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Index of 2100 previous posts since March 2003
Archives
RSS/XML
Recent Blog Headlines
About Al Bonnyman
"What's this blog thing about, anyway?"
Partial list: power utilities with fiber
Sponsored by:
Fiber Planners Inc.
Designers of fiber networks for electric utilities and communities.
Index of 2100 previous posts since March 2003
Saturday, October 11, 2003
"Fiber to the curb" is a misnomer
"Fiber to the curb" is one of the great examples of marketing "spin". Ask folks what they think it means, and most will tell you it must mean fiber to the curb in front of their house (or perhaps their immediate neighbor's house) and a copper drop into the house of perhaps 50 or 100 feet.
They're wrong. More often it's one fiber link shared by several dozen homes served with 500' copper runs. A recent pro-FTTC propaganda piece from FTTC supplier Marconi (and written for a telco audience) proposes taking the fiber and bandwidth rationing even further:
"The 'Modified POTS only' model is depicted in Figure 2 and has also been deployed as an even better economic solution for FTTC deployment. In this model, every other ONU is populated with electronics, and each ONU [Optical Network Unit] turned up supports twice as many living units, or 14.4 in this example. Under this scenario, all ONUs are placed, while every other ONU is turned up. The FTTC system supports POTS delivery at distances up to 1500 feet from the ONU. Thus, for narrowband service delivery, populating every other ONU is a feasible option. As enhanced services are desired, all ONUs are energized so that broadband services may be delivered over the 500 feet of copper without requiring advanced, or any, modulation techniques, such as Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL)."
Marconi likes to sell FTTC units, so their example shows an ONU serving 14 homes but there's nothing to stop BellSouth from serving many, many more out with the same ONU within that 1400 foot radius.
In other words, if BellSouth gets its' way and uses this model, they eliminate their competition while getting a free ride to stick with copper and POTS (plain old telephone service). They don't even have to offer DSL ("maybe POTS without competition will keep folks paying for second line for their modem"), let alone advanced video services until they choose to at some point in the indefinite future.
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Slashdot on the power grid: "Electric Grid is a Vast Machine"
From Slashdot:
"Guinnessy writes "The latest issues of the Industrial Physicist suggests that 'the vast system of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution that covers the United States and Canada is essentially a single machine-- by many measures, the world's biggest machine.' The article says that because deregulation ignored the physics of the machine, we have blackouts, a fact the industry warned regulators about in 1998. It has some nice hard science data for those interested in why we're going to get some more blackouts in the future unless Congress gets its act together."
The article cited by Slashdot is the best I've seen among several hundred at explaining the real underlying technical issues with deregulating the power grid. In spite of being in published in a physics magazine, it does not require a technical background.
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Friday, October 10, 2003
Colorado: Fort Morgan City Council approves fiber network construction contract
Fort Morgan: "The telecommunications network will link city, school district and county buildings. Shaver said these will include the City Annex, Historic City Hall, fire department, street building, City Hall, County Administration Building, economic development building, Baker School, Department of Human Services, the county judicial center, sheriff's office and police department."
Article
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New Zealand: "South clicks into big net gain"
"A community-driven initiative to stimulate an economic growth of $190 million a year in Southland in five years was launched yesterday by Prime Minister Helen Clark. In a ceremony at Tuatapere, one of the province's most far-flung communities that has long suffered from poor telecommunications, Miss Clark unveiled the Southland Broadband Project by taking part in the first high-speed, wireless video conference from the first broadband site commissioned under Project Probe."
Article
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Vendors under pressure to back Bells in pushing FCC to treat FTTC like FTTH?
The FCC ruled that the Bells don't have to share FTTH services (other than basic phone service) with competitors. This was with the understanding that they would finally begin rolling out fiber to homes in the U.S. after more than a decade of promises. Now there are reports that BellSouth is pressuring Alcatel and Corning join it in lobbying the FCC to treat FTTC (fiber to the curb) the same as FTTH (fiber to the home).
"Fiber to the curb" sounds good, doesn't it? The name implies fiber to the curb in front of your house with twisted pair the rest of the way -- perhaps 50 feet. But that's not really FTTC as it's deployed by the Bells. FTTC is really fraudband -- fiber to a curb 500 feet away and shared with perhaps several dozen homes.
