ExperimentingExperimenting WithWith FiberFiber Fiber to the home inspires providers to try out new applications and services.

By Masha Zager ■ Broadband Properties

ometimes, fiber-to-the-home providers seem to be en- tomers “flick” photos from their iPads to their televisions. gaged in a bandwidth race: In this roundup alone, Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola, in addition to selling their SFibrant Communications launches with 100 Mbps own networking equipment, are both helping customers in- service, Verizon offers 150 Mbps, and Bell Aliant ups the tegrate and install a version of IPTV ante to 170 Mbps. Not that we’re complaining – it’s great for middleware that is scaled for smaller telcos. businesses and individuals to be able to order up the band- Another sign of the times: A start-up operator in Mary- width they need. land announced the first major U.S. deployment of WDM- But FTTH is also inspiring other, more interesting ex- PON, one of the new generation of FTTH technologies that periments with services that range (again, just in the next will eventually displace GPON. We’ll be interested to see few pages) from the smart grid to TV Everywhere, from what subscribers will do with the capabilities that WDM- business continuity to home monitoring and video surveil- PON enables. lance. Verizon is experimenting with a feature that lets cus- – MZ

INDEPENDENT TELCOS Hancock Telecom Merges With Electric Co-op To Deliver Home-Run Fiber Services In a unique collaboration, Hancock cock’s, was interested in automated me- After the Indiana General Assembly Telecom, a cooperative in Indiana, has ter reading and also wanted to prepare approved a legal change that allowed merged with Central Indiana Power so for the demand-response initiatives pro- the companies to merge, cooperative it can deliver smart-grid services, along posed by the Wabash Valley Power As- members ratified the action by large majorities, and the merger took place with the standard triple play, over fiber sociation, the regional power provider. at the beginning of 2011. Deployment to the home. The two cooperatives, which had of smart-grid technology can start im- Hancock was an early adopter of collaborated on other projects, agreed mediately in the original Hancock FTTH technology and has built out to transmit the meter readings via Telecom service area; the company also fiber to nearly all premises in its service Hancock’s FTTH network – and then hopes to build out fiber in the rest of the area. Central Indiana Power, an electric agreed that merging their operations power utility territory, where it can offer co-op whose territory overlapped Han- would simplify the joint effort. competitive telecom services. Tim Hills, formerly president of Hancock Telecom and now president of the merged entity, NineStar Con- Find out more about new nect, says, “I know this is being watched FTTH services at the Broadband closely throughout the nation, both on the telecom and electric side. I would Properties Summit in Dallas, hope we’re on the cutting edge.” Before the merger took place, Cen- April 26–28. tral Indiana Power selected Tantalus as the technology platform for its smart

30 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2011 grid. Eric Murray, Tantalus president FTTH Communications and CEO, FilmOn. “Cable providers and CEO, comments, “By collaborating Partners With FilmOn small and large see the importance of with Hancock, CIP can extend connec- Fiber-to-the-home provider FTTH extending their cable service beyond tivity to other points in the distribution Communications, a competitive telco the television and the home, which the network via the telecom’s existing infra- in Minnesota with about 1,200 sub- FilmOn Mobile platform can provide structure. It’s a logical next step that scribers, launched a strategic partnership quickly and easily.” will accelerate smart-grid rollout, avoids with -based FilmOn.com for FilmOn has made its OEM platform the cost and complexity of building and TV Everywhere–type services. Through available to network affiliates, cable maintaining two separate communica- the multiyear partnership, which is networks, individual channels and con- tions networks, and consolidates billing, FilmOn’s first OEM deal, FTTH will tent providers that want to get into the customer service and many other busi- allow subscribers to watch its cable net- online broadcast business quickly and work channels on mobile devices or over ness functions under one roof.” inexpensively. The Java-based platform the Web. FTTH will share a portion of can deliver HDTV-quality content over Tom Seng, president and CEO of its incremental revenues with FilmOn. virtually any mobile device, PC or lap- Central Indiana Power before the mer- “The FilmOn platform gives our top with an Internet connection. ger, says the utility-telecom alliance subscribers the ability to see our con- Through integration with Comscore creates a new breed of cooperative. tent virtually everywhere,” says Jeffrey Beacon, content providers can provide “Broadband opens the door to fantastic Feldman, president, FTTH Commu- advertisers with detailed user analytics. entertainment and education opportun- nications. “The platform adds a service However, FilmOn has been sued by the ities and so much more. When used in that separates us from much larger cable major television networks, and its legal combination with Tantalus’ smart-grid networks and quickly adds subscribers status is currently in doubt. technology, it will enable us to introduce to our all-digital cable network.” new programs that can help members “FTTH is an excellent initial partner Milestones for GVTC, save money on their monthly bill and to provide the FilmOn Mobile platform Cincinnati Bell improve customer service, which are to its subscriber base as a manageable GVTC, a cooperative provider in Texas, both central to our goals.” test group,” says Alki David, founder passed the halfway point of its $35

