring urban
connectivity to rural Ohio.
IMPLICATIONS
Obviously, middle-mile projects improve
the business case for first-mile FTTx
projects by providing more local points
of presence (POPs) and more competition to reduce the high interconnect
charges levied by national carriers. The
extra POPs also add reliability, helping
to attract more economic development
to remote areas.
However, because mid-mile projects
are not as labor-intensive as FTTx builds,
they will not provide as many jobs in
the near term per federal dollar spent.
We thought that stimulus funds would,
well, be more immediately stimulative.
Of course, we also thought they’d come
sooner.
What’s going on?
Several sources in the Federal Communications Commission praised the
mid-mile projects as setting the stage
for more investment by private carriers
and the federal government – in followon broadband grant and loan packages
that go beyond the $7.2 billion appropriated so far. They also noted that midmile projects are inherently open access,
and carriers remain nervous about openaccess local builds. That makes mid-mile
projects safer politically.
They also said library and sustainable adoption projects are more labor-intensive, making up the mid-mile shortfall for everyone except FTTx suppliers.
Sources at NTIA and RUS add that
plenty of FTTx projects will be funded
in the first round.
No one wanted to talk about it
openly, though. Why? It looks as
though stimulus funds are being aimed
at longer-term national broadband goals
rather than entirely at near-term jobs.
As a bandwidth hawk, I applaud. But
what about the folks who invent, manufacture, sell and install FTTx networks?
And what about the innovative service
providers looking for connected users
right now? BBP
About the Author
Write to the Hawk at [email protected].
Provider Perspective
The Choice of a New Generation
Should residents be able to choose a service provider – or might they be
happier with the property owner’s choice?
By Bryan Rader ■ Bandwidth Consulting LLC
T
hese days, a lot of my meetings
with property owners start with,
“I just want to be able offer choice
to my residents.”
“You mean like a swimming pool,
walking paths, a big fitness center?” I
ask, knowing very well what they are
thinking.
“No, just good options in TV services,” they say. “I want them to have the
best cable and Internet products around,
and they can choose what they want. I’ll
give them you guys, the other guys – it’s
an open market.”
Choice sounds ideal to the property
owner. Multiple providers marketing to
every resident. Clubhouse parties, direct-mail campaigns, door-to-door sales
reps. The leasing office begins to look
like a rest-stop brochure holder with
all the promotional materials. If a new
move-in asks, “Who serves your community?” the leasing agent points to the
messy rack of brochures and says, “All
those guys.”
“But I just want a good Internet connection and basic cable at a great price,”
the new resident explains. “And I want it
installed before the weekend.”
“Well, I’m sure someone on that rack
has a good package for you,” the leasing
agent says. “Good luck with your selection. We don’t endorse any of them.”
“Where do I begin?” the new resident asks himself as he walks out of the
clubhouse.
Somehow, It Doesn’t Work
Even if the new resident finds a cable
company to do the install before the
weekend, his problems are just beginning. He probably isn’t imagining a scenario like this one:
20
“I can’t get into the box,” says
the technician at the new resident’s
front door. “I am sorry.”
“What do you mean, you can’t
get into the box?” the resident answers. “Aren’t you a cable installer?
Don’t you have a tool?”
“Yes, but not to that box,” the
tech explains. “And if I break into
it, I might cause problems for my
company.”
“So what do we do now?”
“Well, I’ ll tell my dispatcher
I couldn’t complete the order, and
you call your leasing office to get
me permission to open the box next
week. Hope we’ ll see you at the
cable sign-up party this weekend!”
“I called you guys because you
could get here fastest,” says the unhappy resident, closing his door.
“Choice” sounds great in the conference room and when you are strategizing in the marketing department. But
somehow, it doesn’t really work.
At a recent national real estate
conference, the owner of a number of
properties in the Midwest discussed
the many problems experienced at multiple-provider properties: Technicians
break into one another’s boxes, creating damage and outages. Responsibility
for wiring repairs is uncertain. Multiple
reps don’t really know the community’s
needs. Service providers attack residents
with promotional offers in the parking
About the Author
lot. Choice can create a whole new management problem.
Choice also reduces miscellaneous
income, as revenue-share payments
drop to smaller and smaller amounts.
With several operators, revenues are
spread across too many companies, leaving property owners with little miscellaneous income. “I used to count on that
money,” they tell us. “It used to equate
to one or two occupied units a month.
In this soft economy, that’s important.”
I understand the desire for choice.
For years, owners complained that Time
Warner Cable or Cox was the “only
game in town.”
But in certain cases, choice may not
be the best option. Private cable operators (PCOs) can do so many amazing
things to tailor packages to the needs of
a community, while still offering choice
in options. They can get the install done
before the weekend. And the leasing office won’t look like a rest stop.
Good PCOs know that forgoing
choice imposes very high expectations,
including strong performance and service standards. When the right option
presents itself, I encourage owners to
consider operators that can offer another
kind of “choice”: more packages, more
options, more features. And more revenue for you.
I hope this is the “choice” of a new
generation. Best wishes for a great and
successful 2010! BBP
Bryan Rader is CEO of Bandwidth Consulting LLC, which he founded in 2007 to
assist providers with their performance in the multifamily market. Prior to starting
Bandwidth Consulting, he founded and ran private cable operator MediaWorks for
10 years. You can reach Bryan at [email protected] or at 636-536-0011.
Learn more at www.bandwidthconsultingllc.com.
Faster
In the telecommunications industry, survival of the fittest is based on speed. Not only do providers need a contractor that
can create faster connections for end users, they also need a contractor who can build that infrastructure at the speed
necessary to accommodate outward growth and increasing demand for fiber networks.
Quanta Services is keeping pace. We literally laid the groundwork of the fiber optic network that we’re expanding today
by bringing fiber to the home, node and premise. Add in the experience of more than 14,000 employees working in all
50 states and Canada, and it’s safe to say nobody can mobilize faster or work more efficiently than Quanta Services.
Enlist the speed and strength of Quanta Services to get further, faster.
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Tel: 713.629.7600 www.quantaservices.com NYSE-PWR
Owners Corner
Put Resident Satisfaction First
Service quality and resident satisfaction are more valuable than any income
derived from marketing them.
By Henry Pye ■ RealPage and Kent McDonald ■ Apartment Investment and Management Company (Aimco)
I
ncome from marketing voice, video
and high-speed Internet access to
multifamily communities is labeled
ancillary for a reason: It supplements
core rental income. Ancillary revenue
is, by definition, not the overall goal for
any community. Sometimes owners lose
sight of the overall goal, which is achieving the best risk-adjusted return – a
result that depends on delivering highquality service and satisfying residents.
As the chart below shows, if poor service negatively affects only one of every
100 leases and renewals (surely a conservative estimate) then service quality
is extremely valuable – probably much
more valuable than ancillary income.
Preview
Find out more about the
economics of multifamily services
at the Broadband Summit.
age the process to ensure service quality.
opinions of the community. The first
At a minimum, this requires working
week dramatically affects word of mouth
with counsel to ensure that agreements
and retention. Initiation and installawith telecom providers have enforceable
tion of services are integral components
service-level guarantees. Most owners
of overall service perception, especially
execute marketing agreements to generduring move-in. Community managate ancillary income, but doing so at the
ers bemoan the aspects of the move-in
cost of service quality is not defensible.
process outside their control that can
Multifamily communities cannot
damage resident satisfaction, such as the
afford poor service. As Chris Acker, diinstallation of telecommunications serrector of building technology services
vices and other utilities.
for real estate manageOwners are increasingly responsible
ment company Forfor the installation process and for sigest City Enterprises,
Region
Average Units Average Rent 1% Rent
nificant portions of the telecommunicasays, “If you are going
Northeast
218
$1,188
$2,586
tions infrastructure. Simply negotiatto make the effort to
South
211
$866
$1,826
ing strong agreements is not enough.
fight for service-level
Midwest
214
$845
$1,805
Shortcomings in wiring, especially to
standards and meaWest
161
$1,195
$1,919
and inside multifamily homes, are the
surements, you have
Source: MPF Research, 3Q, 2009
most common cause of service and into be prepared to enstallation challenges. Few things are as
force them. Having
Although what determines resident
damaging to resident satisfaction as bethese standards on paper is all well and
satisfaction is difficult to pinpoint,
ing told that services are not available or
good, but making sure they are specific,
the primary factors seem to be service
that an additional fee is being assessed as
measureable and enforceable will go a
choice, service quality and service initiaa result of owner wiring.
long way when and if it becomes nection and installation.
Service quality and resident satisfacessary for an owner to put them to the
Choice. Residents prefer choice –
tion are pivotal in decisions about voice,
real-world test.”
and if they choose the wrong provider,
video and high-speed Internet access
Installation. Everyone knows the
the mistake is their own, and not the
marketing agreements. Though ancilvalue of first impressions. In the multiowner’s. Many communities cannot prolary income is important, it should refamily industry, the initial week of the
vide choice due to cost or obligations to
lease is when residents develop lasting
main ancillary. BBP
incumbent providers. When having two
providers is possible, the owner should
be prepared to see ancillary income deAbout the Authors
crease as competition decreases or dilutes
Owners Corner is written by Henry Pye and industry peers. Henry is vice presirevenue shares. Though this trade-off is
dent of Resident Technology Solutions for RealPage (www.realpage.com). He can be
usually wise, it is difficult for managers
reached at [email protected]. Kent McDonald is director of ancillary services
focused on generating ancillary income.
for Aimco (www.aimco.com). Kent can be reached at [email protected].
Quality. Regardless of the number of
MPF Research is available at http://www.realpage.com/market-research/mpf/.
providers, an owner must actively man-
22
People
WHERE FIBER MANAGEMENT COMES TOGETHER.
Information
Technology
Join the conversation with your network peers at
www.FiberPuzzle.com.
@ClearfieldFiber
www.ClearfieldConnection.com
800.422.2537
The Site Survey
Conducting a site survey – preferably during the infrastructure design phase –
helps gather the information needed to specify network equipment.
By David Lippke and David Daugherty ■ Korcett Holdings
T
his month we cover one of the
foundations of a successful network installation: the site survey.
Though often omitted because of travel
costs or lack of time, the site survey is
one of the most important steps in designing or retrofitting any network.
Take the time to physically walk the
property with all your would-be service
providers to show them the facilities and
to get to know them. Use this as an opportunity to find out whether the vendor will be a long-term partner. You can
learn a lot by the questions they ask. For
example, take note of the ones who spend
time with your front-office staff. These
are the guys who want to understand the
problems so they can provide solutions.
The site survey gives everyone involved
an opportunity to explore the layout of
the community and ask questions. Having everyone on the same page from the
beginning will eliminate the need for
countless phone calls and e-mails, allowing for more productive uses of time.
Here are some essential elements of
a site survey:
Fiber analysis. What type of fiber
and what topology is proposed or in
place? The optimal network design depends on how connectivity is achieved
on the site.
Building infrastructure analysis.
How old is the copper or fiber wiring?
Has it been, or will it be, thoroughly
tested and certified prior to network
deployment? Is wireless connectivity included or needed, and if so, where do you
need to place access points to best cover
the property?
Communications closets. How
much space is allocated for new and
existing equipment? A single-port infrastructure (one Cat 5 drop per unit)
24
Preview
David Daugherty will introduce the
“Metrics” project at the Broadband
Summit in Dallas, April 26 – 28.
requires less space for switch and powersupply installation than does a multiport
or home-run infrastructure. An important, but sometimes overlooked, aspect
of communications closet design is the
need for adequate power and grounding.
Customer expectations. What do
owners, managers and residents expect
to get out of the proposed upgrade or installation? What has past performance
been in this building or other communities you own or manage? What bandwidth are you providing to residents?
Timeline. What is the proposed
timeline for installation, and is the site
ready? Judging readiness is sometimes
difficult, but trades or staff working at
the community can help fill in the details about construction progress.
Design and Timing
A thorough RFQ response will require
the following information
•
•
•
•
•
A detailed facility description
Fiber topology
Drop counts
Equipment preference
Installation date.
Generally, all this information
should be gathered from a thorough site
survey. Even if you think you know the
condition of the property and of existing
infrastructure, take the time to confirm
it. The more information collected and
confirmed during the site survey, the
better off you’ll be, no matter which
phase of the project you’re working on.
Another important aspect of the site
survey is timing. Use the site survey to
find out how long deploying fiber, ordering equipment and turning up services
will take. This information will help you
manage the deployment and get services
turned up on time. It will also help you
build incentives into your agreement
with the service provider for meeting
deployment time frames. All the upfront preparation will help you and the
service provider save money by identifying potential problems and managing
expectations.
Finally, insist that the person who
conducts the site survey is part of the
team responsible for preparing the RFQ.
This will help avoid any confusion about
how and when the network will be
deployed.
In the next Metrics column, we will
explore ways of optimizing network performance while reducing up-front capital costs. BBP
About the Authors
David Lippke is the project manager at Korcett Holdings. He can be reached at
[email protected]. David Daugherty is the CEO and founder of Korcett
Holdings and can be reached at [email protected]. Korcett Holdings is dedicated
to the development and deployment of next-generation service solutions.
TRULY UNDERSTAND FTTH
TRENDS AND IMPACT
For Vendors
RVA’s new “FTTH History & Forecast: 2001-2015”
Report provides trusted current industry data in a
valuable historical trend analysis format. Although
predicting exactly when the market will take another leap
forward in growth is difficult, RVA’s future trend forecast
can give crucial market guidance broken down into many
industry segments. The report is based on eight years of
historical analysis and hundreds of in-field interviews.
For Providers
RVA’s report, “FTTH Impact & Viability: The Local Case
For Fiber,” provides essential information, especially for
those developing BTOP or BIP stimulus related proposals
using FTTH technology. Based on hundreds of case
studies, it provides the powerful and compelling industry
data and graphics needed to refine and support a specific
project and help move it to the top of the stack.
www.RVA LLC.com
Stimulus Funds Begin to Flow
The effect of the ARRA program on fiber-to-the-home deployments remains
to be seen, but the tap has now officially been turned on.
Preview
R
The latest research on fiber-to-the-home deployments
in the United States will be presented exclusively at the
Broadband Properties Summit in Dallas, April 26 – 28.
eading tea leaves is always difficult, especially when
there are few leaves to read. Of the $7.2 billion included in the broadband stimulus package, only
$183 million has been awarded (not including broadband
mapping grants). In selecting the first batch of 18 projects,
the Departments of Commerce and Agriculture seem to
have carefully included as many states, project types and
technologies as they could, presumably so no one would feel
left out. The result, of course, is that everyone except the actual recipients will have something to complain about. That
includes us – we think there should have been more fiber-tothe-home projects.
The good news is that at least two fiber-to-the-home
projects were among the grantees. (Some other projects were
rumored to include FTTH, but we couldn’t confirm that.)
The middle-mile project list also included fiber backbone
lines that will eventually be useful for bringing FTTH to
remote regions. (See this issue’s Bandwidth Hawk column.)
The bad news is that the total number of homes passed
by fiber will be about 1,200 – fewer than Verizon adds to its
FiOS network in a single day. So far, we’re not finding the
stimulus program very inspiring. We hope we’ll have better
news for the next issue.
– MZ
INDEPENDENT
TELCOS
Two Independent Telcos Win ARRA Grants
In December, Vice President Joe Biden
announced the first batch of broadband
grants (other than mapping grants) to be
made under the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act. In addition to some
middle-mile fiber, the long-awaited
grants included two small fiber-to-thehome projects:
• Bretton Woods Telephone Company, a subsidiary of LICT Corporation that provides service to
the Bretton Woods resort in New
Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest, was awarded a BIP
26
remote-area grant to bring fiber to
more than 400 premises. The upgraded network, which the company
expects to stimulate tourism in its
area, will provide up to 20 Mbps
symmetrical broadband service.
• Slic Network Solutions, the CLEC
arm of Nicholville Telephone Company in Franklin County, N.Y., was
awarded a $4.3 million grant and a
$1.1 million loan to construct 136
miles of middle-mile fiber and connect 726 households, 29 businesses
and 10 anchor institutions with fiber.
Slic will provide triple-play services
using Occam GPON equipment,
MetaSwitch equipment for voice,
and an IPTV solution from Falcon
Communications. In partnership
with the not-for-profit organization
CBN Connect, Slic will also connect
the Alice Hyde Hospital in Malone
with two outlying affiliated clinics.
Scott County Telephone Cooperative, a Virginia ILEC that began building fiber to the home in 2004, has opened
a new FTTH network in the community of Yuma, funded in part by an RUS
Community Connect Grant. As many
as 291 homes and businesses in Yuma are
gaining access to affordable high-speed
Internet services, and the Yuma Fire and
Rescue Department and Yuma Elementary School are receiving service at no
charge. High-speed Internet services are
also available at 10 computers in a new
community access center, where Mountain Empire Community College will
teach introductory computer and Internet courses to interested residents. Scott
County Telephone Cooperative will hire
a computer lab technician to assist residents at the center.
Cambridge Telephone Company,
an ILEC in Cambridge, Neb., may be
the first independent telephone company whose fiber-to-the-home project
has its own Facebook page (with 28
fans). The company just finished replacing aging copper wires with fiber in the
town of Cambridge, with the help of an
RUS loan, and will upgrade the infrastructure in the nearby town of Bartley
next summer. It will provide voice and
data services over fiber and is considering adding video services in the future.
GVTC Communications
has
launched 40 Mbps Internet service, the
fastest broadband speed available in
South Texas. The service is available to
any of the 31,000 residences and businesses connected to GVTC’s FTTH
network for prices as low as $89.95
monthly as part of a bundled package.
The company is spending $35 million
to extend its next-generation fiber infrastructure to 80 percent of its customers
across Far North San Antonio, Boerne,
Bulverde and other Hill Country and
Southeast Texas communities.
“We’re providing the Internet speeds
that users are demanding right now, and
we have positioned ourselves to deliver
the speeds they’ll be demanding well
into the future,” says Tom Zanoli, product manager for Internet services. GVTC
customers are increasingly using broadband connections for high-bandwidth
applications, such as accessing high-
definition video, playing online games
and working remotely from home. Many
connect multiple home computers and
media devices to a single network connection, sharing it between users.
Optimum Lightpath, a fiber-tothe-business CLEC in the New York
tristate area, has chosen Tellabs as a strategic partner in the rollout of its nextgeneration optical network. Tellabs equipment will allow Optimum Lightpath to
provide flexible and high-bandwidth solutions for businesses, offer features ranging from aggregated Ethernet services to
optical wavelength services, and turn up
new services and new locations quickly.
Mark Pashan, vice president and general
manager, transport products, for Tellabs,
says, “Businesses can save millions of dollars with low-latency services because it
takes less time for a packet to get from
one end of the network to the other.
When you handle large financial transactions, every millisecond counts.” BBP
Municipal
Fiber
UTOPIA to Build User-Financed Fiber Network
UTOPIA, the open-access fiber optic
network owned by a consortium of Utah
cities, is deploying fiber in Brigham City,
a member of the original consortium.
To cover the $5.5 million cost of the
deployment, the Brigham City Council authorized payment of $655,384;
the remainder will be paid primarily
from voluntary assessments on taxpayers in a special assessment district – an
unusual financing scheme. The assessments, which are estimated to be $3,000
for single-family homes, somewhat less
than that for multifamily units, and
$12,000 for commercial properties, include money for a reserve fund as well
as the estimated cost of the construction. Property owners can pay the full
assessment up front or in small monthly
installments over a 20-year period; of
the 1,600 who have already signed up,
most have elected to pay in installments.
In addition to these connection charges,
subscribers will also pay for services received over the network.
UTOPIA management says that
using voluntary special assessments
to finance expansion helps make sure
the network is built out in areas where
demand for it exists. However, like
many other municipal fiber networks,
UTOPIA has generated both enthusiasm
and vocal opposition. The Utah Taxpayers Association is representing about 70
property owners who say they did not
understand the terms of the assessment
and now want to opt out of the network.
The association says it is investigating legal options to defend the taxpayers.
The Loma Linda (Calif.) Connected Community Program is extending fiber optic service to businesses
at a 63-acre corporate business center in
downtown Loma Linda. Nine businesses
have already signed on for the service,
providing the city another $60,000 in
annual revenues; city government expects that the majority of the businesses
in the area will switch to LLCCP service
within the next three years. The city
manager notes, “Completion of the project will provide fast, low-cost connectivity to underserved commercial locations
in the city. This connectivity is providing an incentive for businesses to locate
or remain within the community.”
The city council in Hartsville, S.C.,
awarded a contract to Uptown Services
for a fiber optic feasibility study. If
Hartsville decides to build a municipal
FTTH network – a course of action that
the mayor strongly supports – it would
be the first municipality in South Carolina to do so.
The Coldwater Board of Public
Utilities in the town of Coldwater,
Mich., which operates a municipal cable
network, will wire businesses with fiber
optic connections using EPON technology, according to local press. The new
lines will serve the downtown business
area and a community college and are
positioned to serve an area the city wants
to develop as a research district. BBP
January 2010 | www.broadbandproper ties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES |
27
Cable
Providers
No Fuss, No Muss:
Buckeye Replaces Coax With Fiber
In Toledo, Ohio, Buckeye Cablevision
selected Kabel-X USA’s fiber optic conversion process for a fiber-to-the-home
trial. Buckeye will transition an existing subdivision to a fiber-to-the-home
solution without construction of new facilities in the easements. Buckeye is the
largest cable operator in the Toledo area,
providing video, voice and data services
to approximately 150,000 subscribers.
Kabel-X USA’s process quickly and
seamlessly removes the coax cable center
conductor and dielectric material, providing operators with a conduit through
which they can deploy fiber optic cable
without costly new construction or excavation. The process is suited for a variety of applications, including fiber-deep
network build-outs, challenging crossings or pathways, and vertical high-rises.
It has been used in several European deployments, but this is the first project
announced in the United States.
“We see the Kabel-X technology as an
innovative tool that will allow us to costeffectively deploy a fiber-to-the-home architecture in areas currently served by a
traditional hybrid fiber coax (HFC) network. This technology will allow us the
opportunity to effectively manage our
network architecture so as to best meet
our overall needs,” says Joe Jensen, Buckeye’s chief technology officer. BBP
RBOC
UPDATE
FiOS, the Next Generation:
Verizon Field-Tests a 10GPON Network
Verizon announced a successful field
test of a 10 Gbps/2.4 Gbps PON system,
which it refers to as XG-PON – a nextgeneration technology four times as fast
as the GPON technology supporting
the company’s FiOS network.