"FTTH Dispute Boils Up"
"Conference shows FTTH grassroots support"
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"Asia plays with hi-tech visions"
"Technology is often seen in the West as a way of making our lives more efficient or as a way of having fun. But researchers have found big cultural differences between East and West when it comes to what people actually do with their computers and mobiles phones. In many Asian countries, technology has become a tool for learning, religion and politics, says Intel ethnographer Genevieve Bell."
Interesting BBC News item
(Link from Andy Carvin via the Benton Foundation's Communications-Related Headlines news log)
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Wired Magazine: "Parents Sue School Over Wi-Fi"
Another article on the Wi-Fi safety lawsuit in Illinois.
(Link from Andy Carvin via the Benton Foundation's Communications-Related Headlines news log)
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"ED: Tech is key to rural school success"
"Urging rural schools to rise to the challenges of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige on Sept. 25 hosted a virtual town hall meeting intended to showcase how technology."
Article
(Link from Jennifer Hill via the BENTON-COMPOLICY mailing list)
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"Wi-Fi for favelas (slums) in Rio de Janeiro"
Item on the ITU's Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog about an innvoative program to bring broadband to Rio's slum dwellers.
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Thursday, October 09, 2003
Denmark: FTTH-pioneering power utility NESA acquired by Elsam
"Elsam AS moved to fully acquire NESA AS after signing on Sunday an agreement that would give it a 78.75% stake in the power distributor. Yesterday, Elsam SA made a cash bid for NESA in a move that, if successful, would create Denmark's largest power firm."
News item
The International Herald Tribune has additional information on NESA and the merger.
NESA, partially owned by two large municipalities, has been moving to offer FTTH (fiber to the home) in the last several years. They were in the process of moving much of their aerial power distribution network underground; the incremental cost of deploying fiber to the home is small when a utility is already burying power cable anyway.
NESA will be presenting a case study of their FTTH project at the Digital Reykjavik conference next month.
For more information on NESA's network in English, here are two older press releases:
"NESA, Denmark's largest electrical utility, selects Packetfront and IBM for true broadband via fibre-to-the home (FTTH)"
"Plans for Denmark's Largest True Broadband Network are based on Packetfront Technology"
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Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Washington: Olympic Peninsula receives $5.8 million emergency radio grant
"A massive project to upgrade emergency communications on the Olympic Peninsula is already capturing the attention of agencies around the country, a week after Clallam County received a $5.8 million federal grant for the job."
"The Olympic Public Safety Communications Alliance Network project, dubbed OPS-CAN, will complete a digital backbone of microwave and fiber around the entire Olympic Peninsula to significantly increase and improve radio communications. Forty-one county, state, tribal and federal agencies, plus the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, have signed on to take part in building the backbone."
Article
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North Carolina: 11 mile fiber-linked traffic monitoring system for Burlington area
"... another project would install nearly 11 miles of fiber optics connecting Burlington's traffic camera system to the Triad Regional Traffic Management Center under construction in Greensboro."
Brief news item
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Discover Magazine: "Talk Over the Power Lines"
Article in Discover describes broadband over power line (BPL) in general and Ambient Corporation's system in particular.
(Link from John Clark)
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Virginia: "Lenowisco hires broadband manager"
"A company based in Lee County will lease and operate a fiber-optic broadband network that will eventually serve much of Wise, Lee and Scott counties. The board of Lenowisco Inc., which is building the high-speed telecommunications pipeline, voted Monday to contract with Sunset Communications to manage the network. Lenowisco Inc. is a private non-profit company formed by the Lenowisco Planning District Commission to construct the fiber-optic system."
The article goes on to describe Lenowisco's financial arrangement with Sunset Communications. It also describes Lenowisco's current network and future planned expansions.
A second article describes a telecommunications-oriented industrial park Lenowisco Planning District Commission is building to tie into its' fiber network:
"Duffield -- Officials have begun preparing a physical space here for companies that depend on cyberspace to do business. Ground was broken Monday morning for the 40-acre, $2.5 million e-Corridor Regional Park-Southwest, which will occupy hillside land behind the existing Duffield Industrial Park ... its focus will be on attracting businesses that depend on high-speed broadband telecommunications to reach their customers."
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Italy: "eBiscom Records Record Growth"
eBiscom is the parent of FastWeb, which is currently rolling out DSL and FTTH (fiber to the home) services to customers across Italy. This article briefly summarizes the companies latest quarterly results.
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Pennsylvania: Fulton County to link facilities with fiber
Brief item buried in a news article on McConnellsburg Borough Council actions.