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January/February 2011 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 31 holds now subscribing to its Fioptics RUS Funds Fiber Projects product suite. Fioptics offers digital tele- vision with more than 325 channels as With the broadband stimulus funds awarded, the Rural Utilities Service well as Internet access with speeds up to turned its attention back to the Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan 100 Mbps. Program. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced $247.9 mil- Three-time stimulus award winner lion in loans for FTTH projects in 11 states (see below), saying, “These loans Halstad Telephone Company (HTC) help provide the level of financial assistance required to deliver health care, selected ADC’s fiber connectivity and educational, social and financial services to benefit rural economies.” management solutions for its FTTP net- Of the companies listed below, Cordova Telephone Cooperative, work. The network deployment, which Nelson Telephone Cooperative and Southwest Arkansas Telephone began early in 2010 and is expected to Cooperative will be building fiber to the home for the first time. be completed in mid-2011, includes residences and businesses in Hillsboro, RUS Loan Recipient State Loan Amount N.D., and six exchanges in and around ($ Millions) Halstad, Minn. Tom Maroney, chief ex- Central Montana Communications MT $38.8 ecutive officer of HTC, says, “With its (Triangle Communications) compact and easy-to-use design, ADC’s www.itstriangle.com equipment, such as the LSX panel, can be installed quickly and economically, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Telephone SD $37.9 making it a good fit for our needs. Also, Authority ADC’s fast response to our unique de- www.crstta.com ployment challenges more than met our Cordova Telephone Cooperative AK $10.8 expectations.” (ADC is now a subsidiary www.ctcak.net of Tyco Electronics.) Garden Valley Telephone Company MN $34.2 Currently, HTC provides residen- www.gvtel.com tial and business data services to 2,500 locations. With the almost 280 miles Interstate 35 Telephone Company IA $7.1 of fiber added in 2010 and nearly 300 www.interstatecom.com miles of fiber optic cable to be added in Nelson Telephone Cooperative WI $22.1 the months ahead, HTC will be able to www.nelson-tel.net increase its broadband capability to 100 Mbps at these locations. Range Telephone Cooperative MT, $18.0 Granby Telephone Company www.rangeweb.net WY (GTC) launched a multiphase FTTH Reservation Telephone Cooperative ND $32.3 initiative in southwestern Missouri that www.reservation-telephone.com uses fiber management equipment from South Central Telephone Association KS $10.2 Clearfield. The first phase of the deploy- www.sctelcom.net ment, affecting approximately 2,500 subscribers, is scheduled to be com- Southern Montana Telephone Company MT $5.5 pleted next summer; the entire project is www.smtel.com slated for completion in 2014. Southwest Arkansas Telephone Cooperative AR $22.4 Kevin Johnson, the project man- www.swat.coop ager, says, “The biggest selling point to our customers has probably been the Tularosa Basin Telephone Company NM $8.6 value this will bring to their homes. Re- www.tularosa.net altors tell us that a property’s worth is much greater if it has fiber to the home. Eventually this brings people on board. million fiber network upgrade project. maintenance costs for the company. Whether customers are trying the Inter- In 2010, the company brought fiber to The company, which offers 40 Mbps -In net for the first time or they’re taking 4,729 homes, for a total of more than ternet access, recently boosted its cable bigger and broader services packages, it television lineup by adding 13 channels, has significantly increased our sales in 9,350 since the project began in 2007. with nine of them in high definition. these areas where fiber is already up.” GVTC says its investment is already Cincinnati Bell also announced a To manage the many fibers in this paying dividends with a highly reli- milestone, with more than 25,000 Cin- active Ethernet deployment, GTC is able network for customers and lower cinnati and northern Kentucky house- using Clearfield’s FieldSmart Fiber