The test, conducted recently in
southern Massachusetts, indicates that
Verizon expects its customers to demand
ever higher bandwidth for devices and
applications such as unicast HD video
streaming, ultra-high-definition video,
3D video, user-generated content distribution, videoconferencing and new
high-speed data services for mediumand large-business customers.
After testing the XG-PON signal
in its laboratory, Verizon tested it on a
dedicated PON and also on a fiber providing FiOS to a customer. The overlay
test verified there was no interference
between the XG-PON signal and the
regular FiOS signal using GPON.
Until now, ITU standards-based
XG-PON technology has been tried
only in demonstrations and lab trials.
Final technical standards for global design and deployment aren’t expected un-
28
Verizon gave the thumbs-up to new PON
technology four times faster than GPON.
til mid-2010. Verizon, however, is testing and validating the next generation of
fiber-to-the-premises technologies from
several vendors to help accelerate standards activities.
“This trial is a first for the industry
and sets the stage for Verizon to offer
increased speeds on the same network
currently being used by our GPON customers,” says Brian Whitton, executive
director of access and video technologies. “This further validates our strategic
choice of fiber to the premises as the best
way to build a future-proof network.”
The trial was conducted with XG-PON
equipment from Huawei; future trials
with other suppliers’ systems are expected over the coming months.
Bryant Park, the New York City
park with perhaps the highest Wi-Fi
usage in the city, is now using Verizon
FiOS Internet to power its popular WiFi network. The installation serves not
only park patrons using their laptops
and mobile devices, but also shoppers
and skaters visiting the more than 160
Vendor Spotlight
Corning Cable Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.corningcablesystems.com
Falcon Communications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.falconipcomplete.com
Huawei Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.huawei.com
Kabel-X USA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.kabelxusa.com
MetaSwitch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.metaswitch.com
Occam Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.occamnetworks.com
Tellabs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.tellabs.com
Uptown Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . www.uptownservices.com
shops and ice-skating rink set up on the
lawn area for the holiday season.
Bryant Park, located in midtown
Manhattan, has a heavily used Wi-Fi
network because thousands of people
visit each day for lunch breaks, business meetings or leisurely strolls or pass
through on their way to other midtown
destinations. “The FiOS enhancement
to our free Wi-Fi network will be welcomed by the multitudes of laptopcarrying park visitors,” says Dan Biederman, executive director of the Bryant
Park Corporation. “FiOS will address
the demands placed on the Wi-Fi system
by upgrading the most crucial aspect of
Internet access – speed.”
U-Verse Reaches
2M Customers
AT&T announced that its U-verse TV
service now has 2 million customers,
double the number it had a year ago.
The service is now available to millions
of homes across 22 states. AT&T also
announced the launch of U-verse High
Speed Internet Max Turbo, its fastest
Internet package, which offers speeds
of up to 24 Mbps downstream and up
to 3 Mbps upstream to residential and
small-business customers in the Austin,
San Antonio and St. Louis markets.
AT&T plans to roll out Max Turbo to
additional markets in the future.
Summing up its U-verse achievements for 2009, AT&T said it had:
• Launched 13 U-verse TV apps, bringing the total number of TV apps to
21. Two recent additions include
Multiview, which lets viewers watch
up to four channels at one time, and
Santa Tracker, a Christmas-oriented
app.
• Added more than 25 high-definition
channels, bringing the HD channel
lineup to more than 110.
• Enhanced the Total Home DVR
experience to include mobile remote
access for the iPhone.
• Launched Max Turbo and increased
speeds for High Speed Internet Max
customers from 10 Mbps to 12 Mbps
at no extra charge.
• Expanded U-verse availability in the
Southeast. U-verse TV is now available in all 22 states of AT&T’s traditional footprint, and the network
passes more than 20 million living
units.
• Made U-verse Voice available in all
120 TV markets.
• Ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction in the South and West Regions Two Years in a Row,” according
to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008
and 2009 Residential Television Service Provider Satisfaction Studies.
AT&T announced that as of the end
of the third quarter, more than 90 percent of U-verse TV customers bundled
High Speed Internet, more than 60
percent of new U-verse TV customers
bundled U-verse Voice and more than
75 percent of U-verse TV customers had
a triple or quad play. BBP
29
Can FTTH Improve Lives in blighted Urban Neighborhoods?
In some Cleveland neighborhoods today, only about a quarter of households
have access to the Internet – and only
a fraction of that quarter have broadband connectivity. In the same neighborhoods, malnutrition and diabetes
are rampant, the educational system
is failing children, as many as a third of
the homes are in foreclosure and crime
is a constant and terrifying presence.
These neighborhoods don’t fit the business model of any
commercial FTTH deployer. Residents are unlikely to sign
up for triple-play bundles, download movies from Netflix or
spend time on Facebook. But researchers at Case Western
Reserve University, which is located in the midst of some of
Cleveland’s hardest-hit neighborhoods, think broadband may
be a critical factor in improving these residents’ lives. “We believe that access to the Internet at the international gold standard of 1 Gbps, coupled with integrated training and support,
can change people’s lives for the better,” says University Vice
President for Information Technology Services Lev Gonick.
Preview
Broadband and Basic Needs
To demonstrate that broadband can be relevant to meeting
its neighbors’ basic human needs, Case Western launched a
research project that aims to connect as many as 25,000 residents in five Cleveland neighborhoods with fiber to the home
and study the impact on their lives. The university has applied
for National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) stimulus-fund grants to cover some of the project
expenses; as BBP went to press, these funding applications
were still pending.
In the meantime, the university is going forward with
several privately funded pilot projects. The first of these, announced in December, will offer fiber-to-the-home connections to 104 households in two city blocks. This pilot is funded
by the university along with Corning Cable Systems, which will
supply product and design assistance. Corning Cable Systems’
FlexNAP Terminal Distribution System, a rapid-deployment
30
Lev Gonick of Case Western
Reserve will discuss this
project in a keynote address at
the Broadband Properties
Summit in Dallas.
solution making use of fiber cables with preinstalled network
access points, will be used in the deployment.
The study, which will follow the strict research protocols
mandated by the university, will recruit residents of the area
and require consent from all who participate. Although no
consent forms have yet been formally extended, Gonick says
there is already a “very nice buzz” in the two-block study area.
As most of the housing is multifamily, landlords, too, will have
to agree to have their properties wired, but Gonick doesn’t expect that to be a problem – “They’ll be sure of having 100-percent occupancy,” he points out.
In exchange for participation, residents will receive Internet connectivity, along with computers and training, at no
charge for 18 months. Also included are health monitoring
equipment, “smart home” sensors, surveillance cameras and
other devices, as well as access to an Internet services portal
that will be designed by university students.
A Communitywide Effort
As many as 40 community partners are involved in the project,
including University Hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth Hospital System, the City of Cleveland, OneCommunity
(which will serve as the Internet service provider), the Great
Lakes Science Center and a coalition of public safety forces.
Some of these organizations will also receive equipment, such
as videoconferencing systems, as part of the project.
The community partners identified four major concerns –
health, science education, energy use and public safety – and
set long-term and interim goals, such as reduction in type 2
diabetes rates, increased graduation rates for high-school students, reduction in energy consumption and improvements in
neighborhood public safety. Residents will have opportunities
to identify additional issues during the course of the study.
The partner organizations will work with the participants
to achieve these goals, making use of the broadband connectivity and broadband-enabled devices. For example, hospitals
may offer home-based health care through videoconferencing. University researchers assigned to the project will measure outcomes against goals and assess the impact of broadband in meeting the goals.
The network is not reserved entirely for the research study.
Residents will have unfettered access to the Internet, and local service providers will also have opportunities to offer commercial services on the network, both during and after the
research project. In fact, the organizers hope the open-access
network will stimulate new service offerings.
Gonick says, “Our explicit goal is to create a living proof point
that fiber to the home is viable in an American urban setting.”
Deployer Spotlight
States with deployments
referenced in this article
Alaska
North American Telcos
AT&T
Other North American Deployers
www.att.com
Buckeye Cablevision
www.buckeyecablesystem.com
Bretton Woods Telephone Company www.lictcorp.com
Case Western Reserve University
Cambridge Telephone Company Coldwater (Mich.) Board of
Public Utilities
GVTC Communications
Optimum Lightpath
www.cambtel.com
www.gvtc.com
www.optimumlightpath.com
Scott County Telephone Cooperative
www.sctc.org
Slic Network Solutions
www.slic.com
Verizon Communications
www.verizon.com
Hartsville, S.C. (city)
Loma Linda Connected
Community Program UTOPIA
www.case.edu
www.cbpu.com
www.hartsvillesc.com
www.ci.loma-linda.ca.us
www.utopianet.org
INTERNATIONAL
DEPLOYMENTS
Australia moves forward with national broadband project ... Electric utility prepares to build out FTTH
network in Israel ... Abu Dhabi fiber network goes live ... First GPON network in Vietnam
Read all of these stories and more in the digital edition at
www.bbpmag.com/bbponline.php
31
RYBOVICH SUPER YACHT
MARINA AND REFIT
By Joe Bousquin ■ Contributing Editor, Broadband Properties
Yacht owners docking at the Rybovich Super Yacht Marina and Refit in West Palm Beach, Fla., now have phone and
Internet access from the yacht, with all the speed and reliability a state-of-the-art fiber network can offer. Our thanks
to Rybovich’s John Vander Wagen and Alloptic’s Tom Anderson for their assistance in preparing this feature, which
highlights one of the most unusual fiber deployments we’ve encountered.
W
hen a company’s name stretches back nearly a century
and has been paired with the likes of Hemingway,
Firestone, Maytag, du Pont and, more recently, Bernie Madoff, its customers tend to have certain expectations.
That’s why Rybovich Super Yacht Marina and Refit in
West Palm Beach, Fla., had to ensure it offered the best of
everything as it embarked on a $100 million overhaul of its
24 acres of shoreline and dock space. To set itself apart from
the tonier yacht meccas of Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, the marina added poolside entertainment areas, bars and
restaurants, retail shops, a gaming room and a fitness center
replete with flat-screen TVs. Wi-Fi Internet connectivity is
available throughout the property. Located just minutes from
the world-class dining, entertainment and shopping options on
PGA Boulevard and Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue, the marina
is poised as a gateway to sophisticated
land pursuits for yachters returning
from extended cruises.
While at dock, the marina’s uber-rich
clientele – Tiger Woods has reportedly
berthed his $20 million, 155-foot yacht,
Privacy, there – now enjoy fiber-to-theslip Internet connectivity at speeds up to
25 Mbps, as well as marine phone connectivity, from the staterooms in their
300-foot-long yachts. To update the marina’s communications,
Rybovich installed a fiber optic network from Livermore, Calif.based Alloptic, including weathertight optical network terminals (ONTs) at each of the 60 slips, just inches from the lapping salt water of the Intracoastal Waterway, in an environment
where the relative humidity routinely exceeds 80 percent.
“In terms of deploying technology, this is a harsh environment, to say the least,” says John Vander Wagen, Rybovich’s
chief information officer. “We partnered with Alloptic to ensure we had a solution that could stand up to the elements.”
Alloptic, which specializes in deploying temperaturehardened equipment, had deployed networks in similarly challenging environments in the past, though never on the scale of
the Rybovich marina. A weathertight power cabinet from Eaton
protects the Alloptic home4000 ONT at each slip; the company
Preview
32
Rybovich Marina and other
featured Properties of the
Month will be highlighted at a
special session of the Broadband
Properties Summit, April 26 – 28.
The power pedestal on the dock supplies 480v, 240v and 208v electrical
service to each boat. The big cables are the electrical supply; the smsaller
blue cable is the Cat 5 line providing Internet connectivity to the boat.
engineered the setup so that the heat the ONT generates quickly
eradicates any moisture that might penetrate the housings.
“This is a weather-hardened product deployed in a worldclass setting. We’re very proud to be a part of that,” says Tom
Anderson, Alloptic’s vice president of marketing.
Rybovich anticipates that the fiber network will cost less,
over the long run, than a traditional copper system. Such a
network would have required constant maintenance, Vander
Wagen says, as well as repeaters to cover the distances of the
slips, which can be as long as 900 feet. As a bonus, Rybovich
was able to forgo deploying coaxial cable to the docks themselves, which would have meant even more copper deployed
in the harsh environment. Combined, the total initial savings
added up to $100,000.
“That’s just in the first year,” Vander Wagen says. “If you
look beyond that, you would probably have to replace your
equipment, and possibly the wiring itself, every three years or
so. We expect that fiber will last us 10 to 20 years. Overall, it’s
just much more reliable than copper.”
Hemingway, Big Toys and High Speed
In the world of mega-yachting, longevity is what Rybovich is
all about. Founded in 1919 by John Rybovich Sr., who was
known throughout the industry as “Pop,” the company originally built custom fishing boats for men with money who
wanted to tame the big game fish off the Florida coast. Ernest
Hemingway brought his Pilar, the legendary 35-foot Wheeler
yacht portrayed in “To Have and Have Not” and “Islands in
the Stream,” to be serviced and outfitted at the yard.
Appliance mogul Robert Maytag, tire tycoon Roger Firestone and chemical company heir William du Pont all commissioned Rybovich yachts. And last year, Wall Street fraudster
Bernard Madoff listed a $2.2 million, 55-foot “Rybovich boat”
among his assets when federal investigators closed in on him.
By the 1960s, the legend of Rybovich yachts’ luxury – and their
ability to cause trophy fish to rise from the azure – had grown
so large that Sports Illustrated put one of the vessels on its August 2, 1965, cover, under the breathless headline The Rich
Rush of a Rybo.
The customer sees this interface at the slip for data, phone and television
jacks, if needed. Gaskets protect the cabinet from the weather. The ONT
inside this cabinet gives off enough heat to evaporate any moisture.
In the 1970s, after the passing of John Sr., the company went
through a rough patch and fell out of family hands. In 2005,
Florida tycoon and Miami Dolphins co-owner Wayne Huizenga Jr., the founder of Waste Management and Blockbuster
Video, bought the firm. He immediately brought in Michael
Rybovich, grandson of John Sr., to head boatbuilding operations. The move put a Rybovich back at the helm of the storied
sports fishers’ production for the first time in a generation.
A centerpiece of the company’s rebirth was Rybovich Super
Yacht Marina and Refit. “Our goal is to be the premier megayacht marina, refit and repair facility in the world,” Vander
Wagen says. “For our captains, crews and owners, we feel that
a visit to Rybovich should be like a stay at the Ritz.” The property boasts substantial boatbuilding, dry hauling and repair
services, including one of just three 660-ton boat lifts in the
world. A customer wanting to add an extra 30 feet to a 180foot super yacht can dock at Rybovich, which will chop the
boat in half, insert an extra 30 feet of steel hull in the middle
and put it back together. It’s not unlike making a limo out of
a Hummer.
Do Yachts Need Fiber?
Mega-yachts, sometimes called “floating cities,” often cost
more than $30 million and include everything from helicopter
landing pads to on-deck pools, GPS navigation systems, ondemand video libraries and satellite Internet uplinks so they
The Alloptic ONT housed inside the power cabinet provides 25 Mbps
Internet connectivity and telephone service to each yacht.
33
can stay connected from anywhere on the planet. Why go to all
the trouble of bringing fiber to the slips at Rybovich, then?
Even for someone who can afford such a toy, running satellite Internet can be expensive – up to $10 per megabyte, and as
the adage goes, the rich didn’t get rich by spending their money
carelessly. “My weekly invoice to the captains is around 4 megabytes,” Vander Wagen says. “It can cost them up to $40 just to
get my invoice when they’re at sea. Each boat captain typically
must adhere to a budget, so when they get to port, we wanted to
give them another, more affordable option.”
Rybovich’s fiber offerings are automatically included in the
marina’s slip fee of $3.25 per foot per day. That works out to a
cool $975 daily for the property’s largest vessels.
Fiber to the slip solved another challenge as well. Although
most super yachts have their own internal wireless networks,
connecting to an external wireless network from inside a boat
is problematic. Previously, captains could usually log on to
Rybovich’s Wi-Fi network from the bridge, but anyone sitting
Mega-yacht owners have satellite
connections that they use when
they’re at sea. When they’re
docked, Rybovich’s fiber-to-theslip network provides them with
better service for less money.
34
below decks – behind the wall of the steel hull – would typically be unable to connect. Now, the boats enjoy broadband
connectivity both above and below the waterline.
“This gives them the ability to plug in to the hardwired
ONT and bring their systems online at a significant bandwidth while reducing their operating costs,” Vander Wagen
says. “Not only did it reduce our installation and maintenance
spend, it helps them save money while providing a much better
experience.”
At nearly $1,000 a day, that speed, and experience, counts.
Vital Stats
Rybovich Super Yacht Marina and Refit is the premier deepwater shipbuilding and maintenance facility on the Eastern
Seaboard of the United States. With the deployment of fiber-tothe-slip Internet connectivity, Rybovich has extended the stateof-the-art standard for advanced technology and equipment
from its 40,000-square-foot Super Yacht Refit Center directly to
the docks, and waterlines, of its guests’ extraordinary vessels.
Rybovich’s service facilities include hard (land) space for
seven yachts up to 200 feet in length and seven in-water slips
for yachts up to 300 feet. The marina consists of another 6,000
linear feet of dockage for yachts ranging in length from 130 to
300 feet.
Recently, the business went through a major expansion
and systems upgrade that included FTTSlip. An on-site retail
area and a residential development will also be supported by
the fiber-based system. Rybovich Super Yacht Marina and Refit
deployed the Alloptic GEPON solution to 60 yacht slips on 12
acres of water surface space, as well as to its facilities throughout
Rybovich’s 12 acres of shore property in West Palm Beach, Fla.
In a reversal of the usual order,
Internet access is delivered to
the marina’s GEPON network via
coaxial cable. Next summer, AT&T
will deploy fiber to the property,
enabling higher speeds.
Greenfield or retrofit? Both
Number of connected units: 60 yacht slips, with planned expansion to support a single-family residential development.
Date services started being delivered: Summer 2009
Technology
How do communications services get to the property? The region’s
fiber ring doesn’t currently extend to the property, though
an AT&T fiber deployment is planned for summer 2010.
At present, Comcast delivers 25 Mbps data services to a
cable modem in Rybovich’s communications room.
AT&T provides a traditional telephony connection,
which interfaces with the marina’s internal fiber network
through an Avaya phone switch. The Avaya switch tracks
individual usage on each yacht, enabling Rybovich to bill
owners based on the minutes they use while in port.
room, consuming just 6 rack units of an existing relay rack.
The ONTs mount inside the self-drying power cabinet at
each slip. Dedicated space within each cabinet for the ONT
and its power/battery system is limited to 12” x 14” x 6”.
Overall, OLT/ONT space consumption was minimal; the fiber optic cabling itself runs within conduit under the piers.
Services
Does the property have triple-play services? No. Currently, only
voice and data services are provided. Although video services can be added, Rybovich’s experience with the super
yacht market shows little demand for these services. Typically, these “floating cities” subscribe to independent satellite programming providers, such as Dish Network or
DirecTV.
Are there amenities beyond triple play, such as free wireless in
common areas or entertainment systems in common rooms?
Are there IP systems for managing the property, i.e., sprinklers
and power management? Rybovich provides Wi-Fi and entertainment options in all common areas. IP systems for
property management are currently being installed.
Who is the wireless service provider? Rybovich provides and services the internal, private network to its clients.
Do residents have a choice of service providers? No
How are services distributed within the property? Voice and data
services are delivered from the cable modem and telephone
switch to an Alloptic edge200 optical line terminal (OLT),
which distributes the services over a passive optical network
to each yacht slip, as well as to several retail locations.
The fiber optic infrastructure runs through conduit
within the marina’s floating concrete piers and terminates
at each slip’s power cabinet. These cabinets house Alloptic
home4000 ONTs, temperature-hardened units designed to
provide continuous connectivity. Each port on the ONT
docks directly into the bulkhead of the Eaton-manufactured power cabinet (see photo). The power cabinet is outfitted with double gaskets and replaceable, sealed doors to
provide a very low-humidity environment for placement of
the ONT and its battery-protected power system.
What is the FTTH technology? GEPON
What type of gear is used? Alloptic GEPON OLT and ONTs
How did you deal with wiring and plug access within the units?
A special area within the power cabinet was set aside for
mounting the ONT, along with its power and battery
backup system.
Have you provided wireless signals within units? Wi-Fi is provided
from a wireless access point attached to each Alloptic ONT.
How much square footage did you have to dedicate to the network
equipment? The OLT lives in the marina’s communications
Schematic of the revamped marina property, including retail space,
restaurants and other amenities – all of which are now fiber-connected.
35
Who provides support? If residents have an issue or a technical
challenge, whom do they call? Rybovich handles Tier 1 and 2
support. Alloptic provides Tier 3 support. Any issues with
Comcast’s cable modem or AT&T’s telephone service in
Rybovich’s communications room would be troubleshot by
Rybovich and the respective service providers.
Business
Who owns the network? Rybovich paid for, owns and operates
the network. The marina also manages the services delivered to the network from AT&T so that video services can
be provided to the yachts if demand should arise in the future. The network in place will allow the addition of video
services without disruption.
Was there a door fee? No.
Are services automatically included in the slip fees? Data services
and Internet access are included in the slip fee of $3.25 per
foot per day. Phones services are billed based on usage.
Who handles billing and collection? Rybovich
How are the services marketed and by whom? Rybovich markets these technology amenities as part of its yacht slip
accommodations.
What has the return been on this implementation, in dollars or
otherwise? Rybovich’s main focus is on customer service.
We believe the implementation of fiber-to-the-slip Internet
connectivity extends our high level of commitment directly
to our customers at the dock and acts as both a competitive marketing tool and a way to retain our sophisticated,
discriminating clientele.
Onsite Experience/Lessons Learned
Answers are from John Vander Wagen.
What was the biggest challenge? Placing the ONTs and associated
power/battery systems inside the power cabinets and designing them to be self-drying. These boxes are designed so that
heat from the power source activates a self-drying cycle that
ensures nearly zero humidity in the interior.
