Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Goodbye SENKO
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Customer Premise - The Forgotten Piece of the Puzzle
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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.comMonday, October 22, 2007
Broadbandtrends: FTTH systems revenue peaks in 2009
OCTOBER 22, 2007 -- The global FTTH market is currently entering a period of growth that will peak in 2009, says market research and analysis firm broadbandtrends in its recently published report, FTTH Equipment Market Begins to "See the Light."
The growth comes as an increasing number of Tier 1 operators across Asia Pacific, EMEA, and North America deploy FTTH networks on a large scale. Additionally, demand for higher bandwidth (particularly in support of multi-stream HDTV IPTV video services), strong competition from cable and alternative operators, escalating costs to maintain copper infrastructure, continuing innovations and cost reductions in optical infrastructure, increasing FTTH interoperability activity, as well as the ability to converge all services onto a single network, are helping to reinforce the attractiveness of FTTH for many operators.
As shown in the figure, PON systems will experience the strongest growth and account for greater than 85 percent of total FTTH systems revenue throughout the forecast period. At the present time, total FTTH systems revenue is expected to reach its peak value during 2009 before experiencing downward pressure, primarily due to declining price points.Major report highlights include:
- Global FTTH systems revenue is expected to reach its peak value of $3.0 billion in 2009.
- PON systems revenue will dominate the global FTTH market throughout the forecast period.
- GPON will overtake EPON revenue by 2009 and shipments in 2010.
- Asia Pacific will consume the largest portion of FTTH equipment through 2011, when North America takes over.
- North America's share of FTTH subscribers will grow from 10 percent in 2006 to 22 percent by 2012.
- Nearly 170 million homes will be passed by FTTH by 2012.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
If It's Good Enough For TRUMP...
Two of Donald Trump's Super-Luxurious Buildings to Get Verizon's Super-Fast FiOS Internet Connections
Residents of The Trump World Tower at United Nations Plaza and Trump Park Avenue Will Enjoy the Most Advanced, Fiber-Powered Technology and Ability to Surf the Internet at Speeds of Up to 50 MbpsTrump...
By PR Newswire
NEW YORK,
Trump Organization Chairman and
Trump Organization Chief Operating Officer
"At Trump Properties we provide super-luxurious accommodations and the latest technology to serve our residents," said Calamari. "When we learned that there's an even more advanced network in the marketplace that can deliver the fastest Internet connections, we wanted to bring it immediately to our residents. It's technology that we believe will support future technologies our residents will adopt."
The plans for FiOS at The Trump World Tower at United Nations Plaza (845 United Nations Plaza) and Trump Park Avenue (502 Park Ave.) reflect the competitive advantage Verizon's fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network offers developers in marketing their properties.
Vice President of Verizon Enhanced Communities Eric Cevis said, "We are working as fast as we can to bring FiOS Internet services to residents in
At 50 Mbps, downloading a 1.2 GB (gigabyte), or 90-minute, standard- definition movie takes only 3.2 minutes.
Cevis also noted that FiOS TV, Verizon's feature-rich service, could be made available to the two Trump properties and elsewhere in the city once a local video franchise is approved. In New York, cable TV service providers are required by law to negotiate franchises with municipalities they hope to serve.
Verizon's FiOS Internet service in New York offers download speeds of up to 10, 20 and 50 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 5 Mbps. Verizon is constructing its all-fiber-optic network throughout the state. Currently, Verizon offers FiOS Internet service in many parts of the five boroughs of New York and elsewhere throughout the state. FiOS TV service is available on Long Island and in Westchester and Rockland counties.
The Trump World Tower at United Nations Plaza is the tallest residential complex in the Western Hemisphere. It offers over-sized condominium residences and penthouses on 90 floors -- a total of 376 living units. Trump Park Avenue, the former Delmonico Hotel, offers residences from one to seven bedrooms, including full-floor apartments, an extraordinary duplex and penthouses on 35 floors. Both Trump properties offer residents a fitness center, valet and laundry service, and more.
FiOS Internet was named to the top five of PC World Magazine's 100 Best Products of 2007 - a roster of what the magazine called "the finest products and services of the past 12 months," selected "based on exemplary design, features, performance and innovation." Readers of PC World and Computerworld magazines recently ranked FiOS Internet No. 1, with top scores across the board in overall satisfaction, connection reliability, download and upload speeds, customer service, and technical support. Additionally, Verizon is the only major telecom company whose network has earned the certification of the independent Fiber to the Home Council for providing fiber all the way to customers' homes.