32 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2011 Crossover Distribution System, a cus- tom-configured system of fiber man- ”The biggest selling point to our customers has agement components. The components used in this configuration will be Clear- probably been the value this will bring to their view Patch and Splice Cassettes and FxDS Tie Panels loaded with multifiber homes. Realtors tell us that a property’s worth is breakout-style cables. much greater if it has fiber to the home.” South Slope Cooperative Com- munications Company, Iowa’s largest telephone cooperative, is also partnering ny’s desire to provide high-quality TV According to local press, Cass Com- with Clearfield on an FTTH deployment services to its customers. Now nearly munications, a rural provider in Illi- that will ultimately cover 310 square 15,000 of its customers will have access nois, is building fiber to the home in the miles between Iowa City and Cedar Rap- to IPTV as the company deploys Alca- town of Literberry. Outside the town, a ids, Iowa, and cover South Slope’s entire tel-Lucent’s preintegrated Triple Play WiMAX extension to the fiber network ILEC service area. The company, which Express (TPE) solution. will provide broadband services to rural has already offered FTTH for six years, TPE is a packaged, end-to-end IP residents. has approximately 2,500 subscribers in video solution scaled for regional op- 16 Iowa communities. Like GTC, South erators, utilities and municipalities with Calix Announces Slope is using Clearfield’s FieldSmart Fi- as few as 5,000 IPTV subscribers. This Customer Wins ber Crossover Distribution System. TPE deployment will include the micro- As telcos ramp up their stimulus-funded West Carolina Tel, a telephone co- architecture version of the Microsoft Me- projects, vendors are seeing the re- operative in South Carolina, is nearly diaroom platform, along with video on wards for their patience in the form of finished rolling out FTTH throughout demand, HDTV, remote DVR, an Op- contracts for hardware, software and its incumbent service area – a project erator Mosaic Channel, an applications construction services. As of December, that was driven largely by the compa- dashboard and enhanced Caller ID. Calix, the dominant FTTH electron-

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January/February 2011 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 33 pect of bringing advanced broadband ”Fiber is obviously the way of the future for services such as IPTV to the area,” says Bruce Johnson, president and CEO of New Windsor to be able to provide the C-M-L Telephone Cooperative. John- son says the new high-speed network advanced services, DVR functionality will greatly benefit small-business own- and HDTV our customers demand.” ers in the area, many of whom work out of their homes. Benton Ridge Telephone plans to extend high-speed services in its north- ics vendor in the rural telco sector, was designed by HunTel Engineering that western Ohio service areas to rural selected as the electronics vendor for consists of a 10 Gbps Ethernet transport communities without access to wireline last-mile stimulus projects totalling ring connecting Calix’s C7 multiservice broadband. Rick Rostorfer, telephone about $225 million. (Only about 15 per- access platform and E7 Ethernet service systems manager at Benton Ridge Tele- cent of project costs are accounted for by access platform. Each residence, busi- phone, notes, “This award enables us to network electronics.) Recent customer ness and community institution will bring the rural areas up to speed, provid- wins include the following: receive GPON services terminating at a ing subscribers with the opportunity to Wikstrom Telephone Company variety of 700GE ONTs. improve their quality of life through bet- (Wiktel) will build a GPON and Baldwin Telecom Inc. (BTI) se- ter access to resources.” VDSL2/ADSL2+ network that will lected the E7 platform for a project that Mountain Rural Telephone Coop- serve an estimated 12,000 people, 1,500 will use GPON technology to bring erative Corporation will build out fi- businesses and 83 community institu- voice, video and high-speed data services ber across four counties in eastern Ken- tions in rural Minnesota. The network to more than 1,500 unserved or under- tucky. Once completed, its network will will be engineered around a Calix E7 served households, small businesses and reach more than 15,000 businesses and Ethernet service access platform 10GE institutions in Troy, Wis. BTI will de- residences in a mountainous area with ring and will use the E7 and E5-100 ploy the modular E7-2 platform in com- little existing infrastructure. Ethernet service access node platforms bination with 725 ONTs. In a non-stimulus-related project, Palmetto Rural Telephone Coop- with the 720GE family of optical net- New Windsor Telephone, Reynolds erative (PRTC) of Walterboro, S.C., work terminals (ONTs). Telephone and Woodhull Telephone the only non-stimulus-related deployer Two other Minnesota telcos, Fed- Company will offer services to custom- in this group, is deploying the E7 plat- erated Telephone Cooperative and ers in rural counties across west-central form and a variety of 700GX ONTs to Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, Illinois. The companies are members upgrade its entire network infrastruc- selected the E7 Ethernet service access of the Western Illinois Video (WIV) ture to GPON. Services will include platform and 700GX/GE families of Group, a consortium formed to enable IPTV, VoIP and Internet access capable ONTs. “Lac qui Parle County is benefit- its members to offer advanced video ser- of up to 1 Gbps. ting from a confluence of events and re- vices. Consortium members share an PRTC also plans to use GPON for sources that will have a transformational IPTV headend located at Oneida Tele- mobile backhaul to facilitate advanced impact on our county for decades to phone Exchange, another consortium mobile services in the region. In total, come,” says Pam Lehman, executive di- member. With many member compa- more than 9,500 homes, 150 businesses rector of the Lac qui Parle County Eco- nies migrating to FTTH, the group se- and many cell towers will benefit from nomic Development Authority. this seven-year phased initiative. lected Occam’s BLC 6000 platform for “Until now, residents and businesses its of DSL, Gigabit Ethernet and in the southern half of our county were Occam Announces GPON technologies. severely limited in their ability to access Customer Wins “Fiber is obviously the way of the broadband. Once this project is com- Occam Networks, whose acquisition by future for New Windsor to be able to pleted, we believe, our county will have Calix is pending as we went to press, has provide the advanced services, DVR one of the most advanced broadband also been designated as the vendor for functionality and HDTV our custom- infrastructures in the country. We have many stimulus-related projects. Recent ers demand,” says Troy Nimrick, general very high expectations for the future announcements of customers that se- manager. “A real aid to our success has economic and community benefits that lected Occam’s BLC 6000 multiservice been the ability to work across a variety this project will provide to the thousands access platform for their FTTH net- of broadband technologies and across of residents and hundreds of businesses works include the following: WIV member companies on Occam’s and farms.” C-M-L Telephone Cooperative BLC 6000 platform.” Southwest Telephone Exchange, a will deliver IPTV and other high-speed A longtime Occam customer, New subsidiary of Interstate 35 Telephone services in northwestern Iowa. “There’s a Windsor began deploying active Eth- Company in Iowa, is building a network real community excitement at the pros- ernet for an FTTH project serving its

