A Good list of who makes what GPON equipment. I imagine this is a very valuable list for companies selling to the GPON market, but then again if your sales people are good, they should know this list already. Nevertheless, it is the most viewed story on lightreading.
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=155848
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Sign of the Times
You know the economy is bad when people are stealing fiber optic cable...
By KBJR News 1
Thieves Steal Fiber Optic Cable & Create $10,000 In Damages
By KBJR News 1
Superior police officers are investigating a theft at Conner's Point.
Monday morning officers were called there after someone stole 200 feet of fiber optic cable that caused $10,000 in damages and some Century Tel customers to be without phone, internet, and television services for some time.
A Century Tel employee witnessed three people fleeing from the area; two of whom stopped to role a boulder onto the road so they could not be followed.
One suspect is described as a white male in his 40's with short gray hair, wearing a light blue, button-up shirt and blue jeans.
The other two were described as a male in his mid 20's with wavy blonde hair, wearing a white t-shirt and jeans and a woman with brown hair.
They fled in an older white or cream colored ford F-150 pickup truck with a brown trim stripe on the bottom.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Superior Police Department.
Fiber Optics for Wireless
Interesting article on my new favorite topic - Fiber under the sea.
Can Undersea Optic Cables Presage a Boom?
Communications links among countries are like transportation routes in the past, opening up new territories to trade and an economic upsurge
by Om Malik
One thing I've learned about the optical network business, having followed it for more than a decade, is that the boom and bust cycles of the business often mask patterns that have long-term implications. The overbuilding of U.S. networks in the 1990s foretold a bust in the telecom industry. The buying up of bankrupt carriers' assets indicated the rise of new players, including Google, which has built a fearsome infrastructure. These days, all the excitement in the optical business is around new undersea cables being laid (or planned), bridging previously unconnected parts of the world. These cables are, in fact, the early warning signs of a coming economic boom.
Let me explain. In the 1990s, we saw a grotesque number of cables laid under the Atlantic and Pacific, connecting the U.S. with Japan, parts of Asia Pacific, and Europe. Those three regions went through an unprecedented boom, much of it inspired by technological changes that brought millions of people to the Internet. The boom, also inspired by deregulation of the telecom infrastructures in those countries, led to further spending on such communications as wireless phone calls and the high-speed Web. Unfortunately, the demand (captured quite well by bandwidth provider Global Crossing (in the early days) led to overbuilding, oversupply—and eventually a bust.
A similar scenario is now playing out in the Trans-Pacific Region, where cables are being built rapidly, and the bandwidth capacity on existing cables is being doubled. Many more cables under construction will connect with India and China, both of which are going through their own economic booms. According to the World Bank, China is the world's second-largest economy, and India claims the fourth spot. These countries have become economic hubs—not only buying but also selling to the outside world. And a key ingredient of trade is the ability to communicate, which in turn requires the large amount of capacity that can come only with undersea fiber cables.
Communications links among countries are like transportation routes in the past, opening up new territories to trade and an economic upsurge
by Om Malik
One thing I've learned about the optical network business, having followed it for more than a decade, is that the boom and bust cycles of the business often mask patterns that have long-term implications. The overbuilding of U.S. networks in the 1990s foretold a bust in the telecom industry. The buying up of bankrupt carriers' assets indicated the rise of new players, including Google, which has built a fearsome infrastructure. These days, all the excitement in the optical business is around new undersea cables being laid (or planned), bridging previously unconnected parts of the world. These cables are, in fact, the early warning signs of a coming economic boom.
Let me explain. In the 1990s, we saw a grotesque number of cables laid under the Atlantic and Pacific, connecting the U.S. with Japan, parts of Asia Pacific, and Europe. Those three regions went through an unprecedented boom, much of it inspired by technological changes that brought millions of people to the Internet. The boom, also inspired by deregulation of the telecom infrastructures in those countries, led to further spending on such communications as wireless phone calls and the high-speed Web. Unfortunately, the demand (captured quite well by bandwidth provider Global Crossing (in the early days) led to overbuilding, oversupply—and eventually a bust.