Reserving space for the ONT where it would
be isolated from the high-voltage areas of the
cabinet (each box offers robust 480v, 240v and
208v electrical service) while allowing for heat
and humidity dissipation was a challenge. In
the end, Alloptic and Eaton, which manufactured the power cabinets, developed a solution
that removes humidity as a byproduct of the
ambient heat and ventilation.
than copper.
The second big success is the delivery of hard-wired fiber optic services directly to each yacht slip, rather than
depending on unsecured wireless methods. We selected Alloptic’s GEPON infrastructure for its low maintenance and
environmental hardening in our challenging seaside environment, which includes everything from high temperatures and humidity to howling winds and hurricanes.
What would you say to owners who want to deploy a similar network? What issues should they consider before they get started?
Do it! You will reap great benefits by eliminating continuous infrastructure replacement – reducing opex and customer complaints – while providing better, differentiating
services to your clients. You need to select electronics that
are designed for your environment but that also integrate
easily into your existing voice, video and data systems. Also,
for a marina facility, you may need to be ready to provide
a cable harness from the power cabinet, where the ONT
interfaces are, to a demarc point on the yacht, to protect
from wear and weathering.
How did the parties work together during the installation? Alloptic did most of its work directly with Rybovich. However, it
was important that they coordinated with Eaton, our power
cabinet provider, on an ONT placement solution. Overall,
everyone worked well together, and the deployment was not
disruptive to our existing operations.
What has been the response from customers? Our clientele, although transient, is extremely pleased to have reliable,
wireline-based services. Prior to the Alloptic deployment,
customers used their onboard satellite connections for dayto-day business – which in general was expensive and slow
(approximately $10 per megabyte fees at speeds of just 256
Kbps). Today, all mega-yachts docked at Rybovich Super
Yacht Marina and Refit can securely access our dedicated,
high-speed Internet and phone services at their slips to conduct business without the additional fees of expensive satellite connections. BBP
What was the biggest success? There are two. First,
the elimination of copper from the infrastructure is a huge success because it would have
been extremely corrosive in our marine environment. Previously, our copper system lasted
only three years in these challenging conditions. We expect that fiber will last us 10 to
20 years, and it is much more reliable overall
36
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Green Technology
Verizon Lights the Path to
Green Telephony
Fiber plays the central role in Verizon’s push for energy efficiency.
Other FTTH deployers can follow Verizon’s guidelines and methodologies.
O
perators of fiber networks already know these networks
save a lot of energy. PricewaterhouseCoopers studies conducted
for the FTTH Councils in Europe and
in the United States have confirmed
that fiber optic networks take fewer of
Earth’s resources to build than copper.
These networks also require less power
to run, and because they are more automated and easier to monitor, operators
can fix many problems from the central
office without a truck roll.
Policymakers also rely on reliable
broadband networks to enable smart
buildings, telecommuting, better home
care for shut-ins, a more efficient electricity grid and other advances that will
help reduce energy consumption.
“Look at our FiOS service,” says
Ludwig C. “Chuck” Graff, director of
Network Equipment Building Standards (NEBS) compliance and quality
assurance for Verizon. “The amount of
effort we are putting into that network,
the reliability. You will ultimately see
real savings on the truck rolls because
the service is built extremely well. We’re
replacing the entire network with fiber
optics. We’re part of a new era of technology. We feel the same as the guys
that laid the copper years ago.” He and a
staff of five – mainly electrical engineers
– guide the process from Verizon offices
in Baltimore. The NEBS themselves, a
set of industrywide requirements, have
been managed by Telcordia since the
Bell breakup in the early 1980s.
However, Verizon hasn’t stopped
with building a fiber network. The telecom giant is also using its brainpower
38
Preview
Find out more about Verizon’s
green network initiative at the
Broadband Properties Summit,
April 26 – 28 in Dallas.
and its purchasing power to accelerate the trend toward more sustainable
operations. Since mid-2008, it has set
thermal and power consumption goals
for equipment developers. It is already
working on recommendations for sustainable architectural design – interior
finishes, lighting, furniture and more.
APPLYING LESSONS LEARNED
Verizon’s goal is a 20 percent reduction
in annual energy consumption beyond
what would be saved by simply replacing copper with fiber. It is the first telecom company in the world to set such a
goal, which analysts estimate will yield
it about $1 billion a year in savings. Because Verizon is publishing its requirements and test results on its compliance Web site, www.verizonnebs.com,
other companies, too, can benefit from
its work – even operators of GEPON
networks, because much of the equipment covered by the standards is common to both GEPON and GPON.
Verizon operates in about 30,000
separate facilities worldwide and has one
of the largest private vehicle fleets in the
country. Does its ambitious goal “scale
down” to smaller telcos, or will bureaucratic costs and delays eat into savings?
Are halfway implementations – cherrypicking Verizon’s equipment choices –
good enough for smaller operators?
Another question is whether smaller
telcos can invest enough in network
control software and training to costeffectively achieve green goals. For instance, some vendors are offering great
deals on older-style equipment. How
does a smaller telco handle the value
engineering calculations to determine
whether the lower first cost is worth the
added energy expenses over time?
Telcos may also have problems applying Verizon standards to different
types of equipment. Although some of
the standards Verizon has developed allow equipment designers to define efficiency and lay out some test protocols,
About the Author
Steve Ross is corporate editor of BBP LLC. You can reach him at steve@broad
bandproperties.com.
Green Technology
those standards don’t begin to cover all
equipment types. And due to the outsourcing of manufacturing and design,
not all vendors have the ability to run
all tests.
Nor are generic standards much help
to smaller telcos. Even though building codes may cover fire protection, life
safety, lighting, heating, cooling and
ventilation requirements, few codes apply specifically to central office and network infrastructure. New, more sustainable, paints and wall panels that perform
well in most industrial or commercial
settings may, in fact, be unwelcome in
telecommunications settings.
Says Graff, “If the smaller guys use
our Web site and see something they can
use, that’s fantastic. I think the bottom
line is that there is no single solution for
everything. If someone asks me how to
make a cellular site more energy-efficient,
the first question I have to ask is, ‘Well, is
it in the middle of a desert or on the side
of a mountain?’ If I put it on a mountain
with all kinds of trees around it, I’m not
going to get any sunlight at all to power
solar cells. So I think the key is for every-
one to look at their own situation and to
find a solution that works for them.”
A History of Green Innovation
“We’re proud to say that Verizon is the
first telecom company in the world to
actually come up with a new standard,
an actual pass-fail criterion and an actual target of 20 percent energy-use reduction for new equipment,” says Graff.
Of course, Verizon has the luxury of
being able to experiment, within limits.
In 2008, the company earned the federal government’s prestigious Energy
Thermal Management Requirements
Verizon requires that thermal management be used as part
of an integrated equipment design process to minimize and
remove heat generated by the equipment when it is powered
up and in operation. This ensures that the equipment functions at its optimum thermal operating point; has correctly
sized fans for heat removal, if applicable; and results in the
constituent components operating within their specific thermal constraints. The overall goal is to help reduce energy consumption and ensure equipment reliability, both in controlled
environments such as central offices and in heated and cooled
equipment vaults, and for uncontrolled outside plant and remote terminal equipment as well.
Verizon specifies thermal modeling simulation and test
requirements but does not require that specific modeling
software be used. The tests can be run by equipment manufacturers or by independent test labs that Verizon certifies. In
general, the test methods themselves are specified in Telcordia Generic Requirements documents.
The Verizon requirements at present cover the printedboard assembly level and above. That is, they apply to boards
and stand-alone circuit packs as well as to fully populated
shelves, cabinets and other enclosures employing either natural convection or forced-air cooling. They do not currently ap-
ply to the internal thermal design of packaged components,
such as semiconductor devices, or to customer-premises
equipment such as set-top boxes and modems.
Verizon is not interested in intermediate design decisions,
and specifically bars vendors from sharing test results.
At present, the requirements address only the cost of operating the equipment when it is powered up and executing
its intended function. They do not consider the cost of removing the heat generated by the equipment from the room into
which the generated heat is released.
Implementation
Equipment manufacturers would do well to consider thermal
issues during the design phase. In general, equipment manufacturers would first complete the appropriate circuit and
logic design to accomplish the desired performance and then
adjust component placement and physical layout of the board
to optimize its thermal efficiency. After boards are integrated
into the end-use enclosure, vendors test again and modify as
necessary.
The complete 28-page document can be downloaded free
at: www.verizonnebs.com/TPRs/VZ-TPR-9208.pdf.
Examples of Commercially Available Computational Fluid Dynamics Thermal Modeling Software
Software
Vendor
Web Site
Location
WinTherm, RadTherm
ThermoAnalytics Inc.
www.thermoanalytics.com
Calumet, MI
SINDA/FLUINT
C&R Technologies
www.crtech.com
Boulder, CO
Sauna
Thermal Solutions Inc.
www.thermalsoftware.com
Ann Arbor, MI
Coolit
DAAT Research
www.daat.com
Hanover, NH
COSMOSFloWorks Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks www.cosmosm.com
Concord, MA
FloTHERM
Flomerics Group (Mentor Graphics)
www.mentor.com
Wilsonville, OR
Ansys Fluent, Ansys CFD, Icepak
Ansys
www.ansys.com
Canonsburg, PA
STAR-CCM+
CD-Adapco
www.cd-adapco.com
Melville, NY
NX I-deas ESC
Siemens PLM Software
www.plm.automation.siemens.com
Plano, TX January 2010 | www.broadbandproper ties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES |
39
Green Technology
Verizon has been experimenting with fuel cells
and solar power at several facilities. These
power sources are expected to become cost
competitive in the future with increasing scale.
Star Award for operating the nation’s
largest fuel cell site of its kind, at a callswitching center and office building in
Garden City, N.Y. The facility, built in
2005, uses seven fuel cells that help reduce dependence on commercial electric
power and provide another layer of network reliability in the event of natural
disasters, power outages and periods of
peak commercial power demands.
Natural gas piped in from the local
gas company provides the hydrogen for
the cells to generate direct-current elec-
trical power. Each of the seven fuel cells
is capable of generating 200 kilowatts
of electrical power per hour, enough
to supply the energy needs of about
400 single-family households. The cells
provide as much as 80 percent of the
facility’s power. Heat and water (created when the hydrogen combines with
oxygen from the air) are then removed
from each cell, and the direct current is
converted to alternating current for use
in the building. Waste heat created by
the fuel cells generates 75 percent of the
Large vendors such as ADTRAN, which manufactures and tests much
of what it sells, would seem to have a natural advantage meeting
Verizon’s energy and thermal goals because in-house testing allows
faster turnaround times. These pictures of thermal, fire and electrical
hazards testing were taken at ADTRAN’s Huntsville facility this fall.
40
energy required to heat the facility and a
third of the energy required for cooling.
By using fuel cells at this site, Verizon avoids emitting the 11.1 million
pounds of carbon dioxide a year that
a similar-sized fossil-fuel-based power
plant would have put into the atmosphere. Why doesn’t everyone do this?
The fuel cells are so much more expensive than conventional power that at
present they cannot be justified on the
basis of cost alone. But Verizon is gaining invaluable experience with fuel cells
in Garden City and in smaller telephone
switching offices in Missouri, New York,
Texas and Washington, where fuel cells
provide emergency backup power.
Verizon is experimenting with solar
power in its Carrollwood, Fla., central
office, where it installed a 140-panel system at a cost of $300,000. Peak output
is about 20 kilowatts, or perhaps 100 to
200 kWh a day, worth between $10 and
Green Technology
$60 depending on day of the year and
possible tax breaks. The $10,000 annual
savings isn’t enough to cover interest on
the installation’s cost. But again, equipment like this is expected to be cost-effective in the near future as installation
costs come down and the cost of nonrenewable energy climbs.
Working With Vendors
The two requirements Verizon has issued so far – one for energy efficiency
and one for thermal performance – are
summarized in the sidebars and can be
downloaded free (see the sidebars for
details). They are real requirements, and
in that sense coercive. Companies that
want to sell equipment to Verizon must
meet the specifications. But the specs do
not apply to existing equipment models.
The energy requirements come into play
only when a vendor modifies an existing
design or produces an entirely new design after January 1, 2009. The thermal
rules take hold mid-2011.
As of yet, the requirements apply only
to the energy the devices use directly
and not to the extra energy needed to
cool them, despite the fact that Verizon
says 35 to 45 percent of central-office
expenses are for air conditioning. And
so far, the only measures are energy consumption and heat.
Comprehensive rules for sustainability are a bit further down the road.
“Verizon has really stepped up with a
corporate sustainability program,” Graff
says. “We’re focusing on what we have to
do across the board, and we’re starting
to put together some nice metrics that
we’ll hopefully get out sooner or later.
It’s really taking off. We’re looking at
every aspect of the business – not just
electronics, not just the building, not
just air conditioning but every piece of
it. Network design will be part of it. We
have subject-matter experts from all the
different [Verizon] business units, and
we’re beginning to develop lists of different opportunities, what’s the best we
can get in savings.”
Graff’s team at Verizon is also targeting existing equipment. He says,
“We know that the stuff that’s in the
field today you can’t make more energy
efficient, but you can try to get more
energy-efficient behavior, maybe, by
turning it down when you’re not using
it, consistent with reliability and customer service goals.”
When it started the program early in
2007, Verizon went out of its way to enlist cooperation and solicit input from its
suppliers. Verizon spokespeople say (and
we confirmed) that the company did not
issue final requirements until suppliers
had a chance to review and comment.
The process was neither as universal
nor as open as is the norm in consensus
standards-setting organizations such as
the American Society for Testing and
Materials or the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers. But Graff insists, “This is a shared opportunity, and
we are realistic. If vendors don’t go for it,
it isn’t going to happen. So although we
want to push them a little bit, we want
their input ... on trucks and cars, buildings, electronics.”
“We’re not going to change their design processes,” says Graff. “We’re trying to say that in their design process, if
they find that they are not meeting the
specific criteria we set down, they have
to re-lay out the boards.” Vendors, of
course, always complain that telcos want
smaller, more compact equipment that
runs faster and faster and uses higherdensity integrated circuits that run hotter. But Verizon offered a compromise:
Although the boxes must fit into standard equipment racks – in the United
States, these are usually 23 inches wide
and 7 feet high – they can use enclosures
as deep as 42 inches.
“That gives them some real estate to
go back a little bit,” said Graff. “It may
cost us a bit more in capex, but we’re going to save it in opex. I think people are
starting to get that argument – the cost
of the equipment initially versus what it
is going to cost to power it. Manufacturing and engineering really don’t want
to talk to one another. Neither do the
capex and opex people. Now we’re going
to start to talk together.”
Verizon personnel say they are not
looking for proprietary information
from vendors on such matters as thermal
design. But, admits Graff, “We want to
know how they fixed it to get rid of the
hot spot. We’re not looking for propri-
etary information; we’re just requiring
a standard questionnaire they fill out,
that we’ll be able to decipher, saying
they had a problem and they did this or
that to solve it. We’re saying that when
you have a choice between component A
and component B, when A is more energy efficient, use that one. But we’re not
going to specify the kind of values you
should be seeing in component A or B
or whatever.”
Graff also says that if someone comes
up with a new widget that doesn’t fit the
requirement’s model, “We sit down with
them and come up with something that
works for them.” The energy requirements document has already been modified four times (see sidebar).
Leader of the Pack
The near-collapse of the Copenhagen
summit on climate change (ironically,
held at the same convention center where
the FTTH Europe conference was held
last winter) suggests that new policies will
not be easy to achieve. But telecommunications companies seem to be out in front
of the issue. “I sit on committees in Europe,” says Graff. Telecom has the “same
issues in Japan, London, New York. We
all come from same heritage, and we all
are beginning to look at sustainability
across the board. We all have the same
issues and the same common goal.”
Graff also says vendors in China see
an opportunity to grab market share.
“They are claiming they can meet this
with their eyes closed. I haven’t verified
that. ... but they say they can be double
digits ahead of our goals.” That means
energy savings on new equipment of
more than 30 percent.
Many American companies that have
issued top-down mandates for sustainability have stumbled at the bottom of
the management pyramid, where these
policies are executed. How does Verizon
get lower-level managers to sign on to
sustainability goals if they do not expect
to remain in their positions long enough
to recapture implementation costs?
Verizon is attempting to spread the
word and set the tone with its corporate
sustainability council, which includes
leaders from each of the business units
who get together and hash out problems. That’s no easy task; what a fleet
41
Green Technology
Energy Efficiency Requirements
Verizon’s energy efficiency requirements document defines
a Telecommunications Equipment Energy Efficiency Rating
(TEEER) methodology for procuring equipment assemblies used
in Verizon networks. The intent is to foster the creation of more
energy-efficient telecommunications equipment by Verizon’s
supplier community, thereby reducing energy requirements for
Verizon networks. Verizon first published the document in June
2008, modifying it a few months later to include baseline values
for base transceiver subsystem equipment, point-to-point microwave and set-top boxes. In August 2009, the power equipment category was expanded to include inverters and converters and the section on external power supplies was expanded.
Media gateways and ONT power supplies were added.
The methodology is applicable to, but not limited to, shelf,
frame and cabinet-mounted network equipment to be installed in environmentally controlled locations, outside plant,
and at the customer premises. As of this time, the document
covers these equipment categories:
Transport
Optical transport system
Video transport system
Point-to-point microwave transport
Switches/Routers
Digital switches
Soft switches
Enterprise routers
Core routers
Edge routers
Backbone routers
Feature application routers
Gateways
Media gateways
Access Equipment
DSLAMs
OLTs
Power
Rectifiers
Converters
Inverters
Uninterruptable power supplies
Data Center Equipment
Servers
Customer-Premises Equipment
External power adapters
Set-top boxes
ONT power supplies
Wireless Equipment
Power amplifiers
Measurement Approach
For testing, Verizon requires that all equipment be configured as in a typical installation, fully loaded, with all card slots
populated with functioning modules and all redundancies in
42
place, and with all cables installed as in a typical deployment.
All system functions or features that increase power consumption must be activated during testing. If the equipment has
any energy-saving features that are controlled by internal
software, they should be enabled for testing.
The equipment is tested at 100 percent duty cycle, 50 percent, and turned on but not actually operating (idle or sleep
mode). The three energy-use states are weighted differently
for different kinds of equipment. Although most telecommunications equipment does not have an idle/sleep mode, Verizon tended to give a relatively high weighting value for it; this
may be the area of greatest savings in terms of reduced power
consumption.
The total average power, PTotal, calculated from these
measurements and weightings is used to determine what
Verizion calls the Telecommunications Equipment Energy Efficiency Rating (TEEER). The TEEER for an entire system can be
calculated by using the results for the type of equipment that
most closely resembles the equipment tested. The efficiency
definitions, by equipment type, are shown in the table.
Equipment Type
TEEER Formula
Transport
-log(PTotal /Throughput)
Switch/Router
-log(PTotal /Forwarding Capacity)
Media Gateway
-log(PTotal /Throughput)
Access
(Access Lines / Ptotal ) + 1
Power
(POut Total / PIn Total) x 10
Power Amplifiers
(Wireless)
(Total RF Output Power / Total Input
Power) x 10
For example, the TEEER of a 160 Gbps switch or router
would be calculated this way:
Pmax = 4320 Watts
P50 = 3000 Watts
Psleep = 1500 Watts
PTotal = (0.35 x 4320) + (0.4 x 3000) + (0.25 x 1500)
= 3087 Watts
TEEER = -log (PTotal / Forwarding Capacity)
= -log (3087 / 160,000,000,000)
= -log (0.00000001929375)
= 7.71
CPE Equipment
Testing of customer-premises equipment that is supplied with
either an AC-to-AC adapter or AC-to-DC adapter follows the
procedures of the most current version of the federal Energy
Star requirements for external power adapters (www.energystar.gov). An external power supply must meet or exceed
a minimum average efficiency for Active Mode, which varies
based on the model’s nameplate output power. The model’s
single average Active Mode efficiency value is calculated by
testing at 100 percent, 75 percent, 50 percent and 25 percent
Green Technology
of rated current output and then computing the simple arithmetic average of these four values as specified in the Energy
Star test method.
Based on the model’s nameplate output power, Verizon
selects the appropriate equation from the table below and
calculates the minimum average efficiency. If the model’s actual average efficiency is greater than or equal to the minimum
average efficiency, the model has satisfied the requirement.
Energy-Efficiency Criteria for
AC-AC and AC-DC External
Power Supplies in Active Mode:
Standard Models Nameplate
Output Power (Pno)
Minimum Average
Efficiency in Active
Mode (expressed as
a decimal)
0 to ≤ 1 watt
≥ 0.480 x Pno + 0.140
> 1 to ≤ 49 watts
≥ [0.0626 x Ln (Pno)] +
0.622
> 49 watts
≥ 0.870
Set-top box equipment efficiency also is judged against
Energy Star requirements. A set-top box model must meet or
exceed a minimum average efficiency for base functionality,
plus allowances for specific additional functionalities present
across a duty cycle. To calculate the allowance for a given device, the sum of the base functionality allowance and all applicable additional functionalities allowances are added and
then compared to the measured values following the Energy
Star set-top box test procedures.
For example, for a high-definition cable set-top box with
DVR:
Annual Energy Allowance (kWh/year) = Base Functionality
+ Additional Functionalities
manager does to save gasoline is not the
same as what a network manager does
with a switch. But in telecommunications, everything is interrelated, networked. Spending more on a smarter
switch should save truck rolls later.
Nevertheless, Graff says, developing
a corporatewide approach to energy savings is tricky. “You can’t really combine
these as such. What we do is pick areas
such as electricity use, water, waste and
so on and put the metrics together. … It
takes energy to do everything. So if we go
to the power level and calculate what we
Base Functionality Annual
Energy Allowance Base
Functionality
Tier 1 Annual Energy
Allowance (kWh/year)
Cable
70
Satellite
88
IP
45
Terrestrial
27
Thin-Client/Remote
27
Annual Energy Allowance
Additional Functionalities
Tier 1 Annual
Energy Allowance
(kWh/year)
Additional Tuners
53
Additional Tuners – Terrestrial/IP
14
Adv. Video Processing
18
DVR
60
High Definition
35
Removable Media Player
12
Removable Media Player/Recorder
23
Multi-Room
44
CableCard
15
Home Network Interface
20
Annual Energy Allowance (kWh/year) = 70 + 60 + 35
Annual Energy Allowance (kWh/year) = 165
The complete 23-page document can be downloaded at:
www.verizonnebs.com/TPRs/VZ-TPR-9205.pdf
save by saving water, waste and so forth,
[we can] come up with a ... database that
will put together all of these things and
have kind of a corporate number. Ultimately, we all come out with a global
number that combines it all.”