34 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2011 CLEC territory last year. Reynolds Tele- with $54 million in loans and $45.9 vices to about 6,000 subscribers in 25 phone also deployed Occam’s GPON million in grants from the broadband master-planned residential communi- solution for an FTTH project serving stimulus program, will serve 19 Texas ties (and also provides HFC services in its local exchange earlier this year. As communities with fiber; a WiMAX older communities), En-Touch also uses the newest Occam customer, Woodhull overlay will bring advanced broadband Enablence technologies to serve a grow- Telephone Company is embarking on a services to the Texas plains and southern ing number of business customers of all complete fiber overbuild of its network, Louisiana markets. XFONE subsidiary sizes. For the coming year, En-Touch with plans to offer all customers ad- NTS already operates a large FTTH says, it will invest significantly more vanced IP services. network in western Texas. in Enablence equipment – more than Competitive Providers En-Touch Systems continues to two-thirds of it for ONTs – to deliver In October 2010, XFONE held a work with equipment vendor Enablence advanced triple-play services over fiber. ground-breaking ceremony in Burkbur- as it brings all-optical connectivity to En-Touch services also include alarm nett, Texas, to mark the beginning of new residential communities in greater monitoring, advanced in-home tech- construction of its PRIDE fiber-to-the- Houston. A facilities-based local ex- nology, and retail energy delivery and premises network. The network, funded change carrier that provides FTTH ser- management.