A similar scenario is now playing out in the Trans-Pacific Region, where cables are being built rapidly, and the bandwidth capacity on existing cables is being doubled. Many more cables under construction will connect with India and China, both of which are going through their own economic booms. According to the World Bank, China is the world's second-largest economy, and India claims the fourth spot. These countries have become economic hubs—not only buying but also selling to the outside world. And a key ingredient of trade is the ability to communicate, which in turn requires the large amount of capacity that can come only with undersea fiber cables.
Connecting Up Africa
The latest such effort is Seacom, a $650 million, 15,000km cable connecting East Africa with Asia and Europe. It is expected to be completed next June and provide 1.28 terabits per second of network capacity. This is just tip of the iceberg. According to TeleGeography, a research firm that tracks the global broadband business, 12 cables either in planning stages or under construction will connect Africa to the rest of the planet. Those connections will have a theoretical capacity of more than 13 terabits per second, and construction is estimated to cost more than $3 billion.
Why so much connectivity? After all, PC penetration is abysmally low in Africa. The answer is cell phones. At the beginning of 2008, the continent had a quarter of a billion mobile subscribers, according to the International Telecommunications Union, and Portio Research expects the number to increase to 378 million by 2011. Local companies are furiously building out networks, and by all indications, overall market penetration is going to increase from the 28% mark reported at the start of this year. Cell phones require networks to transfer calls between countries, so there is a need for networks to circle the continent—or at least countries where demand is greatest, such as Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
In the recent past, India went through a similar cycle, in which a spurt in mobile sales acted as a catalyst for the overall economy. Phone calls provide the vital connections for trade to flourish in areas hitherto unconnected. Something similar is happening in Africa, where mobile banking has emerged as a facilitator of cross-border trade.
You can see a similar scenario set to play out in other parts of the world. About five cables on the drawing board or under construction will connect Cambodia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and some of the smaller countries in Asia. All these countries are going through an economic upsurge and are becoming part of the global economic system.
This leads me to my conclusion: Building new cables is the equivalent to adding new roads, new shipping lanes, or flights. The undersea fibers of today are what sea trading routes were in the past—an indicator of future economic activity and a subsequent boom.
The latest such effort is Seacom, a $650 million, 15,000km cable connecting East Africa with Asia and Europe. It is expected to be completed next June and provide 1.28 terabits per second of network capacity. This is just tip of the iceberg. According to TeleGeography, a research firm that tracks the global broadband business, 12 cables either in planning stages or under construction will connect Africa to the rest of the planet. Those connections will have a theoretical capacity of more than 13 terabits per second, and construction is estimated to cost more than $3 billion.
Why so much connectivity? After all, PC penetration is abysmally low in Africa. The answer is cell phones. At the beginning of 2008, the continent had a quarter of a billion mobile subscribers, according to the International Telecommunications Union, and Portio Research expects the number to increase to 378 million by 2011. Local companies are furiously building out networks, and by all indications, overall market penetration is going to increase from the 28% mark reported at the start of this year. Cell phones require networks to transfer calls between countries, so there is a need for networks to circle the continent—or at least countries where demand is greatest, such as Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
In the recent past, India went through a similar cycle, in which a spurt in mobile sales acted as a catalyst for the overall economy. Phone calls provide the vital connections for trade to flourish in areas hitherto unconnected. Something similar is happening in Africa, where mobile banking has emerged as a facilitator of cross-border trade.
You can see a similar scenario set to play out in other parts of the world. About five cables on the drawing board or under construction will connect Cambodia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and some of the smaller countries in Asia. All these countries are going through an economic upsurge and are becoming part of the global economic system.
This leads me to my conclusion: Building new cables is the equivalent to adding new roads, new shipping lanes, or flights. The undersea fibers of today are what sea trading routes were in the past—an indicator of future economic activity and a subsequent boom.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Underwater
After visiting the Tyco plant in Portsmouth, NH earlier this year. I now find this stuff fascinating. What an amazing use of fiber and the facility is absolutely humongous. What a large scale operation.
http://thecabledirectory.com/newsdetails.asp?id=6684
http://thecabledirectory.com/newsdetails.asp?id=6684
He's Baack!