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Utility telecommunications: "Progress Telecom Celebrates Fifth Anniversary"
"Progress Telecom, known in the industry as a 'carrier's carrier,' has an expansive east coast network with 8,230 route miles that include deep presence in fast growing metropolitan markets. Its infrastructure covers some 64% of the population in the Southeast. The company's wholesale services, which extend from the New York metro area to South Florida, serve more than 60 cities, including many tier II and tier III markets, and provide several gateways to international cable landings. Progress Telecom's wireless business, leveraging Progress Energy's infrastructure, has collocated some 300 antenna attachments on tower structures in southeastern states. The wireless division provides a strong profit center."
Press release
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Tennessee: Chattanooga mayor sees fiber connectivity critical to area's growth
"'Our region sits in the middle of some of the premier research facilities in the nation,' said Mayor Corker. 'We are working hard to fully connect that powerful infrastructure to the private sector so that we can be the place where the technology being developed around us enters the market place, resulting in new jobs and a higher standard of living for all of our citizens.'"
Corker is looking at both last mile connectivity options as well as longer fiber links.
Article
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Virginia: "New River Valley planners seek broadband connectivity"
"A telecommunications committee will seek ways to bring broadband Internet coverage to the New River Valley, following a "telecommunications summit" Tuesday to gauge interest in the effort."
This article briefly mentions several initiatives underway to improve broadband access in southwestern Virginia.
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Powerline broadband: Spanish utility launches systems in two cities
"ENDESA and AUNA Launch the First Phase of PLC Technology Commercial Deployment"
"The cities selected have been Zaragoza, starting in November and Barcelona, in January 2004 ... This is the first commercial experience of PLC technology in Spain ... In only five months, ENDESA has deployed a PLC telecommunications network in Zaragoza which covers approximately 20,000 households."
Press release
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FTTH conference news
The Fiber to the Home Conference is underway in New Orleans this week. That's spawned a number of press releases and articles:
"Passave Introduces OLT Chip for Complete Availability of End-to-End FTTH Solution"
"Passave Technologies, a provider of high performance chipsets for FTTH and Ethernet, today announced a line of low cost products suitable for deployment in Gigabit Ethernet PON Fiber to the Home OLTs."
"Hitachi introduces 'triple play' B-PON system, teams with Wave7 Optics"
"Hitachi Ltd. and Hitachi Telecom (USA) Inc. have introduced a triple play, FSAN-compliant B-PON system to the AMN1200 Access family. The companies have also announced a joint relationship with Wave7 Optics for the FTTx market; the B-PON product is the first benefactor of this partnership."
"Optical Solutions Gets RUS OK"
"Optical Solutions Inc., the fiber to the premises market leader, today announced that its FiberPath 500 fiber to the premises (FTTP) system has been accepted by the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS). A technical standards committee at RUS determines acceptance of products for the List of Materials. The company's FiberPath 400 FTTP system is also listed on the RUS List of Materials."
"Alcatel and Carrier Access announce interoperability between PON product lines"
"Alcatel and Carrier Access have announced the completion of interoperability testing between the Alcatel 7340 fiber-to-the-user (FTTU) passive optical network (PON) product line and the Carrier Access Exxtenz optical network terminal (ONT) for business applications. The testing completion underscores both companies' commitment to delivering standards-based solutions that are interoperable in multi-vendor environments."
"OFS, Wave7, MS Play With FTTP"
"OFS, designer, manufacturer and supplier of leading edge fiber optic products, with Wave7 Optics, a leading provider of optical access equipment, and Microsoft Corporation, today announced the world's first demonstration of a live online gaming application, simultaneous with voice, video and data services, over a Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. The demonstration is enabled by OFS' Access ADVANTAGE FTTP System and Wave7 Optics' Last Mile Link(TM) (LML) single fiber optical access solution. Show attendees can play an Xbox Live(TM) game and simultaneously access the Internet, talk using the Xbox Live Communicator headset, and view broadcast video to experience the power of optical access networks"
"Hitachi Unveils FTTx Solutions for North America "
"OFS announces improvements to its zero-water-peak fiber"
"Optical fiber and cable supplier OFS (Norcross, GA) has improved the attenuation, dispersion slope, and geometry of its full-spectrum, zero-water-peak fiber, AllWave."