Graff admits that cost is important.
“There is a balance you have to deal with
as you look at the off-the-shelf products,
and you have to make some hard economic decisions – it is the way we work.
We’re trying to balance it. We look at
a lot of different opportunities. By going to the core of the manufacturer’s
“If it is in the design, it becomes the norm,
and the entire company and the world
will be the better for it.”
design elements and having them design
in a manner that will be more energyefficient than what it was yesterday
or the day before, we are trying to go
beyond the surface level. If it is in the
design level, it becomes the norm, and
the entire company and the world will
be the better for it.”
Graff says Verizon stands out as a
leader in this area “because we have
the responsibility to be a leader. We’re
a large company, and with that comes a
lot of baggage. We have to be standing
out in front and seeing where we have to
go so that the little guys ... don’t have to
think about these things. We know that
a lot of work we do in this area will be
used by a lot of folks who don’t have the
wherewithal to get there themselves. So
as a corporate citizen we have to be leading the pack so the smaller guys know
where to go.” BBP
43
Green Technology
Networking for Sustainability
Telecommunications networks have a critical role to play in helping to meet
the world’s goals for controlling greenhouse gas emissions.
The following is an excerpt from “Networking for Sustainability: The Network
Offset Effect,” published by AT&T Business Solutions in December 2009. The
full white paper, including detailed documentation, is available at www.att.com/
Common/about_ us/f iles/pdf/AT&T_
SustainabilityWhitePaper.pdf
A
s the world transitions to a lowcarbon economy, the search for
viable solutions to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reduce
the carbon footprint of industries, businesses and individual consumers has
risen to the top of the global public
policy and business agenda.
Rapid advances in information and
communications technology (ICT) hold
enormous potential for the future by enabling smart networks that can deliver
environmental savings both quickly and
cost effectively. Some of the best examples come from the simple fact that
the energy required for communication
(moving photons) is much less than the
energy required to physically move people and things (moving atoms).
To lower carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions, it is necessary
to change how we produce and consume energy. Changing production is a
slow route, but changing consumption
can be faster and is often less expensive. For business, some of the lowesthanging fruit is paying attention to what
is moved around the planet. Moving in-
Preview
Don’t miss the
“Fiber Is a Green Technology”
session at the Broadband
Properties Summit,
formation through fiber, wires and airwaves is much less energy-intensive than
moving people to permit the exchange
of information. For example, moving
work to people, as is the case for telecommuting and videoconferencing, can
be much more efficient than moving
people to work, particularly when long
distances are involved or when groups
are brought together from multiple locations to attend meetings.
Equally important is the role of
smart networks in providing faster access to better information, which enables
smarter decisions to be made regarding
the use of resources in general and energy more specifically. Remote sensors
that support smart-grid solutions, for example, will be critical in enabling more
efficient electricity distribution and consumption. Likewise, products that once
consumed significant amounts of energy
for manufacturing, packaging, transport and storage are being dematerialized for distribution and consumption
over smart networks, avoiding the need
to create physical product entirely, rang-
Because changing consumption can be faster
and less expensive than changing production,
businesses can reduce their carbon footprints
by moving information rather than people.
44
ing from music downloads to e-books,
magazines, newspapers and movies.
According to Global eSustainability Initiative (GeSI) estimates, ICT has
the potential to enable CO2e emission
reductions five times larger than the
CO2e emissions generated by ICT use.
And while the ICT industry has long
recognized the value of its products and
services in delivering increased energy
efficiency and productivity gains, it has
only just begun to develop the tools and
methodologies needed to track and verify those gains in terms of CO2e emission reduction to help customers make
smarter sustainability choices and investments and better prepare them for
any future carbon offset, cap and trade
or regulatory scenarios.
How Collaborative
Networks and Sustainability
Create Value
In 1993, network pioneer Robert Metcalfe described the “network effect” to
explain how the addition of each new
user or device on a communications
network resulted in an exponential increase in its value. Widely referred to
as “Metcalfe’s Law,” the network effect
has evolved through subsequent iterations and interpretations to demonstrate
how various measures of value on a
communications network can grow at a
rate faster than the linear growth in the
number of users or devices connected.
Green Technology
This white paper introduces the network offset effect for carbon mitigation
to describe a similar positive outcome in
sustainability value creation that can be
both additive and cumulative from collaborative networks that have the ability to eliminate, reduce or simply make
more efficient high-carbon activities,
processes, connections or transactions
that can be automated, virtualized or replaced with low-carbon alternatives that
use the networks of ICT providers.
The Network Effect in
Smart Workplaces
According to GeSI, by allowing employees to work from the most optimal
location and meet virtually, rather than
in person, businesses could reduce total
U.S. CO2e emissions attributed to air and
road travel by an estimated 5–9 percent.
In addition, travel substitution could save
U.S. business $20 billion to $40 billion
in reduced fuel consumption.
In fact, a recent independent study
of telecommuting found that while 40
percent of U.S. workers have jobs that
would allow them to telecommute,
less than 4 percent actually work from
home. The study further noted that 40
percent of the workforce, representing
33 million Americans, could collectively reduce GHG emissions by up to
107 million tons a year and save almost
$43 billion of gasoline each year.
The Economist Intelligence Unit survey on workplace sustainability initiatives
around the world found that 43 percent
of respondents surveyed cited increased
use of virtual meetings as their biggest
contribution thus far in reducing their
carbon footprint. According to a recent
American Consumer Institute study, if
videoconferencing were to be substituted
for just 10 percent of business air travel
in the U.S., carbon emissions would be
reduced by some 35 million tons annually, which is the equivalent annual
energy savings required to provide electricity to more than 4.1 million homes.
And globally, the World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) estimates that telecommuting
and virtual meetings could eliminate 1
billion tons of workplace emissions annually by the year 2030.
While many organizations have
partially established the infrastructure
needed to support telecommuting, including migrating enterprise applications and administrative functions to
remotely accessible interfaces, a more
thorough approach would take into
consideration the full complement of
enterprise and home office resource, application and access requirements along
with the necessary data, voice and tech-
The Case for Telepresence in Advertising
The last thing DDB advertising agency CEO Tim Rodgers
wanted to worry about when preparing a new “Stretch” creative campaign to support AT&T’s business-to-business marketing was having to sell his agency on presenting its new creative concepts over a video teleconference call.
Finding it difficult to clear everyone’s calendar to schedule an in-person meeting, Bill Archer, AT&T Business Solutions’
chief marketing officer, suggested the DDB creative team,
based out of Chicago and St. Louis, forgo a February visit to
Bedminster, N.J., and instead conduct the meeting via the
AT&T Telepresence Solution.
“Initially, I was dead set against it,” said Rodgers. “In our
business, we feel that it is a sign of respect to go visit someone
and show them the work in person. And this being a creative
business, we feel that if we can charm our clients with our
mystical magic, it will make all the difference in whether they
become true believers in the advertising.”
Reacting to that first telepresence meeting, Rodgers remarked, “Telepresence worked great and the meeting went
way better than we could have possibly hoped. The amount
of extra time we gained to work on the campaign, not to mention the good night’s sleep we enjoyed by not traveling, clearly
resulted in a better meeting all around.”
However, making matters more difficult for DDB, the
“Stretch” campaign also needed to be segmented to specifically address the needs of multiple divisions within AT&T’s
business marketing organization that had previously used
their own, separate campaigns. This meant DDB also had to
sell its advertising creative to and receive the buy-in and approval of a much broader group of marketers.
“Different parts of the organization also needed to believe
in the campaign, so the challenge was to convince everyone
to agree from the start that this was the right way to go,” said
Rodgers. “It was critical to get in front of these different clients
and have them feel like they were part of the idea instead of
‘Here it is, hope you like it.’ And, since they’re in different locations, we would’ve had to take our show on the road, which
simply wouldn’t have been feasible given budget, calendar
and time constraints.”
The initial telepresence meeting, which linked together
the DDB account team in Chicago with its AT&T counterparts
in Bedminster and Dallas, was followed by two successive telepresence meetings as the campaign was further developed
and presented to a broader number of AT&T marketing clients.
All told, the DDB team conducted eight telepresence meetings
with its AT&T Business Solutions clients as the marketing program progressed through the summer months. Those eight
meetings replaced 52 round-trip airline flights, saving more
than $32,000 in travel costs and reducing CO2e emissions by
an estimated 26.2 metric tons. In the meantime, Rodgers now
considers himself a telepresence tele-evangelist who believes
the many benefits offered by the technology clearly outweigh
the value of face-to-face meetings in many situations.
“Though it’s somewhat counterintuitive, you come to realize that you actually get people more focused using telepresence than in a normal meeting because the technology
makes you more self-aware than an in-person meeting,” said
Rodgers. “And you can read the room as well as or better than
in a live meeting: You become more aware of a fidget, a furrowed brow or even the sneak peek at the BlackBerry. Once
we got past the guilt feeling, like we should have been on a
plane going to see the client, we couldn’t imagine having had
to do it any other way.”
45
Green Technology
Telecommuting is potentially the most
promising opportunity for businesses to
capture significant carbon reduction benefits
in the near term with relatively minor
investments in equipment and infrastructure.
nical services needed to deliver a robust
remote access experience. In the meantime, many organizations are examining extending the benefits of telework
to their entire organization to support
business continuity in the event of a
widespread pandemic or other natural
or man-made disaster, as well as realizing enhanced productivity gains from
extending the work environment.
AT&T Telepresence Solution
The AT&T Telepresence Solution combines innovative video, audio and interactive elements to create a unique,
virtual presence over the network giving
users an “in-person experience.” Using
telepresence equipment from various
vendors, the AT&T Business Exchange,
AT&T’s Multi-Protocol Label Switching-enabled global IP Network and virtual private network (VPN) capabilities,
and specialized management software,
telepresence creates new ways for companies to collaborate and conduct global
business internally, across supply chains
and across industries. It delivers actualsize images via full, high-definition
(HD) video and spatial audio within a
specially designed environment, creating the experience of being in the same
room with remote participants, whether
they are down the street or around the
world, while retaining the high level of
network security provided by a VPN
network.
AT&T uses telepresence in its own
business to conduct meetings and to improve the ability of employees to work
anywhere, anytime. In fact, AT&T conservatively estimates that its own use of
AT&T Telepresence Solution, in addition to improving productivity, will allow AT&T to reduce CO2e emissions by
approximately 31,000 metric tons over
46
the next six years – an amount that is
roughly equal to the emissions generated
by 5,732 passenger vehicles for a year.
The Environmental Benefits
of Telecommuting
Given that transportation represents approximately 26 percent of CO2e emissions worldwide, telecommuting is potentially the most promising opportunity
for businesses to capture significant CO2e
reduction benefits in the near term, with
a relatively minor investment in technology equipment and infrastructure that
is either already in place or is readily accessible for immediate deployment. In
addition, the calculations for capturing
the initial carbon benefits of eliminating commuting travel miles are relatively
straightforward and verifiable. Beyond
these technology requirements, of course,
successful telecommuting programs also
depend on investments in optimizing
business processes and harmonizing
workplace behavior to overcome potential cultural and managerial barriers.
An AT&T telecommuting survey,
based on responses from more than
9,000 full- and part-time employees
and their supervisors participating in
the company’s telecommuting program,
concluded that productivity increases,
often dramatically, by enabling employees to perform work away from their
central work location. Completed in
August 2009, the survey indicated that
among telecommuting supervisors, more
than 98 percent indicated that telecommuting has had either a positive or a
neutral impact on employee productivity. This view was shared by employees
themselves, with more than 96 percent
indicating that they agree or strongly
agree that they are more productive on
the days when they telecommute.
The increase in productivity, accord-
ing to survey respondents, is attributed
to fewer office interruptions and distractions, less socializing, and less time
spent in nonwork-related activities such
as commuting to the job or traveling
from building to building for meetings.
In addition, more than 85 percent of respondents rated telecommuting as either
important or very important to their
overall job satisfaction.
The AT&T telecommuting program
is also delivering significant reductions
in CO2e emissions. The AT&T telecommuter population surveyed avoided 142
million commute miles per year, with
annual fuel savings of approximately 7
million gallons and a net reduction in
CO2e emissions of 61,637 metric tons per
year. With an average round-trip commute time per employee of 113 minutes,
respondents cited “work-life balance” as
the number one reason they telecommute. The time that employees would
have spent commuting to and from work
can be used instead as personal or family
time and, as indicated by 96 percent of
respondents, also represented time that
was given back to the company as additional productive time.
In addition to a telecommuter population that, at this writing, totaled approximately 10,000 employees, the
company has enabled 130,000 employees with mobile and remote access technologies that allow them to telework
from a variety of locations. AT&T defines telecommuting as a formal work
arrangement in which people work from
home at least one day each week.
Telecommuting Quality
of Life Benefits
In addition to the body of research attesting to the productivity gains afforded
by the many variants of telework and
telecommuting, there is also growing
recognition for the positive impact on
personal productivity and quality-of-life
issues that are enhanced by eliminating
wasted travel time for comparable types
of work and increasing access to work.
What’s more, numerous studies over
the years, including a recently released
Cisco report based on 2,000 company
employees who telecommute, have
helped build a strong case for the ancil-
Green Technology
lary benefits of telecommuting, including improvements in job satisfaction, reductions in employee turnover and the
intangible benefits of improved workfamily balance.
AT&T Remote Access Services
Reducing GHG emissions associated
with unnecessary workplace travel is
aided by remote access solutions that extend the boundaries of fixed workplace
environments. To achieve location independence, workers need secure broadband access.
AT&T Remote Access Services provide workers with the flexibility to access
corporate information applications on
the fly, whether telecommuting, working from home, traveling or perhaps
even as extended members of corporate
work groups. Providing an experience
and performance similar to what they
would achieve directly on the corporate
network, AT&T Remote Access Services provide users with access to their
corporate applications through a single,
simple, reliable logon while working remotely from locations throughout most
of the world.
AT&T remote access solutions include services such as these:
• AT&T Global Network Client, a
VPN client, provides seamless, reliable remote access to enterprise infrastructure and Internet resources.
• AT&T VPN Tunneling Service
(AVTS) enables customers to extend
reliable remote access and site-to-site
capabilities to branch offices and
remote workers through dedicated
connections to the AT&T Global
Network or Internet.
• Laptop Connect provides reliable,
easy to use, one-click mobile access
via broadband cards to AT&T enterprise infrastructure and Internet
applications via the AT&T Global
Network Client.
• AT&T Network-Based IP VPN
Remote Access Service (ANIRA)
provides business customers with a
single solution for connecting their
personal computers or local area
networks remotely to secure corporate resources as well as the public
Internet.
The Network Effect with
Smart Data Centers and
Smart Grids
According to a recent data center study
released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, by 2020, data centers
could surpass the airline industry as a
top GHG polluter. The GeSI report estimates that the number of data center
servers will grow at a 9 percent annual
rate worldwide to reach 122 million in
2020, up from 18 million in 2002, helping grow IT sector emissions at a 5.7
percent compound annual rate, while
driving the sector’s overall contribution to global CO2e emissions from 1.3
percent of the world’s total today to 2.8
percent by 2020.
Current utilization rates for data center servers, storage and other assets are
as low as 6 percent, and facilities utilization rates average less than 60 percent,
according to the GeSI report. The key to
realizing increased IT and data center efficiency potentially resides with current
trends toward the adoption of hosted
services (outsourcing and cloud computing), server and storage virtualization
and low-energy cooling as a means to
replace less-efficient data centers and application services, deliver business continuity and address demand elasticity.
Virtualization optimizes the use of
physical computing and networking
hardware through software that improves utilization, reduces cost and saves
energy. According to a recent Forrester
Research survey, nearly half of U.S. enterprises have implemented some form
of server virtualization to address utilization rates and drive efficiencies from a
more consolidated server population.
The basic idea behind virtualization
is to transfer and consolidate processes
into a centralized server or hosted server
environment that consists of physical infrastructure that is shared through secure
virtual partitioning and that can be run
more efficiently than the customer’s existing data center. What’s more, hosted
service environments are often much
more likely to incorporate upgraded
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47
Green Technology
Cloud computing enables businesses to move
their processing to data centers that produce
lower greenhouse gas emissions.
technology faster than would be the case
with a customer-provisioned data center,
thereby yielding even greater efficiencies.
While increased efficiencies can
be shown to exist in many cases, the
critical point in determining environmental impact is the net reduction in
carbon emissions rather than energy
savings. Depending on the location of
the server, carbon dioxide emissions can
range from a low of 0.03 pounds CO2e/
kilowatt-hour (kWh) in Idaho to a high
of 2.15 pounds CO2e/kWh in Wyoming with a U.S. average of about 1.34
pounds CO2e/kWh. Understanding the
locations of the servers being taken offline and the hosting servers is critical in
determining the carbon emission savings that result.
with application demand. These services
include the following:
AT&T Solutions for
Smart Data Centers
AT&T helps businesses build and operate their IT infrastructure more efficiently by employing virtualization
technology both in AT&T data centers
and at customer locations. The AT&T
Global Network, which incorporates
layered network-based protection, allows customers to bridge these environments together, providing flexibility in
where and how to deploy IT capacity to
meet evolving business demands.
Hosted solutions let customers tap
into AT&T’s multitenant service platforms, which provide each customer
with a logically partitioned slice of the
underlying shared physical assets. Leveraging virtualization and multitenancy,
customers can rightsize their consumption of network, processing and storage
resources, often with less cost and waste
than the previously underutilized, dedicated infrastructure.
In addition to dedicated hosting services, AT&T provides a range of utility- and cloud-based solutions that give
businesses greater flexibility, speed and
control over their IT infrastructure and
allow them to better match capacity
Managed Hosting Services
AT&T’s comprehensive suite of Managed Hosting Services allows customers to tailor their IT configuration and
scale across AT&T support teams, operational tool sets, service platforms and
data centers.
48
• AT&T Synaptic Hosting is a fully
managed, utility-based solution
that provides configurable capacity
as well as near-real-time bursting to
accommodate variable demand or
peaks in user traffic.
• AT&T Compute as a Service is a
virtualized computing environment
that lets customers directly control
their IT resources and pay for consumption on an hourly basis.
• AT&T Storage as a Service is an
elastic, virtualized data storage that
automatically scales up or down
to whatever size the customer may
need and that is billed based on the
amount of storage used.
• Server Management: Many of
AT&T’s hosted solutions include
the latest energy-efficient servers that
typically deliver more processing
power per watt.
• Server Virtualization allows customers to consolidate physical servers
with the potential to reduce their
associated power, cooling and space
requirements.
• Integrated Client Networking is a
utility-based networking solution
that includes a full set of advanced
network features packaged on a perport basis.
• Managed Storage provides hosted
servers that can connect to partitioned disk resources provisioned
on multitenant storage area network
and network attached storage platforms.
• Data Backup Services efficiently back
up data residing on hosted servers to
common tape and disk platforms
as an alternative to using dedicated
backup infrastructure.
Co-Location Services
Even customers who deploy and manage their own IT infrastructure within
AT&T data centers can realize energy
savings when compared with running
that same equipment in their own data
center. These savings result from the reduced overhead associated with running
cooling systems as well as core power
infrastructure such as transformers,
switch gear, uninterruptible power supplies, power distribution units and other
components.
AT&T Internet Data Centers are 28
percent more efficient than the industry
average, made possible by best practices
in cooling system design, advanced airflow, high-efficiency lighting, data center automation and more. Additionally,
AT&T is a contributing member in the
Green Grid, a global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in
data centers and business computing
ecosystems.
Smart Electric Grids and
Smart Buildings
Bringing two-way smart-grid communications and monitoring capabilities that
enable electric utilities to route power in
more efficient ways, including remote
energy management and control of appliances and other networked devices,
support for bidirectional power sharing
for new alternative energy sources and,
through smart metering, more efficient
energy use in residential and commercial buildings.
Second only to deforestation, emissions from power generation globally account for 24 percent of total man-made
CO2e emissions. Losses from transmission and distribution are estimated to
account for 8–15 percent of all power
generation.
Smart-grid technology, which consists of software and hardware that enable more efficient power transmission,
distribution and management, reduces
the need for excess capacity, supports
real-time, two-way communication and
information exchange between suppliers
and customers and optimizes supply and
Green Technology
demand through better monitoring and
data capture.
The introduction of advanced home
meters will allow customers to monitor
real-time usage to take advantage of offpeak savings, while suppliers can better
manage usage during power spikes and
avoid costly service interruptions. Smart
grid can also support the integration of
renewable power sources. According to
the GeSI report, smart-grid technology
has the potential to reduce carbon emission by up to 2.03 gigatons by 2020 and
cut U.S. electrical power generation sector emissions by as much as 14 percent
by 2020, saving $15 billion to $35 billion in energy and fuel costs.
AT&T Solutions for
Smart Electric Grids and
Smart Buildings
AT&T offers a wide range of smart-grid
and strategic mobility products and services to the utility industry, including
wireless solutions for field service workers, and a two-way wireless, real-time
communications network for monitors,
sensors and controllers on the electric
grid to improve reliability. A key component in smart grid development is smart
metering, which connects residential
meters directly with the utility, enabling
two-way, machine-to-machine communication. AT&T, utilizing SmartSynch’s
smart-grid technology, has developed a
smart metering solution that connects
residential meters over the AT&T wireless network. In addition, smart metering mitigates the need for building or
maintaining a separate utility-based
communications network.
AT&T helps enable smart grids
by providing the same broadband and
wireless communication technology
used to connect people with their world
every day. Smart grids depend on twoway communications between virtually all devices producing, distributing
and consuming electricity. AT&T has
teamed up with other companies to provide this two-way connectivity:
• Itron OpenWay Solution allows utilities to read electric meters remotely,
helping ensure more accurate billing
and efficient use of energy.