Sorry it has been a crazy several months, but I am back and ready to blog you with the latest and greatest fiber optic related news. Starting tomorrow I will be reconvening with the business of bringing you the latest in fiber optic news and will be branching out from FTTH and GPON to military and other interesting (I almost typed 'exciting') uses of fiber technology.
SteveO
SteveO
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Goodbye SENKO
Well, it was a good run, but I left SENKO Advanced Components on Jan 31, 2008. Goodbye and good luck.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Customer Premise - The Forgotten Piece of the Puzzle
From a company in MN whose specialty is the last 10 ft of FTTx networks and the transition to the new platform.
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The field work is complete with the fiber installed and spliced. The CO equipment is ready and the vendor has provided training for key staff. Now it is time to start moving customers to the new network. The question is how to best implement this portion of the project.
There have been many improvements enabling service providers to streamline their deployments and cut installation costs. Pre-connectorized drops and advances in premise splicing equipment have made the installation process manageable for field personnel.
What has been overlooked with most of the engineering plans and requests for proposal is the customer premise.
The average customer with POTS and maybe DSL takes for granted that when they pick up their phone or turn on their computer they will have service. They will question why you are fixing something that is not broke! While a portion of your customer base is knowledgeable of broadband and will be awaiting the upgrade most will need to be educated on the benefits of your new network.
The vast majority of customers I have encountered had little or no knowledge of why they needed to upgrade or what the benefits would be for them. They were asked to sign a permit to allow the drop to be installed and equipment placed on their home.
The next contact they had was a customer service person calling to schedule the appointment for transition to the new platform.
Customers with POTS only don’t understand the need to install the UPS and associated power cable to support a service they already have that is working.
Installation of the UPS inside the premise were power is available and the location is acceptable to the home owner is a challenge with almost every residence.
DSL customers want higher speed and reliability but many times will need the internal wiring to their computer or router upgraded to support the advanced services.
Adding video to this equation be it RF or IP can further complicate the deployment.
You may need to qualify the existing customer wiring and update or replace connectors and or passives. When deploying IP based solutions will you use the existing coax and media converters or run new cat5 cable? When a CPE is used it will need to be integrated into the customers existing home entertainment equipment.
With all these issues to consider the ultimate challenge is getting into the customer premise to begin with.
Scheduling installations that will work into your customers schedule as well as the schedule of needed support staff at the CO can be painstaking.
To the customer this is an inconvenience and the time allotted for the appointment difficult to determine due to the number of unknown factors.
Educating your customers on what will take place and the benefits to them will reduce friction for both parties. I have been involved in many deployments across the country and have seen several approaches to these issues. Town meetings have been used in cooperatives that outlined the project with updates via news letters. Direct mailing to customers explaining the project with a hotline for questions is another method utilized by service providers.
When the time comes to activate the premise network customer service is crucial. The wiring needs to be done in a manner that is acceptable to the home owner and within NEC and or RUS guidelines. The installation staff must be knowledgeable of the equipment and capable of activating all services in one visit and in a timely manner. When installation is complete the customer must have services that are comparable to or better than what they had on the copper network. Your business case will determine the pace of the upgrade and whether to utilize in-house staff contractors or both.
Hiring additional staff to expedite the rollout of new services is one answer but requires upfront expenditures for vehicles, tools and training. Then once the upgrade is complete the inherent lower maintenance of fiber networks will require less staff in the long term.
Cable companies have used contract installers for many years to fill the inevitable peaks and valleys of the work flow associated with their industry. Most premise contractors today are required to be skilled in triple play installations.
Whatever route is taken the installation technician is many times the only direct contact your customers will ever have with your company. They need to present themselves in a professional manner and extend the values of your company while being able to produce a quality installation.
The bottom line is not to alienate your customers in this process and lose them to your competitors. By providing the best possible customer service you will be able to keep and grow your customer base.
Patrick McNelis
Director of Field Service
PONtech Corp
www.pontechcorp.com
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