RBOC Update Verizon Adds More Than 200K FiOS Customers in 3Q10 At the end of the third quarter, Veri- FiOS Internet and 3.3 million FiOS TV ter, FiOS accounted for about 50 per- zon’s financial reports showed that the customers. Marketing agreements and cent of Verizon’s consumer wireline rev- FiOS network had passed 15.4 million sales to multiple-dwelling-unit proper- enues. Monthly average revenue per user premises, or approximately 60 percent ties continued to grow, with more than (ARPU) for consumer wireline services of the company’s domestic wireline foot- 1.6 million units open for sale. was $86.55 in third-quarter 2010, up print. This compares with about 15.9 FiOS Internet penetration (custom- 10.9 percent from third-quarter 2009. million at the end of the second quarter. ers as a percentage of potential custom- ARPU for FiOS customers was more In July, Frontier Communications pur- ers) was 31.0 percent by the end of the than $146. chased Verizon networks that included quarter, with the product available for 568,000 homes passed by fiber (accord- sale to 12.5 million premises. For FiOS Verizon Turns Up FiOS TV, ing to Frontier’s calculations), so Verizon TV, penetration was 27.2 percent, with Enterprise LANs deployed essentially no fiber in the third the product available for sale to 12.1 In December, the company turned up quarter, and it remains a long way from million premises. The divestiture to FiOS TV services in six communities its original target of 18 million homes Frontier makes comparison with prior in California’s Coachella Valley, with passed by fiber at the end of 2010. quarters difficult. However, Verizon re- a total of about 55,000 homes and However, Verizon has continued ports that penetration rates continue to businesses. FiOS TV also went live in to actively market the homes already grow in mature FiOS markets; in many Hopedale and Holbrooke, Mass., after passed. During the third quarter, there mature markets, penetration rates now the boards of selectmen in those cities were 226,000 net FiOS Internet and exceed 35 percent, with a few markets granted cable franchises to Verizon. This 204,000 net FiOS TV customer addi- in excess of 40 percent. brings to 110 the number of Massachu- tions – the largest net quarterly increase FiOS revenue, including for digital setts communities in which FiOS TV is, in more than a year. By the end of the voice service, grew 29.2 percent year or soon will be, available. third quarter, Verizon had 3.9 million over year. By the end of the third quar- Verizon Business also continues to work with Motorola to deploy its Opti- cal LAN Solutions in enterprises. Russell Investments, a global financial services In 3Q10, Verizon added more than 200,000 net firm, recently selected the Optical LAN FiOS customers in communities where it had Solution as the fiber-to-the-desktop tech- nology for its new headquarters in Seattle. already built out fiber to the home. Russell’s goal was to reduce power con- sumption to its trading floor while sup-

January/February 2011 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 35 porting connectivity for laptops, printers virtually the same functionality as the Ads to buy advertising on FiOS TV. and wireless access points along with ap- standard TV remote. New iPad features (Google TV Ads is an online market- plications such as VoIP, videoconferenc- to be added over the next few months place where advertisers buy and measure ing and video surveillance. According to include photo flicking, which allows cus- national cable television advertising.) Verizon, the Optical LAN Solution can tomers to flick stored photos from the Finally, Verizon introduced a 150 significantly reduce power consumption, iPad to the TV, one photo at a time. Mbps/35 Mbps Internet tier, first for decrease space requirements and control Another new service is Flex View, a consumers and then for small businesses capital costs compared with a traditional TV Everywhere offering that lets cus- in 12 states and the District of Columbia. switch-based Ethernet solution. In addi- tomers take VoD programming outside tion to providing the new networking in- the home to watch on compatible smart Do We Hear 170 Mbps? frastructure, Verizon Business connects phones, tablets and laptops. The service A few weeks before Verizon’s 150 Mbps Russell’s offices with a managed private launched with more than 1,400 movie announcement, Canadian telco Bell IP network service based on multiproto- titles, and available content is expected Aliant introduced 170 Mbps/30 Mbps col label switching. to grow rapidly – and to encompass us- service in its FibreOP network for both New FiOS Services ers’ personal content in addition to VoD. residential and business customers. FiOS subscribers continue to receive new Because Flex View is a download service At present, FibreOP is available in features and capabilities. FiOS TV cus- rather than a streaming service, users only a few communities in New Bruns- tomers who have iPads (subscribers who can watch without an Internet connec- wick and Prince Edward Island. Last don’t already have iPads can buy them tion available. There is no additional year, however, Bell Aliant said it would from Verizon) can manage their DVRs subscription fee for Flex View. invest an additional $350 million in and browse VoD offers remotely. They Just because Verizon isn’t playing 2011 and 2012 to extend FTTP to more can also use their iPads as remote controls with Google TV doesn’t mean it isn’t than 600,000 homes and businesses; for their set-top boxes. (These capabilities playing with Google. The two compa- this project recently got under way, with were already available on other types of nies recently signed a partnership agree- UniTek Canada performing the engi- mobile devices.) The iPad application has ment that allows users of Google TV neering and construction work.