• SmartSynch Solution, relying on
AT&T’s wireless network, uses point-
to-point configuration – AT&T provides a direct link from smart meter
to utility using a SIM card in every
smart meter, just like a cell phone.
• Cooper Power Systems offers fault
detectors and capacitor bank monitors certified on the AT&T wireless
network to provide near real-time
performance measurements and
trouble notification to utilities, thus
improving the reliability of the electricity distribution grid.
Conclusions for Promoting
ICT Solutions
AT&T also identified other emerging
opportunities where AT&T’s products
and solutions can harness the network
offset effect for CO2e reduction aligned
with the GeSI findings in the areas of
smart data centers and smart electric
grids. In both areas, while it was possible to identify substantial energy savings
when examining a specific usage case,
AT&T concluded more work needs to
be done in developing measurement
models that take into account differences between facility, application and
equipment usage for a given activity or
business process that could be applied
more uniformly in calculating CO2e reduction benefits.
Equally important, AT&T realized
that any measurement of CO2e reduction
must first be accompanied by accurate
baseline data to develop clear and verifiable before-and-after documentation.
To further explore the network offset effect potential for the most strategic
products and services that enable travel
reduction, AT&T worked with an independent research firm to develop a model
for calculating expected CO2e reductions
based on a hypothetical scenario. This
included both internal and external usage associated with AT&T Telepresence
Solution, AT&T Connect and VPN
remote access solutions. While other
product areas were initially examined,
AT&T determined to conduct a more
detailed analysis of teleconferencing
and telecommuting applications, which
represented the “low-hanging fruit” for
early widespread corporate CO2e reduction and provided the most immediately
accessible data for quantification.
Further development of verifiable
data across other application areas is
planned for the future. However, this
area was deemed a critical initial target
for demonstrating the potential for environmental impact and significant CO2e
reductions made possible by network-enabled applications and services that limit
travel and the movement of people.
While AT&T has also begun to implement baseline data collection for some
of its own business processes, including
for Internet data centers and hosting
facilities, clearly more work needs to be
done – at the product, company and industry levels – to create baseline data from
real-world customer usage scenarios that
can be aggregated, analyzed and applied
to document these additional promising
areas for CO2e reduction.
The result would be a set of standard
benchmarks that could be applied with
confidence along with the tools and
methodologies needed to provide the
rigorous documentation to deliver verifiable outcomes that customers and their
stakeholders demand.
AT&T’s commitment to help establish these industry benchmarks starts
now. From this point forward, AT&T
will endeavor to harness the power of its
ICT products and solutions not only to
help customers achieve the business efficiencies and velocity they have come to
expect from AT&T Business Solutions
but also to help them realize their full
CO2e reduction potential as well. As
such, AT&T is undertaking efforts to
provide customers with tools that will
demonstrate the environmental impact
of AT&T’s products and services – beginning with those that enable travel
reduction – and AT&T will be working
with others to identify usage scenarios
and to better aggregate customer data
for further quantification of the CO2e
emission savings enabled by AT&T ICT
products and services. BBP
Disclaimer: The information in this
document is provided by AT&T for informational purposes only. AT&T does not
warrant the accuracy or completeness of
the information or commit to issue updates
or corrections to the information. AT&T is
not responsible for any damages resulting
from use of or reliance on the information.
49
Green Technology
Pulaski Electric System
Leverages FTTH Network
For Energy Savings
A municipal electric utility achieves efficiencies with a fiber-enabled smart grid.
P
ulaski Electric System (PES),
founded in 1891, is the oldest
municipal electric utility in Tennessee. In the 1930s, it became the first
utility to receive power from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The utility
continued its tradition of forward thinking when it built a fiber-to-the-home
network in 2007, using technology from
broadband access supplier Enablence,
and again in 2008 when it launched a
smart-grid project leveraging the FTTH
network. Only a year after the company
began deploying the smart grid, there is
already evidence of significant energy
and cost savings.
PES is one of several electric utilities
working on smart-grid projects with the
encouragement of TVA, which is responsible for developing and delivering
bulk energy to distributors such as PES.
Mike Ingram, TVA’s senior manager
of demand response, says the agency is
committed to reducing its peak production by 1,400 megawatts by 2012 and
that it sees smart-grid projects as a component of that effort.
FTTH and Peak Production
Peak production is the load that determines how much generating capacity
TVA needs. If consumers shift demand
from peak to off-peak periods, TVA
can reduce its total generating capacity and shift more electricity generation
to less-expensive equipment. Because
smart-grid technology enables end-toend, two-way communication over the
grid, it helps consumers understand how
50
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panel on “How FTTH
Enables the Smart Grid.”
much electricity their various appliances
use and thus helps them shift electricity
use to off-peak periods.
FTTH takes smart grids a step further. Because fiber networks don’t choke
on large data transfers, usage data can
be communicated over fiber very frequently and in great detail. This detailed, real-time information will help
TVA respond within 15 minutes to
unexpected changes. Because gas turbines, the generators that fire up fastest
to meet unexpected peaks, are the most
expensive to run, turning them down
again quickly is crucial. Reducing load
quickly, Ingram says, “helps with peak
reduction and has positive environmental implications and cost implications
for both fuel and water.”
Although commercial and industrial
electricity users are already knowledgeable and sophisticated about managing
their usage, Ingram says the gains from
managing residential usage are still
largely untapped. “Residential air conditioning and heating essentially sets the
peak for TVA,” he says. “It’s important
to work with distributors to try to shape
that load as best we can. … And in addition to the technology, TVA has to work
with distributors to inform the public.”
TVA expects eventually to pay its
distributors for delivering the real-time
residential usage information that will
help it respond quickly to demand
changes. At present, however, it is working with the distributors on pilot projects to refine its understanding of the
technology and its potential.
A Fiber-Wireless
Hybrid Solution
PES has not yet built out FTTH to its
entire service area, though it plans to
extend the network into rural areas over
time. Of 15,000 electric customers, only
about 5,000 are now passed by fiber. So
the company needed a smart-grid solu-
About the Author
Masha Zager is the editor of Broadband Properties. You can reach her at masha@
broadbandproperties.com.
Green Technology
tion that would transmit data over both
fiber and wireless connections.
Furthermore, of the 5,000 homes
passed by fiber, only 1,600 subscribe to
voice, video or data over FTTH. Wes
Kelley, the utility’s president and CEO,
considered attaching optical network
terminals (ONTs) to the electric meters
on nonsubscribers’ homes throughout
the FTTH footprint but rejected this
approach as being too expensive. Fortunately, he found a smart-grid solution
from Tantalus Systems (www.tantalus.
com) that achieves the same results more
economically.
The Tantalus smart-grid solution features IP
collectors that transmit usage data via fiber for
every home in the FTTH footprint, whether or
not the home is connected to the fiber network.
With the Tantalus solution, IP collectors gather data from meters – about
30 of them per collector – using a 900
MHz wireless connection. Each collector
plugs into an ONT on a fiber subscriber’s
home and transmits data back to the util-
PES’ fiber-to-the-home footprint (solid-colored area in the center) is still only a small portion of its
utility service area, but the entire service area will participate in the smart-grid project.
ity over fiber. This solution enables all the
electric meters in the FTTH footprint to
send data over fiber without requiring
an ONT on every home. Outside the
FTTH footprint, meters send their data
to the utility over a 200 MHz wireless
network. (The wireless network can handle the amount of data that the meters
are sending today, but it does not have
the potential to transmit the data that
may be sent over fiber in the future.)
To date, PES has installed smart meters for about one-quarter of its customers, and is preparing to install them for
another quarter of the customer base.
The timetable for deploying smart meters to the other half of the customers is
still being developed.
Smart Meters Prove
Their Worth
PES is discovering that the smart-grid
system yields many benefits. The most
obvious is outage detection: The utility,
which has always depended on customers
to report outages by phone, now receives
reports of outages as soon as they occur,
enabling faster response. The company
is developing an interface between the
smart grid and the outage-management
system so that outage reports from
smart meters can dispatch repair crews
without human intervention.
A byproduct of outage detection is
improved detection of theft and malfunctioning meters. Kelley says, “Since
these meters talk, if you unplug one, it
looks like a power outage. Or, if it comes
right back on, that’s a signal that something is wrong. It gives us an opportunity to narrow down theft problems.”
The hourly readings that the meters
transmit help the utility troubleshoot
problems. “If customers complain about
high usage, we can give them information
hourly,” Kelley explains. In one recent incident, a family member taking care of a
51
Green Technology
home for a military couple deployed
to Iraq complained that the electric
bills were too high for an unoccupied
building. After examining hourly usage patterns, PES realized that the
programmable thermostat must have
been set too high. Turning down the
thermostat solved the problem.
Smart meters record voltage as
well as consumption, and the voltage
readings help PES improve its operational efficiency. Electric
utilities often oversupply voltage just to make sure that the last
house on each line gets enough power. “But if we’re getting
real-time voltage information back from customers’ homes, we
can see the last house, and then we can lower the voltage to
an amount that keeps the last house at an adequate voltage,”
Kelley says. “That [offers] a major financial advantage to the
electric system.”
Automated meter reading is another source of operational
efficiency. On hard-to-read rural routes, dispensing with the
meter reader – and the meter reader’s truck – represents a major
savings in dollars and fuel. “We started out sending the meter
reader as a check [on the automated readings], but now we’ve
52
stopped doing that,” Kelley says. The
automated readings flow directly
into the billing system.
PES sells water and gas as well as
electricity, and Kelley plans to test
some smart water and gas meters in
the next six months or so. Eventually, data collection for the water and
gas meters will also be automated.
Once the number of smart meters reaches a critical mass, PES plans to institute time-of-day
pricing for electricity, rewarding customers who use more
power during off-peak hours. As discussed above, hourly usage reports will help customers switch load to off-peak hours.
Eventually, PES could even take control of heating and cooling
systems for customers who want them to do this. “Both the
water heater and the air conditioner can work as energy storage devices,” Kelley explains. “You heat water, and it sits in the
tank and slowly cools over time. We could avoid using the most
expensive generators by dropping load during the peak periods
and making sure those peaks and valleys fall when we need
them to. If we can manage the process well, the customer may
never know it’s taking place.” BBP
Green Technology
En-Touch Powers a
Green Community
At a new solar-hybrid master-planned development in Houston, fiber to the
home helps residents manage heating, cooling and other home systems.
D
iscovery at Spring Trails, a new
Houston-area development, is
unique in the United States:
the first median-priced, master-planned
community where every house will generate at least a kilowatt of solar energy
and many will be all-solar; where all
2,000-plus houses will be built, in partnership with General Electric’s ecomagination Homebuilder Program, to be 40
to 50 percent more energy-efficient than
the average home; and where the fiberto-the-home network supports a monitoring system that will help residents
save even more energy, as well as water.
The developer, Land Tejas Cos., is
working with builders to create housing designed with the environment and
Preview
Learn more about FTTH and
energy conservation at the
laboration is simple because broadband
and energy are provided by the same
company, En-Touch Systems.
A Houston-based competitive local
exchange carrier (CLEC) that has built
and operated FTTH networks since
2005 (and other types of broadband networks since 1996) in greenfield housing
developments, En-Touch recently added
All the houses in Discovery at Spring Trails
are being designed with the environment and
residents’ utility bills in mind.
residents’ utility bills in mind. Building
envelopes are designed to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) Platinum standards. A
smart metering system will enable residents to save money by moving electric
loads to off-peak hours. Even the streetlights and common areas will be partially powered by solar energy.
Integrating broadband technology
with a communitywide energy savings
program requires close collaboration
between the broadband service provider
and the energy utility. In this case, col-
a retail electricity subsidiary. In Discovery at Spring Trails, En-Touch offers
both communications and energy services, including solar panel installation,
selling electricity and helping to manage
the solar power systems. A different company, CenterPoint Energy, is responsible
for electricity delivery and for installing
and reading the smart meters.
FTTH as a Technology Enabler
As in the other communities it serves,
En-Touch provides triple-play services
– including telephone, 50 Mbps highspeed Internet access and television
services with more than 40 HDTV
channels – as well as security monitoring with 24-hour alarm systems and
smoke detection. Homeowners can use
cell phones and PCs to monitor systems
in their homes, get up-to-the-minute
status reports and receive notifications
about situations at remote locations.
En-Touch is also a one-stop shop for
residents’ technical needs, offering computer training, setup of residents’ home
networks and entertainment systems
and, of course, troubleshooting.
What’s different at Discovery at
Spring Trails is the degree to which the
fiber-to-the-home network – based on
GEPON technology from broadband
access systems provider Enablence Technologies – supports home automation
About the Author
53
Green Technology
Home Energy Management Systems
Home energy management systems (HEMS) may be a novelty
today, but experts think the market will take off in the next
year or two, making these systems commonplace in five years.
Seventeen million HEMS will be shipped in 2014, according to
market research firm ABI Research.
“There’s a lot of flux in the home energy management
systems market,” says ABI practice director Sam Lucero. “Companies of many different kinds are trying to enter it, offering
four main configurations: stand-alone systems, components
of larger home automation systems, managed systems from
service providers and those offered by
electrical utilities, often as part of their
demand/response deployments. Large
software companies such as Microsoft
and Google are also making a play in
this market.”
Stand-alone systems are expected
to remain the smallest part of the market, and to show the least growth over
the five-year period. Systems provided
by utilities will form the market’s largest segment, accounting for more
than half the total system shipments
in 2014. Those offered as part of home
automation packages and those delivered as managed services by providers
such as telcos will occupy the market’s
middle ground. ABI Research expects
this market to start taking off seriously
in 2010–2011.
Google and Microsoft, which offer user-interface solutions
and application software for some systems, might seem to be
unlikely contenders in this area. Indeed, says Lucero, HEMS vendors should not be overly concerned by their entrance into the
market: “HEMS are well outside their areas of core competency,
and it will take these companies considerable time and effort
to catch up with the leading innovators in this space.” However,
their interest is symptomatic of a wider drive toward smarter
energy management as part of the clean tech movement.
and control. The broadband network
gives homeowners access to systems
that help them understand and manage
their use of electricity, water and gas.
For example, residents can control thermostats and lighting either from inside
the home or remotely (by cell phone or
e-mail). They can even see how much
energy the solar panels are generating
and how much is being taken from the
electric grid.
“We see fiber to the home as a huge
technology enabler,” says Rich Gerstemeier, president and CEO of En-Touch.
“We’re working to put consumers in a
position to be able to reduce total energy use and also increase their use of
renewable technologies.”
Like the first 1KW solar panel system, the home automation basics are
standard with every home, including a
dashboard display that gives an overview
of all utility usage. “Once you begin to
54
Green Technology
The model should be
replicable at other
communities – and
En-Touch hopes to
replicate it soon.
introduce renewables, the dashboard
will be popular,” Gerstemeier says. “Everyone who sees it wants to have it.” Optional equipment includes surveillance
cameras, door openers and controllers
for stereo systems and lighting. Add-ons
are “surprisingly affordable,” according
to Gerstemeier, because the wiring standards in the development make adding
any device with a Cat 5 connection simple. Internet access to all the systems is
also an extra.
The most exciting aspect of Discovery at Spring Trails is that the houses are
production homes, not custom-built,
and their sizes and prices are close to the
median for the Houston area. Gerstemeier says, “We’re trying to validate that
it’s a good business model and create a
template – a solid plan you can carry
somewhere else.” If Discovery at Spring
Trails develops as expected, En-Touch
will certainly be engaged in bringing the
model to other new communities. BBP
April 26 – 28, 2010
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55
SERVICE PROVIDER CASE STUDY
FTTH in Sweden: An
Entrepreneurial Perspective
An FTTH start-up company operating primarily over municipal open-access
networks achieved success by focusing on customer service, operational
efficiency and product mix.
By Mikael Sandberg and Richard Jones ■ Ventura Team
R
iksnet is a small FTTH start-up
operating in Sweden, one of the
most interesting and challenging markets in the world for fiber to the
home (FTTH). In just over four years,
Ventura Team and local managers have
steered this start-up from inception to
sixth-largest broadband operator in Sweden, achieving 80,000 broadband subscribers and 750,000 homes passed with
relatively limited investment. Initially,
Ventura Team’s help took the form of
fund-raising and setting the necessary
commercial focus, but it became more
strategic and operational over time.
Ventura Team is a new-breed telecom consultancy that brings to bear its
strategic thinking, in combination with
extensive operational experience, to create value in high-growth sectors of the
industry. As this article shows, Ventura
Team doesn’t just advise others; it actually does it for itself. Here’s how.
Identifying Value Drivers
At the very beginning of its involvement
with Riksnet, Ventura Team identified
the fundamental drivers of value in a
business of this type.
Scale gives the operator an opportunity to drive down costs per subscriber.
However, the operator must then take
advantage of the opportunity. If the
management team does not aggressively
and continuously challenge costs in all
areas of the business, it may fail to realize
sufficient improvements, and it will keep
the higher cost base associated with a
smaller-scale business. Useful metrics to
56
Preview
Learn more about marketing
and service strategies for
fiber to the home at the
April 26 – 28 .
assess improvement due to scale include
staff per customer account, cost per Mbps
per month for international transit and
cost per port for access switches.
Value-added services offer the opportunity to improve margins. Again,
note the word opportunity. Without an
adequate commercial assessment and
implementation plan, adding new services to a well-established portfolio may
create problems and, in fact, reduce
margins for the business. Plenty of apparently sensible value-added services
exist, but each one presents its own set
of challenges.
Management can quickly become
distracted trying to keep up with these
new services while losing sight of the core
business fundamentals. Each additional
service brings with it the risk of cannibal-
izing older services and also makes product launches and customer care more
complex. Therefore, picking the right
services is more important than picking
many services. As the business matures,
reducing the number of service packages
on offer can become more difficult. Gross
margin or contribution is a good way to
measure the commercial viability of individual products or service bundles.
Brand is the main long-term asset of
a consumer-facing service provider. In
the U.K., the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) run by Virgin had the
best customer reputation during one recent year even though its service was actually provided by T-Mobile, which had
the worst reputation. Brand can carry a
service provider through, but in a new
market, a provider needs to work hard to
About the Author
Mikael Sandberg and Richard Jones are two of the founding partners of Ventura
Team LLP, a consulting firm operating in the United States, Europe and the Persian
Gulf. You can contact Mikael and Richard at [email protected]. For more
information, see www.venturateam.com
create and maintain the brand.
At one time, if a customer was happy
with a service, she would tell three people and if she was unhappy, she’d tell ten
people. That was before online forums,
Facebook, Twitter and similar venues
allowed customers to broadcast their
opinions more widely. Bad customer
service used to be just a problem; now it
can be suicide.
Customer service is what bridges
any gap between the expectations set by
the brand and the commercial and operational reality of the business. It is not
merely a function but an attitude! In reality, a company doesn’t want customers
to avail themselves of customer service
very much. Its service deployment process should be so clear that people don’t
need to call. Online information should
be so easy to follow that people don’t feel
the need to pick up the phone.
However, when customers really
need to call customer service, the business should resolve their problems so
well and so professionally that they
positively recommend the company to
their friends. Customers know things
can go wrong; they judge the business
on how it handles such situations.
The underlying machinery. Telecommunications is a high-volume, lowmargin operation. If the business does
not tune its unseen operations, it will
lose margin at every step.
Although internal efficiency is vitally
important, providers are unlikely to get
everything right the first time. The key
to attaining efficiency is to systematically identify the causes of errors and
eliminate them. Removing the most
costly errors first is critical, whether cost
is measured in terms of financial results
or customer reputation.
The technology that delivers services
to the customers must be reliable and
cost-effective. However, as long as it can
meet the demand for bandwidth and
quality of service, technology is not, by
itself, a driver of long-term competitive
advantage. Ventura Team’s experience is
that marketing-driven companies succeed and network-driven companies
fail. Free, an alternative provider in
France, delivers 20 Mbps services over
both ADSL and fiber; the customer sees
Bandwidth Demand in Sweden
1 Gb
100 Mb
10 Mb
1 Mb
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
2020
100 Kb
10 Kb
Actuals
1 Kb
Trend
Forget it!
Source: Ventura Team LLP
Figure 1. Bandwidth demand in Sweden follows Nielsen’s Law, increasing about 50 percent a year.
identical services. Customers don’t buy
one or the other – they buy the service
that the technology delivers.
Scale Economies and Costs in
Transmission and Storage
A few guiding principles set Riksnet
on the right track from the beginning.
Based on research that Ventura Team
conducted for the Fiber-to-the-Home
Council Europe, Riksnet offered 100
Mbps to households at inception. The
research showed that bandwidth demand continues to follow Nielsen’s Law,
which suggests that the fastest available
broadband speed for consumers in a
country increases at around 50 percent
per annum.
Figure 1 shows the result for Sweden,
where 100 Mbps service was available
1,000,000
Cost of International Transit
(SEK per Mbps per month)
(log scale)
100,000
10,000
1,000
100
10
1
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Figure 2. By 2004, the cost of IP transit was no longer a limiting factor on bandwidth.
57
Mbps/Subscriber
Inbound Traffic Mbps/Subscriber – 24-Hour Average
Fiber Average
A
B
C
D
ADSL
Average
Figure 3. Supply of bandwidth tends to increase the demand for bandwidth traffic.
as long ago as 2004. Because Sweden
is ahead of most European countries in
terms of demand, Riksnet had to deliver
speeds from the outset beyond those
delivered in most other European countries, and the network design had to accommodate constant increases in speed.
One of Ventura Team’s early concerns was the ability to pay for IP transit if users were offered such high-speed
access. Seventy percent of this traffic
comes from the Internet (30 percent is
peered and cached), and this is where
Ventura Team has encountered providers
that claim to be “DSL companies” or “WiMAX
companies.” Riksnet, on the other hand, is a
service company established to make money.
economies of scale have worked well in
Sweden. By the time the new business
rative
Illust ple
exam
Unit Cost
Satellite
Wireless and Mobile
xDSL
Fiber
Density of Demand
Figure 4. Fiber to the home is most cost competitive in high-density environments.
58
was ready to launch, IP transit costs had
fallen enough that users could access
the Internet as they wished without too
much concern about costs. IP transit in
Europe is so far down the cost reduction
curve that prices are 10 percent of what
they are in the Persian Gulf region and 1
percent of what can be seen in Africa.