For more information about The Trump World Tower at United Nations Plaza, visit www.trumpworldtower.com; for more information about Trump Park Avenue, visit www.trumpparkavenue.com.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Fios is catching on in Dallas and nationwide, Verizon exec says
And more than 100,000 subscribe to the company's fiber-optic television service, Mark Wegleitner said in an interview after his keynote speech at the Telephony Live conference in Dallas.
"Things are going very well down here with Fios," Mr. Wegleitner said.
But while Fios got its start in the Dallas area – Keller, specifically – the technology is quickly spreading nationwide.
Roughly 9 million American households will be able to sign up for Fios by the end of the year, and that number is expected to double by 2011.
The service is available to about 400,000 homes in the Dallas area.
Verizon had about 1.1 million Fios Internet customers nationwide as of June 30, an increase of 203,000 since the first quarter of the year.
Fios TV customers totaled more than 515,000 at the end of June, an increase of 167,000.
Verizon also announced Wednesday that it has applied to make its video service available to an additional 15,000 homes in Far North Dallas and North Grand Prairie.
Fios is one of Verizon's biggest bets, as the company is investing nearly $23 billion between 2004 and 2010 in creating an ultrahigh-speed network that is designed to last two decades or more.
For example, some employees are already testing in their homes Fios connections with download at speeds as fast as 100 megabits per second, whereas most home broadband Internet connections in the U.S. now are 5 megabits per second or less.
And it's a bet that, so far, other television, telephone and Internet providers have declined to copy by building their own to-the-home fiber networks, although AT&T may be coming closest with its U-Verse system.
Mr. Wegleitner said the investment will pay off, though, and said Verizon expects to benefit from laying the groundwork for the bandwidth-intensive applications of the future, from high-definition video to playing massive, online video and computer games.
Here are some excerpts from the interview.
Why is Fios important to Verizon?
"The consumer area is extremely important to us. The movement of that market to broadband at the current rate is unprecedented. What we've done with Fios is build a vehicle out there where we can provide services to feed that hunger for those broadband applications.
"It's a platform on which we can provide any number of services in the voice, video, data and wireless domain. That's why we picked Fios. It was a tough decision, because it's a lot of money. But on the other hand, it's the platform that can take us into the next decade."
With the download speeds currently available on Fios, is the goal to make the Fios TV offering eventually a pure IPTV technology, where consumers can just download any show they want at any time rather than having to adhere to a network schedule?
"I may be a bit of a contrarian on this, because it's very easy to jump on the bandwagon and say it's all going to be viewing on demand and time-shifted programming. But the fact of the matter is, there are still two very important things out there today that do have a time component to them, and that's news and sports. So if you're going to do news and sports, you're probably into something akin to broadcasting.
"The other thing is, and this is where my contrarian side probably kicks in, I think there are social events built around TV. This is just a cultural thing. When you get to the office on Friday morning, there are a number of people who probably want to talk about the show right then. They saw it as soon as it was available, and they're excited about what happened, and they want to discuss it around the water cooler."
Right now, the fastest available Fios Internet connection is 50 megabits per second in some cities (30 megabits per second in the Dallas area). When will see 100-megabit-per-second connections?
"We're already testing 100-megabit-per-second service to a couple of employees. It works fine. It doesn't mean we're going to go there right away [as a commercial offering], because there aren't very many applications out there right now that could use 100 megabits per second. But the nice thing about this technology is it gives us the headroom for the things we see coming."
Will the average consumer ever need that kind of speed?
"I think we're already seeing a demand for speed that is certainly greater than DSL. Ultimately, we would see applications that would push DSL beyond the limit. Fios investment is a minimum of a 15-year investment. We put in a technology that has a 15, 20, 25 year life, because we've got a broad number of things to do."
Do you encourage software makers to make online applications that need that kind of speed, such as a high-definition video download service?
"We have conversations with hundreds of different companies that are specializing in certain areas, and a whole group that is multimedia applications and service focused. But frankly, I don't think they're going to need a lot of stimulus from us. There is an engine that runs, which is that if you put the device and the network in place, the applications will show up, and vice versa."