Cable Providers Cablecos Deploy Fiber to Businesses And Greenfields Two cable providers recently chose the to deliver fiber-based Ethernet services ness data transport at a significantly Calix E7 platform to deliver fiber-based over point-to-point Ethernet and PON lower cost than competitive solutions,” services. Cox Business, the fourth-larg- technologies to small and medium-sized says Dan Estes, executive director of est provider of business Ethernet services businesses. technology, Cox Business. “The modu- in the United States, has deployed the “Fiber-based Ethernet services de- larity of the E7 is well-suited to our op- E7 and a variety of Calix 700GX ONTs liver efficient, flexible and robust - busi erational model, allowing us to pay as we grow as we pull fiber to fiber access nodes deeper in the network and incre- mentally add new customers.” Cox is in- stalling the E7 in remote, outdoor Calix ODC-100 cabinets, which are located in business centers such as office parks and Cable Billing high-density commercial areas. The second cable provider, West- Billing & Provisioning man Communications Group, will Over 300 Satisfied Operators use the Calix E7 platform, along with 800.882.7950 725GX ONTs, to provide GPON-based www.glds.com Lowest Total Cost Solutions residential services in Brandon, Mani- FTTH, Voice, Video & Data toba. The initial deployment will be in Digital • VOD • VoIP the new subdivision of Oakridge Es- Data • Hotel PPV Friendly, Expert Support tates, but Westman has regional expan- sion plans for the future.

36 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2011 Municipal Fiber Systems Fibrant Launches With 100 Mbps Service Fibrant Communications, the mun- cipal provider for the city of Salisbury, “These rural areas will leapfrog from limited N.C., launched its fiber-to-the-home services in November with symmetrical dial-up Internet access to a network capable of broadband speeds of up to 100 Mbps. Susan Kluttz, mayor of Salisbury, calls delivering up to 1 Gbps and in so doing open a Fibrant the fastest network in the Char- world of broadband opportunity to thousands of lotte region for both business and resi- dential customers. residents and hundreds of businesses.” Fibrant plans to roll out higher speeds over time, including a 200 Mbps residential tier, still in the planning access. The commission recently an- in the field, FieldSmart Fiber Crossover stages, which would make the network nounced it would use the Calix E7 plat- Distribution System (FxDS) 288 Patch the fastest in the state of North Caro- form for this project. The Ethernet plat- and Splice Ribbon Panels in the central lina. Fibrant already offers up to 1 Gbps form will enable a 10GE ring, provide office, and outside-plant-rated fiber -pig broadband service for business users. GE aggregation, and deliver symmetri- tails at the premises. More than 15,000 The city of Dunnellon, Fla., has set cal Internet access, digital TV and voice homes will be passed, covering approxi- up a telecom service provider, Green- services over GPON. The 700GE family mately 30 square miles. light Communications, to build of ONTs will be deployed at an esti- David Schilling, communications and operate an FTTP network, using mated 2,400 homes and 310 businesses, services manager, says, “We have been GPON technology from Zhone Tech- enabling deployment flexibility between using Clearfield since 2006, when we nologies. Zhone’s MXK multiservice ac- GPON and active Ethernet services as installed BPON in some greenfield ar- cess node will enable triple-play services well as advanced business services. eas in Cedar Falls. Clearfield was the to residents, businesses and facilities Dave Mickonowicz, general man- only company we could find that could such as fire stations, city buildings and ager, says, “Until the broadband stimu- provide us with a PON cabinet that was police headquarters. lus program was announced, there were acceptable to the developers. We have In addition, the solution will accom- rural areas of our community that we been very happy with the products, ser- modate video surveillance, telecom- just couldn’t afford to reach, creating vice and support.” muting and other value-added services a digital divide in our own backyard. Local press reports that the city of to generate revenue and encourage eco- With this award, and advanced tech- Staunton, Va., is partnering with ser- nomic development. Greenlight is also nology from longtime partner Calix, vice provider MGW Networks, which reported to be deploying Microsoft these rural areas adjacent to our existing will use city-owned fiber to deliver Mediaroom for its IPTV solution, with fiber access serving areas will leapfrog broadband services to downtown busi- Motorola as integrator. from limited dial-up Internet access to nesses. The city installed the fiber dur- “The city of Dunnellon is excited a network capable of delivering up to ing a trenching project a decade ago. about the reality of broadband develop- 1 Gbps to every home or business and in Lenox Municipal Utilities, a mu- ment’s providing unlimited potential so doing open a world of broadband op- nicipal fiber utility in Iowa, will use opportunities for both residents and en- portunity to thousands of residents and Amino’s A530 PVR set-top boxes to terprises,” says F. C. Stark, vice mayor of hundreds of businesses.” support its rollout of new IPTV-based Dunnellon. “The economic growth im- Cedar Falls Utilities, an early mu- entertainment services. The A530 offers plied by this deployment is significant, nicipal telecom provider that deployed both standard- and high-definition per- and we’re looking forward to seeing im- fiber to businesses and coaxial cable to formance plus a personal video record- mediate benefits when the FTTx equip- residences in the 1990s, is now deploy- ing function that allows pause, rewind, ment installation is complete.” ing fiber citywide using PON technol- and a range of trickplay services. Reedsburg Utility Commission, a ogy. Construction began in August and The city of Summerside, Prince municipal fiber deployer in Wisconsin, is expected to be completed at the end Edward Island, selected Tantalus received a broadband stimulus grant to of 2012. Clearfield is assisting in the smart-grid technology for an innovative extend its services beyond Reedsburg to project with its fiber management prod- energy-efficiency initiative. Summerside an estimated 6,000 rural residents who uct line, including the FieldSmart Fiber uses Tantalus technology to tie together currently have limited dial-up Internet Scalability Center 288 PON cabinets the municipality’s fiber-to-the-meter