Ventura Team’s comparison of fiber
with xDSL services shows that fiber users
consume more bandwidth than xDSL
subscribers. Figure 3, based on work
Ventura Team did for the FTTH Council Europe, compares consumer bandwidth use for four fiber providers with
the ADSL average in the same country.
The results clearly show that fiber users
use more bandwidth, a finding that affects network dimensioning, IP transit
costs and other important metrics.
Choice of Access Technology
Although technology choice and network design are important, they are not
what makes the business a commercial
success. Figure 4, which is vastly oversimplified, shows the relationship of
unit cost to density of demand for various access technologies. Fiber certainly
requires the densest demand (or other
advantages) to make sense. In Sweden,
just over 50 percent of the population
lives in multiple-dwelling units, making
the demand density attractive for fiber.
In its consulting capacity, Ventura
Team often comes across companies
that claim to be “DSL companies” or
“WiMAX companies.” Ventura Team
worked hard to ensure that everyone
involved with Riksnet understands it is
a service company established to make
money!
Technology is a tool to support the
business of making money.
Technology
• Should be selected based on specific
circumstances
• Needs to put the business on the
lowest cost curve
• Must meet the requirements of functionality, reliability and cost.
Competitors can always copy technology, but they have a much harder
time copying services, customer service
quality, reputation and brand.
Swedish Local Government
Infrastructure
In Sweden, local government support of
the broadband market has helped companies such as Riksnet get started with
limited investment.
Of the 190 city councils in Sweden,
176 have their own networks. There are
155 city networks (some networks span
more than one council area), representing an investment of between $2.3 billion and $3.3 billion, or about $800 to
$1,200 for each of the 2.7 million homes
passed. About 70 percent of the investment is in passive equipment, and the
rest is in active equipment and customer
access. To date, the councils have passed
1.4 million homes with fiber, 1.2 million
with copper and .1 million with coax or
wireless. Collectively, the city networks
Because nearly all municipal governments in
Sweden have built open-access broadband
networks, providers can bring services to market
quickly with limited financial investment.
are now the largest provider of FTTx infrastructure in terms of homes passed.
These network companies vary in
their commercial approach, from supplying dark fiber to providing services
to consumers; many of them are open
to any service provider that wants to deliver services to customers. More than
620,000 households are active customers (directly or indirectly) of municipal
networks, 250,000 of them via FTTx.
Riksnet now offers high-speed Internet
access over nine city or housing corporation networks from Luleå in the north
to Malmö in the south, and it continues
to add new locations.
A Fast Launch
As shown in Figure 5, Riksnet began
by offering service over locally owned
FTTH networks. In order to ramp up
more quickly, Riksnet entered into a
Riksnet Subscriber and Revenue Growth
90000
120000
80000
100000
80000
60000
50000
60000
40000
40000
30000
REVENUES (SEK THOUSANDS)
SUBSCRIBERS (FTTX AND DSL)
70000
FTTH Wholesale (LH Axis)
xDSL Wholesale (LH Axis)
FTTH (LH Axis)
Revenues (RH Axis)
20000
20000
10000
0
0
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009(E)
Figure 5. Riksnet offers services over a mix of municipal FTTH networks and proprietary networks.
merger with CSIT in 2008. This gave
the business access to a significant proprietary infrastructure and an xDSL
wholesale business. In 2009, the joint
company bought the regional wholesaler
business from Teracom. With the purchase of Comet in 2009, the business is
now the sixth-largest broadband company in Sweden with 80,000 subscribers
and 750,000 homes passed.
The business is run highly efficiently,
with just 35 employees serving subscribers (0.4 staff per 1,000 subscribers).
Success Factors
Riksnet’s FTTx success in Sweden has
been helped by a combination of demographics – more than 50 percent of the
population lives in multiple-dwelling
units – and government assistance in
the form of metropolitan networks with
competitively priced fiber. However, the
biggest factor in exploiting this opportunity has been the insight and skill of
the executing team. The success factors
they applied include
• Commercial, not just technical,
innovation
• Network design that allows us to
enter the market on the lowest cost
curve
• Relentless pursuit of cost reduction
and continuous improvement, including continuously benchmarking
costs in all areas of the business
• Rejecting a huge number of possible
ideas to find only the very best ideas
• Avoiding excessive proliferation of
products
• Rapid trial and error – for example,
in assessing the most effective marketing channels
• Keeping the organization flexible.
BBP
59
SPECIAL REPORT
Notes of a BTOP Reviewer,
Or How I Learned to Love Broadband
NTIA put out a call for volunteers to review applications for broadband
stimulus grants. Broadband Properties’ undercover reporter answered the call.
By “Alexander Graham Bell”
T
he notice said, “Serve your country! Be a BTOP reviewer!” In
these troubled times, how could
I resist the call to patriotism, service and
telecommunications? It was easier than
enlisting in the military and promised to
be much more fun than paying taxes.
Let me begin by introducing myself,
but only in the broadest possible way,
as I am committed to keeping my identity a secret. I have a full-time job with
a non-telecommunications organization. I have been, for a very long time,
a member of a profession that is often
the butt of jokes but is also the basis for
many TV shows. I’ve been involved with
telecommunications for long enough
to remember when there was only one
giant company in the industry and
words such as “natural monopoly” and
“economies of scale” were tossed around
the way “BTOP” and “BIP” are tossed
around today. I also remember when cell
phones were the size of shoe boxes.
I first heard about BTOP – the
Broadband Technology Opportunities
Program, funded by broadband stimulus money from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) – from a longtime
friend who works at the Federal Communications Commission. I was given
a name and a phone number, I made a
call, I presented my credentials and the
next thing I knew, I was sitting in front
of my computer at a webinar, training
to be a BTOP reviewer. (Volunteering to
be a BTOP reviewer was neither as clandestine nor as shady as it might sound,
but I don’t want to “out” the people I
worked with at NTIA any more than I
want to “out” myself.)
60
Preview
Get the latest information on
stimulus funding and other
broadband policy issues from
the experts at the Broadband
Six Computing Centers to Go,
With Cream and Sugar
In early October, I received six BTOP
applications relating to public computer
centers. The applications came from all
parts of the country; interestingly, none
came from the part of the country where
I grew up, and I found myself reviewing applications that proposed projects a
continent away from my hometown.
However, three of the applications
were from organizations similar to my
employer (whose name is clearly stated
on my résumé), showing that NTIA was
serious about using the specific expertise
of each reviewer. (Let’s put it this way:
Suppose I were a barista at Starbucks;
of the six applications I received, three
would have come from coffee shops.)
Although one of the applicants is
much larger than my employer and
two are smaller, I certainly understand
the values and goals and culture of the
three applicants and had a firsthand understanding of the purposes that would
be served by broadband adoption. Of
course, there’s a nice ethical question:
Did applicants from “coffee shops”
have an advantage because I work at
“Starbucks”? What about the applications from the “car repair place” and the
“doughnut shop”? Don’t these applicants
deserve to have one of their own read
their applications? I have no answer for
this question, but, in my defense, I gave
one of my highest scores to an applicant
that is nothing like my employer.
Grading the Applications
All BTOP applications were to be scored
on a scale of zero to 100. Before I even
started scoring, I read the applications
from front to back simply to try to understand what each applicant was applying for. At the risk of sounding a little
schoolmarmish, I will say that one application was so poorly written, I refused to
give it a second reading. If I can’t understand what an applicant is asking for –
and I couldn’t – I can’t give the application a good grade. So let this be a lesson
to future applicants: If you can’t write,
About the Author
Alexander Graham Bell received the first patent for the telephone on March 7, 1876.
The author of this article wishes to remain anonymous.
SPECIAL REPORT
find someone who can and pay him or
her to write the application for you.
Each application was assessed in
terms of four categories: project purpose, project benefits, project viability
and project budget and sustainability. I
had read the Notice of Funding Availability to get an understanding of what
the broadband stimulus program was all
about, and I went through the first set of
evaluations – on project purpose – trying to balance what I thought the government was looking for with what each
applicant was proposing.
The applications did a reasonably
good job of describing the project benefits, but by definition, all the applicants
were guessing at their ability to actually
deliver the described benefits. My applicants were careful to note the educational
benefits that broadband would deliver as
well as the jobs that would be created.
In the project viability section of the
application, applicants demonstrated,
among other things, their connection to
established community groups and their
capacity to enter into meaningful partnerships with these groups as well as the
broad support the application enjoyed. At
this point, I felt a little bit like a college
admissions officer wondering how everyone who applied could have been president of the student council but knowing
that I had to take the applicants’ word for
it. So if applicant John Smith asserted,
for example, that his application had the
backing of his state’s congressional delegation, I had to take John’s word for it
– and score accordingly.
The fourth area – project budget and
sustainability – was the most problematic because my own expertise falls very
much outside the realm of budgeting
and finance. Each BTOP reviewer was
supposed to be part of a panel of three
reviewers, all anonymous to one another, who read the same applications
and were supposed to put their heads
together to discuss the individual scores
and then revise the scores, if necessary, before submitting a composite to
NTIA. I had figured that the expertise
of the other members of my panel would
compensate for my considerable deficits
in the budget area.
Reviewers give low scores to grant
applications they can’t understand.
Lesson: Write clearly or hire someone who can.
Problem: There was no panel discussion. Though the good folks at NTIA
sent out a list of possible times for the
panel to meet by phone to discuss our
scoring, none of the times worked for
me, so I never met with the others. Realizing that I was on my own, I gathered
my courage, resurrected my notes from
the first-year course in finance at Harvard Business School and threw myself
at the project budgets. It wasn’t a pretty
sight, but I got through it and submitted my scores to my NTIA handler, who
received them with profuse thanks.
In sum, I enjoyed my time as a
BTOP reviewer. I liked reading the applications (the five intelligible ones, that
is) and learned a great deal. I admired
the pluck and fortitude of the applicants
and actually found myself rooting for
a couple of the applicants. (Alas, none
of the applicants I screened were on the
first list of grantees announced in midDecember.) Occasionally, the need for
confidentiality and anonymity were
oppressive, and I began to feel as if I’d
entered NTIA’s version of the witness
protection program. But as confidentiality has a central place in my profession,
I was familiar with the obligations that
came with being a reviewer.
Bottom line: I liked being a BTOP
reviewer so much that I signed up to be
a reviewer for the second round of proposals. BBP
SPECIAL EARLY BIRD OFFER
REGISTER TODAY
$450 USE VIP CODE: SUMMIT2010
Special Limited Time Offer – Expires Soon
www.bbpmag.com, CLICK REGISTER
April 26 – 28, 2010
Addison, Texas
[email protected], or call 316-733-9122.
61
Technology
Distributed Splitting For
Rural FTTH Deployments
To make rural fiber deployments economical, place splitters in the field and
position them in locations that minimize the use of fiber.
By David Stallworth ■ OFS
E
ven though most of America’s
geographic area is sparsely populated, very little research has been
done on the best ways of deploying fiber
to the home in rural areas. Serving scattered customers in rural areas challenges
typical methods of deploying FTTH,
such as placing splitters in cabinets or
“home running” fibers with splitters in
the central office (CO). These methods,
which may work well elsewhere, are not
cost-effective in rural areas, where they
result in long lengths of fiber between
customers, increased splicing requirements, increased installation time and
reduced reliability.
Distributed Splitting
Minimizes Fiber Cable Sizes
In a sparsely populated area, it makes
sense to move the splitter as close to the
home as possible to minimize the lengths
of the 32 output fibers and maximize
the length of the single input fiber. This
method, known as distributed splitting,
can be accomplished by placing splitters
in splice cases with fiber drops to eliminate the need for separate housing.
Distributed splitters are also better
for accommodating unplanned growth,
because they can be installed in the right
spots to handle growth. Cost models illustrating the advantage of distributed
splitting over other options are available
but beyond the scope of this article.
Distributed splitting has additional
economic benefits if the splitter is fusion
spliced into the network at the outset.
Fusion splicing offers several benefits
over connectorization: It reduces opti-
62
Preview
The Broadband Summit will feature presentations on rural FTTH
technology, policy and develop
ment – including a full day of
sessions sponsored by the Rural
Telecommunications Congress.
cal loss and increases a network’s overall reliability by eliminating connectors
and jumpers that can cause problems. In
addition, fusion splicing the splitter initially reduces installation time because
the installer does not have to visit the
splitter location. Finally, connectorized
drops are often infeasible in rural areas
because houses are often far from the
road. This method creates no more splicing than placing splitters in cabinets or
in the CO, as cabinet inputs and outputs
must also be spliced initially.
Using Two Levels of Splitters
The graph in Figure 1 compares the cost
of a 1 x 32 splitter and cable with the
cost of a 1 x 4 splitters feeding four 1 x 8
splitters and cable. Although both options provide 32 outputs, they use different split techniques to reduce cable size.
If 32 customers live within about 5,000
feet of one another, the 1 x 32 splitter
is most economical. If, as in rural areas,
the 32 customers are spread out over
more than 5,000 feet (or 1 mile), the
cable cost saving offsets the additional
splitter cost and the 1 x 4/1 x 8 option
becomes more economical. The farther
apart customers are, the more economical the 1 x 4/1 x 8 option becomes.
Another alternative is to use a 1 x 8
splitter to feed eight 1 x 4 splitters. Although this alternative is slightly more
expensive (between $5 and $10 per customer), it may offer a more attractive alternative by bringing splitters closer to
homes, depending on how the population of a rural area is distributed.
Using full-spectrum splitters that allow the passage of all available frequencies in the fiber cable is essential. In
addition, because fiber has an inherent
water-peak problem at certain frequencies, the fiber deployed in all parts of
the feeder and distribution cable should
About the Author
David Stallworth is the design and product manager at OFS, a manufacturer of
optical fiber and connectivity solutions. You can reach him at 770-798-2423 or by
e-mail at [email protected].
Technology
Splitter Cost Versus PON Length
6000
Cost ($)
5000
1 X 32
Splitt er
4000
3000
1X4/
1x 8
2000
Splitt er
1000
0
0
1
3
5
7
9
11
PON distance (thousand feet)
Figure 1: As the distance between customers increases, a two-level splitter arrangement becomes
more economical.
8
8
8
4
8
Figure 2: Cutting and reusing fiber minimizes the number of fibers required to serve a given area.
Figure 3: When customers are too far from the splitter to be served with drop cables, distribution
cables can be cut to serve them.
equal or exceed zero-water-peak fiber
standards. Failure to do this will require
cable reinforcement in the future.
Maximizing the Use of Fiber
Modeling the FTTH network yields
some interesting discoveries that are
unique to this technology. The splitter
turns one fiber into as many as 32 ports
anywhere in the network. Proper plan-
ning makes accommodating up to 352
living units on a single 12-fiber buffer
tube possible. The key is the location of
the splitter. (Of course, more than 12 fibers may be needed in a rural area; the
12-fiber case is simply an example.)
In general, the most economical place
to put a central office, node, splitter cabinet, distributed splitter or drop closure is
in the middle of its serving area because
a central point of origin minimizes the
amount of fiber required to reach all the
endpoints. Figure 2 shows the splicing of
the splitters in a 1 x 4 arrangement. The
1 x 4 splitter is represented by the blue
triangle and the 1 x 8 splitters are represented by green triangles.
Notice that once the blue feeder fiber
entering from the right is spliced to the
1 x 4 splitter, the rest of the fiber is dead
and available for reuse. The dead blue fiber is reactivated (shown emerging from
the left of the 1 x 4 splitter) and spliced
to one of the 1 x 8 splitters down the
route. Once it is cut at the 1 x 8, it is
reused again for distribution out of the
1 x 8. Conserving fiber in this way helps
drive down the cost of rural deployments. With this arrangement, it is now
possible to serve up to 352 customers if
none of the 12 feeder fibers is used for
distribution other than dead fibers previously used for feeding a 1 x 4.
If additional distribution fiber is
needed to reach more of the 1 x 8 splitters, another fiber can be cut in two, attached to two different ports of the 1 x
4 splitter and used to serve two 1 x 8
splitters. (See the orange fiber in Figure
2.) Doing that avoids having to use two
separate fibers to serve the two 1 x 8
splitters. OFS studies indicate that using these methods allows fiber deployers to approach the cost of using copper
or coax in rural areas – making FTTH
technology a viable rural candidate.
Although the 1 x 8 splitters deployed
at the second level may be suitable for
clusters of homes, they will be challenging to use in sporadically or sparsely
populated areas. In such areas, some of
the 12 feeder fibers must be used for distribution from the 1 x 8 splitters, further
reducing the maximum number of customers served. Smart placement of the
1 x 8 splitters can minimize this impact.
If the eight customers are spread out, fibers can be cut at the 1 x 8 splitter and
the outputs fed to the customers via the
cut fiber.
In Figure 3, four fibers were cut at
a 1 x 8 splitter, and both sides of the
cut fibers were used for distribution.
This is the extreme case and is not normally necessary, as the splitter should
63
Technology
8
8
Figure 4: Once distribution cables have been cut and spliced to drop cables, they can be reactivated
and used for further distribution.
be within reach of at least one customer
who could be served with a drop directly
out of the splitter.
These same fibers can be used for
distribution from the next 1 x 8 splitter, as they are dead once they have been
spliced to a drop to serve a customer. Remember that the dead blue fiber can also
be reused for distribution downstream
from the splitter.
Figure 4 shows the distribution deployment using fibers in the cable to illustrate this concept. The houses served
are on different sides of the street for illustrative purposes and can be randomly
distributed between the two splitters.
Figure 5 shows the alternative arrangement – a 1 x 8 splitter feeding eight
1 x 4 splitters, with the 1 x 8 splitter
positioned in the middle so fibers can
be cut to feed the 1 x 4 splitters in both
directions.
This configuration allows service of
up to 288 customers with a single 12-fiber buffer tube. However, the 288 maximum does not allow for distribution fibers from the 1 x 4 splitters, which can
be a problem in rural areas. Providing
for distribution fibers in the buffer tube
reduces the number of customers who
can be served. However, only one fiber
at a 1 x 4 splitter needs to be cut to provide distribution for two of the four 1
x 4 output ports. Down the cable, dead
fibers should be available to distribute
from the third port of the splitter. The
fourth port could serve a customer directly out of the splitter and would not
need to be in the cable. This would drop
rural areas using either 1 x 4, 1 x 8 or
a combination of both. There is nothing wrong in mixing these two along a
route if necessary. Using two different
strategies in the same route does tend to
complicate things but not terribly much.
This option may seem difficult, but it is
only different.
Frequently Asked Questions
What about record keeping?
The technique described makes record
keeping important but not impossible.
Using the 911 addressing process, a deployer can assign a name to each splitter
location. (A similar technique is often
used in the copper world for tandem
crossboxes.) In rural areas, maintaining
accurate records is paramount because
the facilities are scattered over a large
area and technicians must know where
everything is located to reduce windshield time.
Strategic location of splitters and reactivation of
feeder and distribution cable for use downstream
from the splitters helps reach a maximum
number of customers with a minimum amount
of fiber optic cable. These techniques make fiber
deployment in rural areas economically viable.
the capacity from 288 to 256 customers, still a good amount but less than the
1 x 4 option discussed previously. Another option is to serve two 1 x 4 splitters directly out of the 1 x 8 in the same
closure and save a fiber for an additional
PON downstream.
These options provide ways to serve
Will growing bandwidth be more difficult if the splitters are in the field,
rather than in a cabinet or a CO?
No. The new 10GPON standards indicate that bandwidth will be increased
by using more frequencies. This trend
will continue in the future. Bandwidth growth will involve changing the
Figure 5: Fibers can also be cut and reused when the eight-way splitter is at the first level.
64
Technology
electronics on both ends of the fiber,
rather than reducing split ratios. This
makes it possible to button up the outside plant and leave it alone.
Each available frequency has a
129-terabit capacity, so what need is
there for manipulating the outside network? Designing the network appropriately at the outset offers the capability
to extend the life of the plant, significantly reduce outages and maintenance,
increase revenue because of high reliability, minimize the number of maintenance technicians, better utilize investment by activating dead fibers and
minimize optical loss.
Is a cabinet needed for testing?
No, and here is why: Most of the troubles
encountered will be confined to a single
customer. There are 32 customers beyond
the splitter. If one customer calls in with a
problem, the location can be quickly determined by observing the other 31 customers’ signals. If they are working, the
trouble is probably unique to the caller
Because rural FTTH deployers have few
competitors, take rates tend to be high and
splitters are more fully populated. This is another
reason distributed splitting is more attractive
than centralized splitting in rural areas.
(a cut drop cable or an ONT failure). A
technician can go to the customer’s location and perform tests from the ONT if
necessary. A cabinet is not needed; in fact,
it can add to the potential for trouble because it contains failure-prone connectors
and jumpers.
Electronics vendors have excellent
management systems that monitor the
health of every ONT in a network. That
information can be used to determine
trouble resolution. In addition, test
equipment vendors have excellent test
gear on the market today that can test
through a splitter if necessary.
Conclusion
In summary, moving the splitters close
to homes in rural areas makes sense economically and operationally, although it
requires some adjustment in thinking.
Rural areas generally have few competitors and generate high take rates – another reason distributed splitting is more
attractive than using cabinets or homerunning fibers. Bringing broadband to
rural areas is expensive, but this method
helps reduce the cost impact compared
with other alternatives and provides a
unique way to handle growth that was
unplanned. BBP
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65
Technology
Ribbon Cable Makes Inroads
In Rural Fiber Deployments
Rural FTTx deployers seeking to reduce deployment costs and recover more
quickly from outages have discovered a secret weapon: ribbon cable.
By Tony Squires ■ Sumitomo Electric Lightwave
R
ural carriers have come a long
way since the days of the POTS
network and local dial-tone
services. The National Telecommunications Cooperative Association reveals
in its recent 2009 Broadband/Internet
Availability Survey Report that rural
carriers “continue to deploy fiber at an
impressive pace,” with nearly threequarters of respondents planning to offer either fiber to the node (FTTN) or
fiber to the home (FTTH) to more than
half their customer base by 2011. Moreover, 75 percent of survey respondents
now have a video offering, up from 68
percent just a year ago. Although these
findings sound promising, 93 percent
of rural carrier respondents cite fiber
deployment cost as the number one obstacle to the widespread deployment of
next-generation networks.