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
FTTM - Fiber to the Mountain
Monday, September 24, 2007
Investors can cash in as demand for fiber optics takes off
Fiber-optic cable, typically made of ultrapure glass, can carry vast amounts of data via light. During the boom days of the Internet bubble, phone companies buried vast amounts of fiber-optic cable, in part because they assumed that Internet traffic would soar.
Many companies initially laid large cables underground, even though many of the fibers wouldn't be used at first.
In the years since the dot-com boom, engineers have figured out how to move more data through the same amount of fiber, increasing the fiber-optic capacity. As a result, there are still untold miles of unused fiber cable, or dark fiber, in the USA.
But now, demand for new fiber-optic cable is zooming. "Worldwide, we expect double-digit growth rates in fiber-optic cable demand the next few years," says Richard Mack of KMI Research/CRU, a London-based research firm. One key reason: the boom in moving video and audio files via the Internet.
The light fantastic
Watching a video on the Internet sops up far more bandwidth than just surfing websites does. The proliferation of video sites such as YouTube means that consumers have been demanding more and more bandwidth, to move files at faster speeds.
Fiber-optic cable demand should rise 10% in the USA this year, Mack says, and by as much as 15% in China and 20% in India. Each nation has different reasons for high demand:
•USA. There's plenty of dark cable left, mainly around large metro areas. And telecom companies are still laying cable. "It's part of forward planning," Mack says. "As we speak, people are putting in more cable than they need."
Demand for U.S. fiber-optic cable isn't coming from companies that are laying fiber for 20 years from now; it's mainly from companies that are connecting houses and apartments to existing fiber-optic lines. Despite all the cable available between cities, telecommunications companies still have to run cable down streets to link homes and offices to the existing lines.
About 1.3 million U.S. households, or 1.3% of all, were connected directly to fiber-optic lines in July, according to the Fiber-to-the-Home Council, a trade group. That number has grown to about 2% of households since then and could reach 25% within three years, says David St. John, spokesman for the group.
Verizon is spearheading the fiber-to-home growth in the USA. It connected about 203,000 new customers to its FiOS broadband and TV services in the second quarter of 2007. The company plans to spend a staggering $23 billion on its fiber-optic network by 2010. "Verizon is betting the farm on it," St. John says.
Helping to accelerate fiber-to-the-home growth is new bendable fiber, which makes it easier to connect apartment buildings to fiber-optic cable. Fiber-optic cable has high capacity. But it can crack or lose capacity if it's bent too sharply. On Wednesday, Corning, the largest U.S. producer of fiber-optic cable, introduced its ClearCurve cable, which it says is as bendable as copper wire — yet has about 3 million times the capacity.
•China. Chinese fiber-optic-cable demand has grown about 20% a year the past few years, Mack says, but will slow to about 15% this year because China has already built much of its city-to-city backbone. Still, the Chinese will use a great deal of cable as they prepare for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
•India. India is still building its Internet backbone, and demand for fiber-optic cable should grow about 20% a year, Mack says.
The biggest player in the fiber-optic-cable business is Corning. And it's a favorite among those who are bullish on fiber stocks. "Our biggest play there is Corning," says Kevin Landis, manager of Firsthand Technology Value fund.
Fiber options
Landis figures that Corning will benefit from the push to hook up households via optical fiber. He also thinks Corning will benefit from international growth. "Even though WorldCom deployed too much fiber across the Great Plains, that doesn't help China any."
Corning's stock performance hasn't lived up to its potential: It's up just 3.3% the past 12 months. Daniel Scalzi, CEO of Matrix USA, a Wall Street research firm, thinks the company has to shore up its balance sheet: "When you look at its profit margin and valuation, it doesn't work for us. They're spending a lot of money to make not enough money. That said, they're in a great business."
Ken Croft, manager of Croft-Leominster Value, suggests Cisco, which makes much of the equipment necessary for fiber-optic telecom. The stock has soared 40.8% over the past 12 months. But it isn't cheap: The stock is selling for 21.8 times its 2009 estimated earnings. (The price-earnings ratio tells you how expensive a stock is, relative to earnings. Lower is better.)
Another suggestion: General Cable, (BGC) which makes copper as well as fiber-optic cable. The stock has soared nearly 80% the past 12 months, and it sells for about 16 times its 2008 estimated earnings. But it's volatile: It's fallen about 15% the past three months.
A final possibility: Sumitomo Electric, a Japanese company with a fiber-optic-cable division.