January/February 2011 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 37 network, wind-generated power and completed under budget and with no Imagine conducting videoconferences in-home energy storage devices. Terry federal or state funding, thanks to a lease on your iPad with business partners Murphy, Summerside’s chief admin- agreement with Ontario Telephone Co. halfway across the world, all from your istrative officer, says wind can satisfy and to consultant ECC Technologies living room or your back deck.” about half the city’s power needs and and construction contractor Syracuse Goshen Fiber Network, owned by even produce surplus power sometimes. Utilities. Axcess Ontario has signed a public-private partnership in Goshen, “But you can’t flip a switch and turn on master agreements with eight compa- Ind., completed its first phase, connect- the wind,” he adds. The Tantalus system nies, including Verizon Wireless and tw ing all community schools and 13 city will integrate wind power efficiently. telecom, to provide broadband access to office buildings with fiber. The second Rollout of Tantalus smart meters businesses and municipalities, and it is phase, which will make fiber-based ser- and energy storage devices began in trying to lure an FTTH service provider vices available to businesses and other January 2011. The city will run fiber to to Ontario County. institutions, is now under way. New each home participating in the program. “The concept of fiber to the home Paris Telephone, a local independent is the ultimate game changer,” says Ed telco, made some of its fiber assets avail- Wanted: FTTH Service Provider Hemminger, CEO of Axcess Ontario. able for the project and provides all After nearly three years of construction, “Once residents have fiber to the home, maintenance and operating manage- the 200-plus-mile fiber ring in Ontario everything changes. Someone who wants ment under a 25-year contract. The net- County, N.Y., operated by Axcess On- to work from home or start a home- work will offer open access to multiple tario, a public-benefit corporation, was based business can do so with ease. ... data providers.

Other deployers First Major WDM-PON Deployment in the U.S. Start-up service provider NWT Enter- originally formed to address Internet for.” NWT Enterprises will provide prises plans to deliver gigabit fiber to availability problems in western Mary- disaster recovery, off-site data backup, homes and businesses across the United land, NWT Enterprises will serve both hosted applications and business con- States, using a wavelength division mul- residential and business markets. With tinuity options for businesses and ad- tiplexing – passive optical networking nine areas in deployment, the company vanced Ethernet services for triple- or (WDM-PON) solution from LG-Eric- says it “will be able to bring the high multiplay residential customers. sson. Based in Cumberland, Md., and Internet speeds users have been asking The LG-Ericsson Ethernet Access 1100 solution uses a single fiber connec- Vendor Spotlight tion to the home or office to provide us- ers with access to applications and sym- ADC...... www.adc.com metrical services at speeds of 100 Mbps Alcatel-Lucent...... www.alcatel-lucent.com to 1 Gbps. The solution allows high- Amino...... www.aminocom.com performance, triple-play applications over Calix...... www.calix.com a single connection to the home and also Clearfield...... www.clearfieldconnection.com creates new revenue opportunities based DIRECTV...... www..com on future high-bandwidth applications. ECC Technologies ...... www.ecctec.com Telamon Corporation, a strategic partner Enablence...... www.enablence.com in this next-generation access deploy- FilmOn...... www.filmon.com ment, is the North America distributor HunTel Engineering...... www.htleng.com of LG-Ericsson’s WDM-PON platform. LG-Ericsson...... www.lgericsson.com Microsoft ...... www.microsoft.com Google Delays Fiber Motorola ...... www.motorola.com for Communities, Occam Networks ...... www.occamnetworks.com Deploys Beta Project Pulse Broadband ...... www.pulsebroadband.net Although Google pushed its selection of Syracuse Utilities...... www.syracuseutilities.com a fiber community to 2011, it’s preparing Tantalus...... www.tantalus.com for the main event with a beta project in Telamon Corporation ...... www.telamon.com Stanford University – the alma mater of UniTek...... www.unitekgs.com founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Zhone Technologies...... www.zhone.com This trial network in the university’s