Rural broadband deployment is expensive because of the small to medium
customer bases and long distances between homes and businesses. For a rural
FTTx network to be profitable, it must
be robust, require minimal maintenance
and be quick to restore yet be scalable
enough to accommodate a growing
subscriber base. To stay within spending constraints and still meet customer
demand for high-bandwidth triple-play
services, rural service providers must
adopt strategies that allow growing topline revenue in a competitive environment while speeding customer turn-up
and minimizing operational, installation and construction costs.
Rural providers trying to deploy fiber
cost effectively face many technology
66
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choices, including which type of fiber
optic cable to use. Today, in what appears
to be a new trend, many rural carriers are
choosing optical fiber ribbon cable.
Loose-Tube Cable Loyalists
Encounter Ribbon
Unlike the large Regional Bell Operating Companies, which adopted ribbon
cable and mass fusion splicing in the
early 1990s, rural carriers and independent telcos did not need to address high
fiber-density demands in their tree-andbranch network topologies. Average fiber counts in a typical system upgrade
ranged from 12 to 48 fibers per cable.
Therefore, these companies justifiably
standardized on low-count loose-tube
cables and single-fiber splicing.
In 2006, several Midwestern rural
carriers, particularly in Minnesota and
the Dakotas, experienced massive outages of new fiber access networks – outages that affected numerous communities and cost hundreds of thousands of
dollars for emergency restoration. In
some cases, restoration took months.
“The cause of the outages was attributed
to the increased attenuation loss resulting from buffer-tube shrinkage from
the thermal cycling conditions prevalent in the Midwest,” explains Todd
Sapp, director of outside-plant operations at Vantage Point Solutions (www.
vantagepnt.com), a leading engineering
and consulting company to the rural
telephone marketplace. Although loosetube cable buried in underground vaults
served rural carriers and other telcos well
for many years in POTS infrastructures,
the results were quite different in rural
FTTx networks, where loose-tube cable
was housed in above-ground pedestals.
Acknowledging the problem of
loose-tube cable shrinkage in the FTTx
network, rural service providers and engineering consulting companies began
to write requests for proposals requiring
10-year warranties against loose-tube
About the Author
Tony Squires is product manager for the Fiber Optic Cable division of Sumitomo
Electric Lightwave. You can reach him at [email protected] or 800358-7378. For more information, visit www.sumitomoelectric.com.
Technology
Rural telcos accustomed to using loose-tube
buffer cable were skeptical about ribbon cable
at first. After gaining experience with ribbon
cable, they recognized its cost efficiencies.
cable shrinkage. “Sumitomo Electric
Lightwave and some other leading fiber
optic cable manufacturers had not received any reports of loose-tube shrinkage with their loose-tube products,”
Sapp says. However, given unpredictable environmental conditions and temperature fluctuations, especially in the
Midwest, the wisdom of offering a 100percent guarantee against shrinkage was
questionable.
As a manufacturer of both loose-tube
and ribbon cable, Sumitomo decided
to propose a ribbon-cable solution that
had been tested and proven over time
in FTTH/FTTP networks. The ribboncable solution would not only resolve
any possible risk of loose-tube shrinkage
and outages but would also significantly
reduce overall operational, installation
and construction costs; improve speed
of any necessary restoration; and yield
faster customer turn-up and time-torevenue.
Sumitomo’s presentation of the
ribbon-cable solution to rural carriers
and engineering consulting companies initially met with objections from
longtime loose-tube users and loyalists,
who recalled the days when ribbon cable
was difficult to manage and mass fusion
splicers broke their capex budgets.
However, demonstrations of the
latest ribbon cable with easy-peel attributes, which often allow the technician
to peel back the ribbon by hand and easily split the fibers, revealed advances in
easy and quick ribbon-cable handling.
Mass fusion splicers have also become
much more affordable and easier to operate, and their splice results are comparable to those of single-fusion splicers. After seeing these demonstrations,
many Midwestern rural carriers took
the plunge and began to deploy optical
ribbon cable in their networks to coun-
ter loose-tube buffer-tube shrinkage and
prevent outages.
Emerging Ribbon – Loose-Tube
Cable Paradigms
After the Midwest outages, the Rural
Utilities Service revised RUS PE-90 (the
specification for filled fiber optic cables)
to address loose-tube buffer shrinkage.
However, rural carriers that had tried
ribbon cable after experiencing or even
learning about loose-tube buffer shrinkage did not then resume using loose-tube
cable, as skeptics had expected. Rather,
having stepped out of their comfort zone
by trying ribbon cable, these rural carriers began to see the cost efficiencies of
ribbon cable and gradually accepted its
merits. Many installed ribbon into the
backbone and expanded it farther into
the access network, reserving loose-tube
cables only for low-fiber-count applications and areas where subscriber density remained low. Other rural carriers
adopted ribbon cable even in low-fibercount applications for speed of project
turnaround when justified.
Sapp says, “Vantage Point is increasingly engineering FTTx network designs
Ribbon Cable Cross-Section
Loose-Tube Cable Cross-Section
67
Technology
with ribbon cable because it makes the
most business sense.” He adds, “When
you think of ribbon cable as simply flat
loose-tube cable, you’re reminded that
it’s only the fiber packaging that differs. Ribbon cable offers flexibility so
that you can treat it as loose-tube if desired, fusion splicing one fiber at a time.
Because it eliminates the tube memory
common with reverse oscillating lay
(ROL) stranding methods, ribbon is
easier to lay in outside pedestals, is easier
to store in splice closures and allows for
smaller and less-expensive closures. Ribbon cable designs also allow for higher
fiber counts (432 fibers or more for ribbon, compared with a 288-fiber limit
for loose tube), which assists in saving
duct space.
“Of all the benefits associated with
ribbon cable, the time and cost savings
realized from using mass fusion splicing to speed up network restoration
and increase project turnover are most
valuable for today’s rural network,” continues Sapp. “Servicing rural customers
quickly and efficiently at the lowest cost
possible ensures the success of the rural FTTx network and the profitability,
competitiveness and long-term viability
of the rural service provider.”
Faster Restoration,
Quicker Deployment
When rural carriers and independent
operating companies were servicing their
customers with dial tone and minimal
telephone services, an emergency restoration did not present the great potential
financial losses of today’s rural FTTx
broadband networks. If a 64 Kbps service network experienced an outage due
to a backhoe’s damaging the cable, the
service provider lost a prorated portion
of approximately $25.00 per telephone
line, the cost of the monthly service
charge to the customer. In a 72-fibercable example, the provider would lose
approximately $1,800 of monthly service revenue.
In today’s FTTx network, a 72-fiber
cable with a 1 x 32 splitter typically delivers broadband service to approximately
2,300 customers who pay an average of
$110 per month. Network downtime
now costs the service provider a prorated
68
Cable Type
Number of
Splices
Cost per
Splice
Restoration Time
Labor Cost
Loose-tube
with single fiber
splicing
72 per side
144 total
$35
1 to 2 days (faster if
using FastCat Dual
Heater splicer)
$5,040
Ribbon cable with
12-fiber mass
fusion splicing
6 per side,
12 total
$120
Approximately 1
hour
$1,440
Table 1: Restoration of a Backhoe-Damaged Cable With 72 Fibers
Cable Type
Number of Splices
Cost per Splice
Labor Cost
Loose-tube with single
fiber splicing
7,000
$35
$245,000
Ribbon cable with 12-fiber
mass fusion splicing
583 (7,000/12)
$120
$70,000
Table 2: Rural Exchange Deployment Requiring 7,000 Splices
portion of a $253,000 monthly revenue
base. Adding time and labor costs significantly heightens the financial stakes
of a fiber outage.
As Table 1 shows, rural service providers save approximately 72 percent in
restoration labor costs and can achieve
at least 95 percent faster restoration
turn-up by adopting a ribbon-fiber solution that allows mass fusion splicing.
The advantages of mass fusion splicing are also apparent during the deployment itself. Table 2 illustrates the time
and cost savings resulting from using
ribbon cable in a typical rural exchange
requiring 7,000 splices. These savings
lead to faster FTTx deployment, quicker
project turnaround, faster customer
turn-up and decreased time to revenue
for the rural service provider, ensuring
the most cost-effective and customer
service–oriented network.
Providers considering incorporating
ribbon cable into a loose-tube cabled
network often ask whether loose-tube
and ribbon cable can be interfaced. The
answer is a simple “yes.” There are two
methods of easily interfacing the two
cable types: The first is to ribbonize the
loose-tube cable fibers by stacking the
fibers and spraying adhesive to simulate
ribbon cable. Another option is to simply peel back the ribbon, easily split one
fiber from the 12, and fusion splice or
connectorize to the loose-tube fiber.
In an older loose-tube network con-
taining older-generation fiber, a core
alignment splicer should be used, because the geometry and tolerance of
older fiber is poorer than the latest generation of fiber, due to recent advances
in fiber manufacturing.
The Outlook for Rural FTTx
As rural carriers continue to build FTTx
networks and complete their transitions into triple-play broadband service
providers, they need networks that are
reliable, robust and cost effective to ensure their long-term profitability and
competitiveness. Given the high cost
of developing the rural FTTx network,
rural carriers cannot afford to make the
wrong deployment decisions, including
their choice of fiber optic cable. The advantages of incorporating ribbon cable,
including faster restoration, quicker
customer turn-up, decreased time to
revenue and significant savings in deployment costs, are inspiring more and
more rural carriers to make ribbon cable
part of their historic transitions. “We at
Vantage Point definitely see an increasing trend among our customers to adopt
ribbon cable,” Sapp concludes. “I believe
that once the advantages of ribbon cable
deployment are made clear to more and
more rural carriers, ribbon adoption will
continue to grow, confirming that wise
choices in technology are being made for
the long-term viability and ultimate success of the rural FTTx network.” BBP
Technology
Best Practices for Testing
FTTH Deployments
Deploying fiber to the home requires learning a new set of network
testing practices. Here’s a quick summary of what operators need to
know – and when they need to know it.
By Gregory Lietaert ■ JDSU Communications
S
ervice providers are deploying
next-generation networks delivering high-bandwidth data, voice
and video services at an unprecedented
rate. Stimulus funding and the growth of
bandwidth-intensive applications such
as video streaming and peer-to-peer
sharing are expected to serve as the catalyst for the next leap forward in broadband deployment. Running optical fiber
much deeper into the access network, in
some cases all the way to the customer
premises, is an important part of the
strategy of nearly every service provider.
The appeal of fiber to the home
(FTTH) is that it offers the potential
for practically unlimited bandwidth
and also facilitates greater control over
the operation, administration and provisioning of the access system. The ability to quickly and efficiently diagnose
problems is critical to successful deployment and maintenance of broadband
networks. This article offers a high-level
view of some practical test and measurement best practices that help ensure success in planning, installing and troubleshooting FTTH networks.
Fiber Installation Testing
Fiber connectors are widely known as the
weakest points in a network. The more
connections in a network, the greater
is the potential for problems caused by
improper handling during installation,
operation, expansion and maintenance.
Before mating any connectors, follow
this simple inspection process to ensure
that fiber end faces are clean.
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Step 1: Inspect. Use a probe microscope to inspect the fiber. If the fiber
is dirty, go to Step 2. If the fiber is
clean, go ahead and connect.
Step 2: Clean. If the fiber is dirty, use
a cleaning tool to clean the fiber end
face.
Step 3: Inspect. Use a probe microscope to re-inspect and confirm that
the fiber is clean. If the fiber is still
dirty, go back to Step 2. If the fiber is
clean, go ahead and connect.
In a passive optical network (PON)
application – the most common FTTH
flavor – the optical cable containing the
fibers is laid using one of three methods:
direct-burial installation, duct installation or aerial installation. Feeder cable
and the distribution sections then may
be spliced in an enclosure, either to join
two cables or to divide one large cable
into multiple smaller cables to diverge to
different locations.
After each splice, perform optical
time domain reflectometry (OTDR)
measurements from the central office
(CO) at 1310 nm and 1550 nm to verify
splice quality. Measuring from both sides
of the cable is necessary to determine the
optical loss of each fusion splice.
Frame Installation and
Acceptance Testing
After feeder and distribution cable construction is complete, the system is ready
for frame installation. The first frame is
the fiber distribution hub (FDH), typically housed in an outside cabinet that
also contains splitters. At the FDH, all
fibers coming from the CO are connectorized or spliced to the splitters. Splitter outputs are placed in the parking lot,
with pigtails stored in a separate path to
reduce fiber congestion.
The second frame, the access or drop
terminal, which is located close to the
About the Author
Gregory Lietaert is responsible for product marketing in the fiber optic division of
JDSU Communications’ Test and Measurement business segment. For more information, see www.jdsu.com.
69
Technology
Typical FTTx infrastructures.
customer premises, consists of a splice
enclosure located either on a pole or in
a manhole. Several fibers – usually four,
six, eight or 12 – are extracted from the
cable and spliced to be connected to
drop cables.
The third frame installed is usually
the fiber distribution frame (FDF) cabinet of the optical line terminal (OLT),
which is located at the CO. As in the
other frames, the fiber is spliced to a pigtail to be connected to the patch panel.
At the end of this process, the feeder
and distribution network is complete
and ready for end-to-end acceptance
testing, including overall distance, insertion loss (IL) and optical return loss
(ORL) tests. Before acceptance testing
can begin, technicians must ensure that
the connectors and patch cords (both
those used to test and those used in the
70
network) meet network operator requirements for IL and reflectance.
They may then perform acceptance
testing with either an OTDR (1310
nm/1550 nm) or a source/power meter/
ORL meter (1310 nm/1550nm) combination. Each operator will have specific
requirements for loss, distance and ORL
based on the fiber cable network design.
If the splitter is connectorized, testers should perform separate feeder and
distribution network acceptance tests
using test equipment connected at the
FDF. They should measure from the
FDF to the OLT and from the FDF to
the customer premises. If the splitter is
spliced, testers should perform end-toend measurement from the customer
premises to the OLT.
In large networks, other FDFs may
be located on the feeder to distribute the
After all the frames have been installed,
acceptance testing can begin. Acceptance
tests include insertion loss, optical return
loss and overall distance tests.
Technology
different cables. The same process should
be performed on these frames. Testers
should then compare results to the requirements and take corrective action
when needed. If the issue involves connections or jumpers, they should test the
corrective action with the same loss-test
tools. Each result should be recorded in
the unit and also on a customer network
database for maintenance purposes.
The final acceptance test consists
of characterizing the complete optical
network. It includes continuity checks,
IL and ORL measurements of the endto-end network through analysis of the
transmission optical wavelengths. Testers
select a minimum of two wavelengths
(usually 1310 nm and 1550 nm) to identify any macrobends along the network,
a common fault in short-distance and
high-fiber-count networks.
With a combination source, power
meter and ORL meter, the operator can
perform automatic continuity checks
and measure end-to-end IL as well as
end-to-end ORL. ORL testing is particularly important if the operator is using
analog video at 1550 nm, a technology
sensitive to reflectance.
Turn-Up Tests
After acceptance testing, the optical
network terminals (ONTs) can be installed in the customer premises. With
PON technology, an ONT’s 1310 nm
wavelength is activated only by the
1490 nm signal from the OLT. Therefore, to measure the output power of all
wavelengths, the OLT and ONT must
be connected. A power meter with two
ports, called a selective through-mode
power meter, is used to connect the fibers coming from the OLT and the ONT
at the same time so testers can perform
tests from the ONT.
If the tests show that some but not
all ONTs are working, the problem is
either in the distribution network or the
ONTs. In this case, “in-service” OTDR
at 1625 nm or 1650 nm can locate the
fault without disturbing the working
customers.
On the other hand, when all ONTs
are out of service, the technician should
check the OLT to verify whether it is
transmitting the correct power levels. If
In turning up IP voice service, field technicians need to verify service provisioning and connectivity
to signaling gateways.
it is not, the OLT should be replaced. If
the OLT is transmitting correctly, there
is an outage in the fiber network. Testers should perform an OTDR measurement (1310 nm/1550 nm) from the OLT
connection toward the FDH to locate a
possible break or bend in the feeder.
Turning Up Services
Video service quality is ultimately determined by the end user or subscriber.
Video quality of experience (QoE) is a
subjective concept with components
that are nearly impossible to measure
in a practical, operational manner. Yet
a service provider can make objective
measurements on a set of parameters
that can be used to judge the perfor-
mance of the network. A model for
mapping objectively measurable metrics
to QoE is the basis for good installation
and troubleshooting procedures.
Video quality of service (QoS) testing
results displayed on the field technician’s
test device should show all the critical
parameters that affect video flows. If the
program clock reference (PCR) jitter
is high, for example, the decoder cannot properly decode the video payload.
Trouble with IGMP latency affects the
time it takes to change broadcast video
channels and, therefore, is an important component of customer experience.
The number of lost packets in the video
transport stream, as measured by the
continuity error indicator, is the most
Example of an OTDR trace on the JDSU T-BERD/MTS-4000 Multiple Services Test Platform.
71
Technology
critical. Setting pass/fail thresholds in
test devices for each of these parameters
helps promote consistency in operational
practices and improve service assurance
processes for IP video services.
When turning up VoIP service, field
technicians should verify service provisioning and connectivity to signaling
gateways. They must also verify call
quality by placing test calls both within
the network and to the public switched
telephone network. Critical test call parameters include packet delay, packet
loss and jitter. However, the mean opinion score (MOS) will be the most critical service-level agreement (SLA) metric
used to measure overall VoIP quality.
To verify Internet data services, field
technicians must verify FTTH physical layer performance, ISP connectivity
and data service throughput. This is accomplished using a test tool with Web
browser and FTP throughput test capabilities. Using selectable test file sizes
and both upload and download testing,
An all-in-one testing instrument saves capital
outlay, reduces technician training time and
integrates all testing results into a single report.
FTP throughput tests establish performance of the link that models actual use
cases more closely than simple download
tests. Performing an HTTP test using a
Web browser to ensure end users’ ISP
access and connectivity is also wise.
Advantages of an All-in-One
Instrument
Deploying FTTH requires technicians
to master new terminology, technology
and testing procedures to ensure that
services are correctly provisioned and
installed. This process can be expedited
if technicians have a single instrument
that can perform all required tests. This
approach reduces the number of instruments that need to be purchased, reduces
technician training time and integrates
all testing results into a single report.
Systematically implementing test
and measurement best practices enables
technicians to quickly diagnose and isolate FTTH problems impacting QoS
and QoE for fast correction. A broad
line of test equipment makes it possible
to arm technicians and engineers with
an optimized tool set that will enable
them to quickly and efficiently diagnose
problems at an affordable cost. BBP
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a
Congr
Magazine
For becoming a Silver Sponsor at the
2010 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 26 – 28, 2010
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72
Video Communic ations
Is TV-Based Communications
The Killer App for Fiber?
Service providers have long sought an application that would make
subscribing to fiber to the home irresistible. One analyst says video
communications could be the killer app they are looking for.
I
f fiber to the home is so much
better than any other broadband technology, why is Verizon’s penetration rate for FiOS
in the 30 percent range? What’s
wrong with the other 70 percent of the
population – or, alternatively, what’s
wrong with fiber?
The answer, of course, is that nothing is wrong either with FTTH or with
consumers who choose other broadband
options. In the long run, only fiber will
support growing bandwidth demands,
but in the short run, fiber’s unique advantages are still not relevant to the
majority of consumers. (Municipal fiber
deployers and rural telcos have take rates
much higher than Verizon’s, but those
take rates reflect the paucity of alternatives in their service areas.)
Most FTTH deployers offer consumers the familiar triple play – voice, video
and high-speed Internet access. Fiber allows higher service quality, faster speeds
and more bells and whistles than other
broadband options, but not everyone
needs the extra bandwidth and quality. As good as it is, video over FTTH
“hasn’t changed the way you look at TV,
and I don’t think it can,” says Benoît
Felten, principal analyst with Yankee
Group, a technology research firm,
To achieve the higher take rates that
make deploying fiber more profitable,
FTTH deployers need a killer app – an
irresistible application that only fiber
enables. To date, the most plausible candidate proposed for a killer app has been
telepresence, which is still far too expen-
74
Preview
New applications for
fiber networks will be
presented at the Broadband
Properties Summit in
Dallas, April 26 – 28.
sive for consumers who don’t happen to
be CEOs of large corporations.
Felten believes the killer app for fiber is
something less eye-popping than telepresence: high-definition, TV-based video
communications. Unlike telepresence,
this service can be economically provided
to the mass market today, he says.
For an application to attract a mass
audience, according to Felten, it must be
affordable – preferably free – and usable
on a device that is found in every home.
It must be simple to use and relevant to
nearly everyone. Service providers must
be able to profit from it, even if they can’t
sell it directly to consumers. Finally, a
killer app for fiber must be usable only
on FTTx networks.
TV-centric video communications
meets or exceeds these requirements,
Felten says.
Why TV?
Video telephony has been a nonstarter
for more than four decades – the Picture-
phone, an AT&T flop of the 1960s and
early 1970s, is still held up as a model of
a marketing failure. Subsequent videophones haven’t fared much better in the
mass market, though they have niche
uses. “Two things were wrong,” Felten
says. “First is the dedicated device – nobody wants that anymore. … It costs
$200 to even try it, so that’s not going
to happen.”
He continues, “The other thing wrong
was the ‘pay as you go’ model. Nothing
works as ‘pay as you go’ anymore. There’s
been a psychological shift over the last
10 years; the uncertainty of not knowing
what it will cost kills usage.”
Free and low-cost PC-based services
have been far more successful in the consumer market, demonstrating that people will use video communications when
the price is right. Scattered families,
corporate road warriors and soldiers on
deployment have all come to appreciate
the added closeness of video calls. Skype,
About the Author
The ‘Wow!’ factor could draw subscribers
quickly to a TV-based video communications
service and to fiber-to-the-home networks that
support such services. Only fiber currently has
the upstream bandwidth that’s needed.
a simple and (mostly) free PC-based
communications service that includes
video chat, has even entered the language as a verb meaning “video chat.”
But Skype video and similar offerings cannot serve people who don’t own,
don’t use or aren’t comfortable with computers. “If using a PC is the determining
factor,” Felten says, “service providers
miss out on a whole lot.” By contrast,
a TV-based video communications service – or, preferably, a service available
on both television and computer – could
be used by nearly every household in an
FTTH footprint. Felten says not only
advanced computer users but also “elderly people and stay-at-home moms”
could video chat on devices they already
own and know how to use.
Why Fiber?
Another reason Skype and its cousins
fail to meet Felten’s criteria for killer
apps is that they are designed to operate
over low-bandwidth connections. This
has two implications: First, the quality
of the visual experience is generally poor,
making the services less than compelling
to people who aren’t strongly motivated
to use them. Second, these services do
not require fiber connections.
By contrast, a high-definition video
stream on a low-latency connection
can support smooth, lifelike video experiences that might appeal to all consumers, not just to absent parents and
grandparents. Felten believes demand
for a high-quality video service would
spread quickly via what he calls the
“Wow!” factor. Consumers who saw
high-def video calls at friends’ homes,
or read about them in newspapers and
magazines, would be impressed (and
envious) enough to want the service for
themselves. Once they subscribed, they
would press other family members and
friends to sign up so they could share the
experience with them.
Felten estimates that a Wow!inducing video experience would require
between 15 Mbps and 20 Mbps symmetrical bandwidth – a capability that
only FTTB or FTTH can deliver today.
“Cable has a hard time matching that
from a technical standpoint,” he says.
Some Assembly Required
The hardware and software platform
for such a communications service is so
inexpensive that telcos could easily provide the service gratis or at a nominal
charge. (Felten believes the service cannot succeed in the mass market with fees
higher than $10 per month.)
Here’s what is needed in the way of
hardware:
• Set-top boxes or other TV-connected
devices with enough processing
power to encode high-definition
video in real time. Today’s IPTV
set-top boxes are designed for oneway video communications – that is,
they decode video but do not encode
it. But demand for more high-definition channels and for faster channel
switching is pushing manufacturers
to add processing power to set-top
boxes anyway. Felten says beefing
up set-top boxes to enable two-way
communications requires “a marginal cost, but it’s not huge.”
• Webcams that can transmit highquality pictures while the user is sitting across the room or even walking
around. Adequate cameras currently
retail for about $50, and service providers can buy them in quantity for
less than $15 and subsidize them
if necessary. “I’m anticipating that
we’ll see some interesting things happening on the vendor side,” Felten
says. “I don’t think it’s an accident
BroadBand ProPerties
Magazine
Invites You to the Broadband Properties Summit 2010
April 26 • 28, 2010
InterContinental Hotel • Dallas
Addison, Texas
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
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
Visit www.bbpmag.com and
secure your participation today,
or call 877-588-1649.
75
that Cisco bought Flip [a company
specializing in easy-to-use, Internetenabled videocameras].”
• Microphones integrated into remotecontrol devices. Like the microphones embedded in PCs today,
these are very inexpensive.
Service providers’ biggest investments won’t be for equipment but for
designing the platform. To attract a
mass market to a video communications
service, providers must ensure that the
service “not only has the Wow! factor
and is sexy but that it’s extremely easy to
use,” Felten says. “Grandma will use it
only if it’s virtually one click.”
Profiting From Video
Communications
Most service providers reap little or no
profit from selling video content – either
linear TV or video on demand – because
content providers claim much of the revenue. By contrast, nearly all the revenue
from communications services remains
with the service provider, making these
services potentially profitable.
The problem, of course, is identifying the revenues.
As mentioned earlier, Felten believes
consumers will be unwilling to spend
more than a nominal flat fee for video
communications services – especially as
long as free services like Skype exist. But
he points out that direct consumer revenues aren’t the only source of income.
“The business model needs to be Web
2.0,” he explains. “First you get the customers hooked, and then you find ways
to monetize it. It’s not hard – you get eyeballs in front of a screen; that’s the most
basic way of monetizing something.”
One potential source of indirect revenue, after a critical mass of users exists,
is business-to-consumer companies with
call centers. “Imagine you’ve purchased
a bed at IKEA,” Felten says, “and halfway through building it, you can’t figure
it out. You call them and try to describe
what you have in front of you. It’s a
nightmare, and you end up frustrated.
If you could show it to [the customer
service rep], he could say, ‘You put this
piece the wrong way around.’ It’s much
faster, and everyone is happy. That
would be worth something to IKEA.
76
Even if third parties introduce and market
high-definition video communications services,
FTTH deployers might still reap most of the
rewards. Alternatively, they could develop and
market these services themselves.
They would pay the service provider …
for access to these customers.”
Video communications’ greatest
value to providers, however, is in driving consumers to fiber. “The big reason
for it is not just more revenue [per user],”
Felten says. “It’s a huge acquisition driver
for FTTH. I absolutely think it makes
sense for Verizon to launch this kind of
product. They have the scale to make
it work, and it might be the thing that
pushes them from 25 percent [penetration] to 40 or 50 percent.” Raising the
take rate – and moving existing customers to higher bandwidth tiers – can help
recoup the capital expenses of laying fiber
and installing central-office equipment.
The Window of Opportunity
There is a cultural and historical lack
of fit between telcos and the Web 2.0
business model. Web 2.0 is a high-risk
model; telecommunications is traditionally a low-risk business. Offering free
basic services with the hope of profiting
from premium services and upstream users is not a familiar practice for telcos.
Felten recommends that telcos with
FTTH networks move forward with
video communications services, despite
the unfamiliar business model. He says,
“This is essentially a communications
service. As such, it’s really their core
business, so I would expect them to be
good at launching something like that
better than I would expect them to be
good at launching a media offering. ….
They understand the dynamics of how
these services work in terms of adoption,
and how it spreads around the network.
They have a shot that’s credible.”
If service providers don’t take Felten’s
advice about using video communications to reap the “windfall” of higher
take rates, will someone else do it?
Felten believes there are opportunities
for third-party competitors to jump into
the market. Even if the service provider
controls the set-top box, third parties
could launch TV-centric video communications services using the processing
power in game consoles or even in Internet-connected televisions. “I can see this
coming a mile away,” Felten says. “In a
year, Google will launch the service and
[the service providers] will say these guys
are hogging the network.”
Allowing third-party competitors to
seize the window of opportunity might
not be bad for service providers, Felten
admits. They could conceivably reap
most of the rewards from a third-party
video communications service (in the
form of higher take rates) without going
to the trouble of developing and marketing the service in the same way that
Apple derived most of the benefit from
VisiCalc, the killer app for the Apple II
that Software Arts introduced in 1979.
Are You Talking to Me?
A final hurdle for video communications
is interoperability. One reason phone
calls and e-mail are popular is that no
one ever has to think about the other
party’s hardware, software or network.
This has never been true for video communications services.
For video communications to succeed
in the mass market, two kinds of interoperability are needed – between callers on
different FTTH networks, and between
callers on different types of networks.
Until video calling drives everyone to
adopt fiber, some kind of modified communications service between, say, fiber
and DSL networks will still be needed.
Felten advises service providers to address these interoperability issues while
their video communications services are
in the design stage, rather than trying
to retrofit them after they have already
introduced them.
“Work this out from day one so
you don’t hit snags four days on,” he
warns.
IPT V
Capitalizing on the Triple-Play
Opportunity in Regional Markets
The complexity of IPTV deployment has deterred many smaller
providers from implementing it. Turnkey solutions are needed to make
IPTV cost effective in regional markets.
By Chandler Kim, Kevin Krufky and Wim Van Daele ■ Alcatel-Lucent
M
any local and regional communications providers are
confronting increasingly intense competition, which is only expected to become fiercer in the future. According to
a recent report from the Federal Communications Commission, more than
90 percent of ZIP codes in the United
States are served by four or more highspeed broadband providers. In addition,
the market for traditional voice and data
services is often highly commoditized,
resulting in significantly lower margins.
As a result, regional communications providers are looking for new ways
of leveraging their existing network infrastructure and operational capabilities
to drive incremental revenues, increase
competitiveness and position themselves
for future success.
Triple-play services, and IPTV in
particular, offer a way to do so. According to research firm Gartner, by 2012,
annual revenue from IPTV services in
North America is expected to reach $8
billion, up from approximately $2 billion in 2008, and household penetration
for IPTV should reach approximately
Preview
Find out more about AlcatelLucent’s Triple Play Express
solution at the Broadband
8.6 percent, representing a market of
more than 12 million paying subscribers
in North America alone. Clearly, IPTV
offers opportunities to other providers
besides the Tier-1 carriers serving large
metropolitan areas.
Indeed, regionally focused communications providers (operators, utilities and even municipalities) are also
turning to IPTV and related IP video
services to increase their revenues and
combat competitive threats from cable
multiservice operators, satellite providers and innovative Internet video content providers such as Hulu. In a recent
survey of small rural communications
providers by the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, 73
percent of respondents said they intend
to offer fiber to the node to more than 75
percent of their customer base by 2011,
and 55 percent said they plan to offer fiber to the home to more than half their
customer base in that same time frame
– more than double the number from
2008. Data compiled by this magazine
indicate that more than 60 percent of independent telcos deploying fiber to the
home offer, or plan to offer, triple-play
(voice, data, and video) services.
Regional communications providers
investigating this market must address
two important questions:
• Why would prospective subscribers
switch from their existing television
service providers to an IPTV service
provider? In other words, what can
IPTV service providers offer that
their competitors cannot?
About the Authors
Chandler Kim ([email protected], 972-477-0506) is a member of Alcatel-Lucent’s Americas Regional Marketing
team involved with solutions marketing. Kevin Krufky ([email protected], 202-312-5914) is in the Legislative
Counsel division of Alcatel-Lucent, and Wim Van Daele ([email protected], +32 3 240 46 01) is a member of the
Corporate Media Relations team. Alcatel-Lucent is a global provider of end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications
services for people at home, at work and on the move.
77
IPT V
• Can triple-play/IPTV solutions address the requirements of
local and regional operators?
IPTV solutions for regional communications providers are
often capital-intensive and require lengthy, complex systems
integration – exactly the opposite of what this market needs.
Instead, regional providers require end-to-end solutions that
feature robust triple-play/IPTV services – solutions designed
specifically to meet the needs of lower-density markets, providing affordability, reliable service delivery, fast deployment and
shortened “time to money.”
In this article, we explore in more detail the drivers for
IPTV in regional markets, the mandatory requirements for
any end-to-end triple-play/IPTV solution and how initiatives
such as the broadband stimulus program in the United States
can be leveraged to address this opportunity.
The Regional Triple-Play/ IPTV Opportunity
How can regional communications providers (operators, municipalities and utilities alike) successfully position themselves
in a competitive environment where cable, satellite and overthe-top video providers are all battling for customers?
Telcos that offer triple-play services with IPTV can create
compelling offers that will attract additional users. Market
research firm Parks Associates recently reported that the top
reasons for North American subscribers to switch television
6/18/09
10:39:16 AM
providers gldsad-qrtrpageFINAL.pdf
are
•
•
•
•
Cheaper services (compared with what they have today)
Access to bundled services (at a lower cost)
New service features
Better customer support.
Fortunately, regionally focused communications providers,
which often have a lot of expertise in these areas already, can
address all these factors. IPTV has the potential to significantly
transform the end user’s viewing experience – and perceived
value – by combining programming choice and flexibility with
personal communications, social networking, entertainment
and a new breed of interactive services. This highly integrated
entertainment experience offers a wealth of new revenue opportunities; it is a value proposition that will be difficult to
meet by competitive carriers, satellite providers or Internet
video providers.
When launching IPTV services, providers typically start by
offering similar capabilities as their (incumbent) competitors –
that is, basic and premium packages of linear programming,
video on demand and digital video recording. These initial capabilities create a strong foundation for adding a wide variety
of other revenue-generating services, such as targeted advertising, interactive messaging, social networking and cross promotion. Combining these services, and packaging them to meet
local market needs, opens the door to new selling and revenue
opportunities while enabling regional operators to foster the
long-term prosperity of residents and businesses through the
deployment of a wide range of community applications.
How does this work in practice? Two critical elements are
the availability of IPTV solutions that meet the specific requirements of regional players and an optimal use of government (broadband stimulus) funding.
Success Factor 1: Solutions Addressing
Regional Operators’ IPTV Challenges
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
WWW.GLDS.COM
78
800-882-7950
[email protected]
Regional communications providers have historically experienced obstacles to implementing IPTV, often because the solutions offered to them were not designed for their requirements
and business challenges.
The IPTV solutions available were typically very costly for
this market segment and often required highly challenging systems integration efforts as part of their deployment. In more
than a few instances, attempts to integrate and implement
IPTV solutions into a regional service provider’s network and
operations proved dramatically more complex and expensive
than originally projected, often resulting in less-than-satisfactory results.
Regional communications providers that want to capitalize
on the growing IPTV market need an end-to-end, pre-integrated and tested solution that enables a quick, cost-effective
introduction of IPTV – all while presenting subscribers with
a superior entertainment, television-viewing and customerservice experience.
To this end, Alcatel-Lucent recently launched its Triple
Play Express for Regional Operators (TPE) solution – an endto-end triple-play package that robustly supports the delivery
of IPTV services and paves the way for the delivery of a wide
IPT V
range of additional next-generation applications such as distance learning
or e-health. TPE leverages Microsoft
Mediaroom, the most widely deployed
IPTV platform in the world, and has
been sized specifically for regional markets addressing up to 40,000 subscribers. Some of the features supported by
Alcatel-Lucent’s TPE include
• Live TV and radio services using IP
multicast streams (550 channels)
• Pay-per-view service available over
any channel
• Instant channel change (300 milliseconds, compared with two to three
seconds for conventional digital TV
services)
• Video-on-demand service supporting up to 10,000 hours of assets
• Interactive TV guide
• Operator-defined portal with links
to news, weather and community
events, along with customized content to suit the operator’s branding
requirements.
To address regional operators’ concerns, TPE leverages an ecosystem of experienced partners for content licensing,
management, aggregation and distribution. This type of integrated solution enables regional operators to quickly enter
local and regional markets and drive
revenue with compelling triple-play
services.
Success Factor 2: Leveraging
Broadband Stimulus Funding
The broadband stimulus program authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) strongly
encourages enhanced broadband connectivity to schools, libraries, hospitals and
other community facilities.
The first funding round is geared
mainly toward broadband deployments
in areas where broadband connectivity
is poor or lacking. ARRA represents a
unique opportunity for network operators, including regional communications
providers, to upgrade their networks and
greatly enhance their service delivery capabilities. As of this writing, applicants
– most of whom are rural carriers – are
eagerly awaiting the announcement of
initial funding awards.
The broadband stimulus program
focuses on enabling community services that can increase cooperation and
collaboration between public agencies
and citizens, bring communities closer
together and better inform citizens by
sharing information. By leveraging the
broadband stimulus opportunity, regional communications providers can
jump-start their network and services
transformation projects and become key
players in enabling the long-term prosperity of local residents and businesses.
Conclusion
Traditional voice and data services are
highly commoditized, often have low
margins and suffer from significant
competition. Triple-play services, and
IPTV in particular, are a way for local
and regional communication providers to address these critical problems.
Forward-thinking operators that act
quickly can capitalize on subscribers’
willingness to switch from incumbent
service offerings.
To accomplish this, local and regional operators require an end-to-end
solution that allows them to cost effectively provide state-of-the-art IPTV
services to smaller communities, while
building a foundation for the delivery
of even more advanced IP-based applications, including distance learning, ehealth and a wide range of community
service applications.
Alcatel-Lucent’s Triple Play Express for Regional Operators solution
is a packaged IP video solution that
meets these requirements. TPE is costeffective for local and regional markets,
is quickly deployable and helps service
providers position themselves for future
applications, while capturing the related
revenue opportunities.
Note: Alcatel-Lucent has set up a
program to help U.S.-based operators
apply for broadband stimulus funding.
For more information, please visit www.
broadband4all.com/alu.
BroadBand ProPerties
Magazine
Invites You to the Broadband Properties Summit 2010
April 26 • 28, 2010
InterContinental Hotel • Dallas
Addison, Texas
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
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
Visit www.bbpmag.com and
secure your participation today,
or call 877-588-1649.
79
BROADBAND PROPERTIES Marketplace
To reserve space in this section and LEVERAGE the power of your advertising via print, digital, and multimedia exposure in
the global market, contact Irene Prescott at 316-733-9122 or email [email protected].
80
Verizon FiOS:
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Find out if FiOS is available for your multifamily community.
Contact Verizon Enhanced Communities
866.638.6066
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Single Family | Multiple Dwelling Unit | Business
1.800.366.3891 | www.adc.com/carrier
Verizon FiOS services not available in all areas. ©2009 Verizon.
Connecting
®
the fibers of the world...
Hiawatha Broadband Communications Inc.
builds fiber-to-the-premise networks and
provides voice, video and data services to
rural American communities.
A Broadband Properties top 100 broadband company.
From design to deployment...
Through its Total Access ProgramSM (TAP), Corning Connected
Community™ (CCC) and FTTxpert® Program, Corning Cable
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assistance and hands-on training to support every aspect of an
FTTH deployment.Whether you are a contractor,service provider
or consultant, Corning Cable Systems has a program for you.
www.corning.com/cablesystems/ftthprograms
© 2009 Corning Cable Systems LLC
®
FTTxpert
Program
www.hbci.com
Everyone benefits when
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82
Rural Broadband
Sessions Announced
Brought to you by the
Rural Telecommunications Congress
The RTC will host a one-day forum at the Summit to develop
actionable solutions and share practical knowledge about how to
develop and use broadband for rural prosperity.
“Broadband for Rural Prosperity”
•
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Connecting Rural Leaders
Organizing for Broadband
Sustaining Rural Broadband
Rural Broadband Policy
For complete details on the RTC one-day form, visit www.bbpmag.com.
April 26 – 28, 2010
InterContinental Hotel –
Dallas, Addison, Texas
The Leading Conference on Broadband
Technologies and Services
Ad Index
Advertiser
Calendar
Page
ADC
81
Adesta
17
Advanced Media Technologies
Website
www.adc.com
www.adestagroup.com/
broadband5
80
www.amt.com
37, 80
www.afltele.com/go/stimulus
Alcatel-Lucent
19
www.alcatel-lucent.com
Atlantic Engineering
80
www.atlanticengineering.com
AFL Telecommunications
AT&T
Inside Back Cover, 80
www.att.com/communities
Blonder Tongue 82
www.blondertongue.com
Broadband Properties Magazine
73
www.bbpmag.com
1-13, 47, 55, 61, 72, 75, 79, 83, 84
www.broadbandproperties.com
Calix
80
www.calix.com
Clearfield
23
www.clfd.net
82
Summit 2010
Corning Cable Systems
Back Cover, 81
Design Nine
www.connexiontechnologies.net
www.corning.com/cablesystems/
ftthprograms
82
www.designnine.com
DirecTV
15, 81
www.directv.com
Great Lakes Data Systems
78, 82
www.cablebilling.com
Greenfield Communications
82
www.egreenfield.com
Hiawatha Broadband
81
www.hbci.com
Montclair Fiber Optics
82
www.montclairfiber.com
Multicom, Inc.
81
www.multicominc.com
Multilink
65
www.multilinkone.com
Quanta Services
21
www.quantaservices.com
RVA, LLC
25, 80
www.RVALLC.com
Suttle
29
www.suttleonline.com
81
www.verizon.com/communities
MARK YOUR
CALENDAR
April 26 – 28, 2010
Addison, Texas
“… our experience at the show this year was tremendous! You and your team did a great job recruiting
top notch attendees during a tumultuous market. My sales team set meetings with key retrofit targets and
managed to engage potential future developer partners of which we were previously unaware.”
– Carter Steg, Executive Vice President,
Corporate Sales and Marketing, Connexion Technologies
For other inquiries, call 877-588-1649, or visit www.bbpmag.com
84
January
26 – 29
NATPE Market & Conference
Mandalay Bay Resort
Las Vegas, NV
310-453-4440
www.natpe.org
february
22 – 23
NAA Student Housing Conference & Expo
Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino
Las Vegas, NV
703-518-6141
www.naahq.org
march
23 – 25
OFCNFOEC
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, CA
202-416-1975
www.ofcnfoec.org
April
10 – 15
NAB Show
Las Vegas Convention Center
Las Vegas, NV
202-429-5300
www.nabshow.com
26 – 29
Broadband Properties Summit
Addison, Texas
877-588-1649 • www.bbpmag.com
June
24 – 26
NAA Education Conference & Expo
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
New Orleans, LA
703-518-6141
www.naahq.org
September
12 – 16
FTTH Conference & Expo
Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas, NV
613-226-9988
www.ftthconference.com
12 – 16
BICSI Fall Conference & Exhibition
MGM Grand Hotel & Convention Center
Las Vegas, NV
813-979-1991
www.bicsi.org
Connected Communities
How they use it is up to them. How you profit is up to you.
OFFER AT&T CONNECTED COMMUNITIES,2 and your tenants get to customize their ideal
mix of voice and Internet connectivity, with superior options that include U-verse TV
solutions and complimentary access at thousands of Wi-Fi locations. And you’ll profit from
our competitive commissions program. Visit att.com/communities to find out how offering
greater flexibility can also flex your income. S t r e t c h .
att.com/communities
Watches sports. Blogs about sports.
All at the same time.
Out for coffee now, recording shows for later.
© 2009 AT&T Intellectual
Property. All rights rese
rved. AT&T, the AT&T logo
contained herein are trad
and all other AT&T marks
emarks of AT&T Intellect
ual Property and/or AT&T
Subsidiaries and affiliates
affiliated companies.
of AT&T Inc. provide prod
ucts and services under
the AT&T brand.
Runs her business from her PDA.
Evolving Solutions for Today and Tomorrow
How do we quickly and reliably connect a country of nearly four million square miles, containing
over 300 million individuals, and an insatiable demand for information? The American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act has presented the challenge – and Corning Cable Systems is here to help you meet it
head on. Our preconnectorized solutions allow you to deploy fiber quickly, with the highest quality
products available, to ensure your investment provides value today and well into the future.
Let Corning Cable Systems lead the way to a better tomorrow.
www.corning.com/cablesystems/evolant
®
Evolant
Solutions
Everytime. Everywhere. Evolant.
© 2010 Corning Cable Systems LLC

toward a fiber-connected world - Broadband Communities Magazine

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