38 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2011 residential subdivision, a group of about 850 faculty- and staff-owned homes on A fortunate 850 households – all Stanford campus, will offer Internet speeds up to 1 Gbps. Groundbreaking starts in early University faculty and staff – will beta-test 2011, and service provider Sonic.net was selected to operate and support the net- Google’s 1 Gbps fiber-to-the-home network. The work. Sonic.net has plans to build its own fiber-to-the-home network in Se- university’s willingness to experiment and its bastopol, Calif. proximity to Google led to the selection. According to Google, this trial is separate from the community selection process for Google Fiber but should yield operative in Lutsen, Minn., have an- it the most prolific installer of the IP- information relevant to the community- nounced that they will partner with delivered solution. IPAdvantage supports wide project. The selection of Stanford, Pulse Broadband to build broadband- DIRECTV, HD, broadband and voice Google says, was based on the universi- ty’s openness to Google’s experimenting stimulus-funded FTTH networks. The services in multifamily environments. with new fiber technologies on its streets. two projects will span more than 2,000 Business provider L2 Networks re- The layout of the residential neighbor- miles and have the potential to serve ceived a cable TV franchise from the city hoods and small number of homes make more than 8,000 cooperative member of Albany, Ga., and is currently working it a good fit for a beta deployment. Best households with advanced broadband to extend its fiber optic service to resi- of all, its location just a few miles up the services delivered by Pulse’s proprietary dences in Albany as well. The company road from Google will let the company’s fiber architecture. said in a letter to the city, “We believe engineers monitor progress easily. Connexion Technologies an- our service, whch is fiber-optic based, Two electric cooperatives, United nounced that it has now rolled out the will rival and perhaps exceed Google’s Electric Cooperative in Maryville, DIRECTV IPAdvantage system in yet-to-be-deployed experimental ‘Think Mo., and Arrowhead Electric Co- 100 multifamily properties, making Big with a Gig’ fiber optic network.”

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January/February 2011 | www.broadbandproperties.com | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | 39 Deployer Spotlight States with deployments referenced in this article

Alaska

North American Telcos Verizon Communications www.verizon.com (see sidebar on RUS loan West Carolina Tel www.wctelephone.com awards for additional deployers) Wikstrom Telephone Company www.wiktel.com Baldwin Telecom Inc. www.baldwin-telecom.net Woodhull Telephone Company www.woodhulltel.com Bell Aliant www.bellaliant.ca XFONE www.xfone.com Benton Ridge Telephone www.brtelco.com Cass Communications www.casscomm.com Other North American Deployers Cincinnati Bell www.cincinnatibell.com Arrowhead Electric Cooperative www.aecimn.com C-M-L Telephone Cooperative www.netins.net/ Axcess Ontario www.axcessontario.com ricwebtelco/cml.htm Cedar Falls Utilities www.cfu.net En-Touch Systems www.entouch.net Connexion Farmers Mutual Technologies www.connexiontechnologies.net Telephone Company www.farmerstel.net Cox Business www.coxbusiness.com Federated Telephone Cooperative www.fedtel.net Fibrant Communications www.fibrant.com FTTH Communications www.ftthcom.com Google www.google.com Granby Telephone Company www.gtcbroadband.net Goshen Fiber Network www.goshenfiber.com GVTC www.gvtc.com Greenlight Halstad Telephone Company www.halstadtel.com Communications www.mygreenlightfl.com Hancock Telecom www.mcclink.com/ L2 Networks www.myl2n.com Mountain Rural Lenox Municipal Utilities www.lenoxutilities.com Telephone Cooperative Corp. www.mrtc.com NWT Enterprises www.nwt-enterprises.com New Windsor Telephone www.nwtelephone.com Reedsburg Utility Palmetto Rural Commission www.reedsburgutility.com Telephone Cooperative www.prtc.coop Staunton, Va. (city) www.staunton.va.us Reynolds Telephone www.reytel.net Summerside, Prince Edward South Slope Cooperative Island (city) www.city.summerside.pe.ca Communications Co. www.southslope.com United Electric Cooperative www.ueci.org Southwest Telephone Westman Communications Exchange www.interstatecom.com Group www.westmancom.com

40 | BROADBAND PROPERTIES | www.broadbandproperties.com | January/February 2011