"General Bandwidth VOIPs FTTP"
"General Bandwidth, a leading telecommunications equipment provider enabling carriers to deliver enhanced voice services over broadband networks, announced its participation in several of the leading Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) deployments in North America. The G6 platform is the voice solution of choice for leading FTTP service providers including Bristol Utilities, Chelan County Public Utility District (PUD), Dalton Utilities, Hancock Telecom, Rochester Telephone Company, and FCI Broadband."
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Tuesday, October 07, 2003
"School District Sued over WLAN Planning"
"A school district is sued in Illinois over planning a WLAN without addressing a group of parents' concerns over electromagnetic radiation's effects."
Wi-Fi Networking News item; the comments at the end of the story posted by readers have some useful links to studies on both sides of the wireless networking RF safety issue.
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Posts will be sporadic this week...
... while I am traveling.
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Pennsylvania: "Grant will fund high-speed access in Forest County"
"The Appalachian Regional Commission has approved a $44,000 federal grant for the Northwest Regional Planning and Development Commission to implement affordable wireless high-speed Internet in Tionesta Borough, Forest County, Rep. John Peterson, R-Pa., has announced."
Article
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Monday, October 06, 2003
Ooops -- search engines do have a logic
Earlier today, I posted a list of search engine referrals from our web access logs; one puzzling entry was "Yehuda Cern". Tonight Ed Hare sent me an e-mail:
"Yehuda Cern is the engineer for Ambient Technology, a Massachusetts BPL manufacturer. He is a really nice person, and I don't say that just because he is K8HGZ. :-)"
My apologies to Yehuda.
I'm still puzzling, however, over "Roseanne Roseannadanna poster" and "prisoners in jail and thier secret working tools".
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More commentary on today's cable modem court ruling
"Appeals court upends FCC classification protecting cable Internet providers"
"A federal appeals court opened the door Monday to additional rules on high-speed Internet access over cable television lines, overturning a Federal Communications Commission decision that competitors say has kept them locked out of the cable systems."
"Court rejects FCC cable ruling"
"A federal appeals court has rejected the Federal Communications Commission's opinion that cable broadband services should not be regulated like phone companies, according to a court filing released Monday."
Cable's Free Ride: Judge claims FCC's classification inaccurate"
"The FCC's decision to label cable as an "information service" saved it from heavy regulation; though at least one judge disagrees with the ruling. The The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today noted that the Federal Communications Commission "erred" when it allowed the cable industry to be exempt from many of the regulatory hurdles facing telco providers; including contributing to the Universal Service Fund and sharing lines with competitors."
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"Grass Roots Fiber Booms"
"Forget the RBOCs. When it comes to playing a key role in North American fiber-to-the-premises rollouts, municipalities are the stars..."
Light Reading article by Mary Jander
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Federal appeals court rules that cable TV companies must open their systems to ISPs
"Our holding in Mesa Verde, along with that of the Supreme Court in Neal, requires our adherence to the interpretation of the Communications Act we announced in Portland. There, we concluded that cable broadband service was not a 'cable service' but instead was part 'telecommunications service' and part 'information service'."
Earthlink statement
"BRAND X INTERNET SER. V FCC" (actual court decision)
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Tennessee: "Wave7 Wins in Jackson"
" The Jackson Energy Authority (JEA) of Jackson, Tennessee, an electric, gas, water, and wastewater utility company, along with Wave7 Optics are teaming to build the largest “fiber-to-the-premises” (FTTP) network in North America to date. Upon its anticipated completion in 2005, the network will “pass” 31,000 homes and businesses in JEA’s electric service area. "
Article
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California: "2004 On the Road to a Gigabit Awards"
"The CENIC On the Road to a Gigabit Awards honor California visionaries who are applying network technology in innovative ways to encourage the development and implementation of a ubiquitous gigabit state-wide network by 2010. Showcasing the pioneering ideas of today's visionaries and the promise of tomorrow's Internet, the awards highlight the technologies paving the road to a gigabit world."
For more info, see CENIC's web site.
(Link from Dewayne Hendricks via his Dewayne-Net mailing list)
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"FTTH Keeps Growing"
"As of October 2003, fiber-to-the-home is now available to 180,300 homes and has been connected to 64,700, according to Render, Vanderslice & Associates, a market research firm that conducts an annual study of FTTH deployments in North America using a census approach. Growth in those connected with FTTH (fiber direct to the individual living unit) has been very strong, even during a severe recession for the communications industry."
Article
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"Utah's UTOPIA Project Plans Widescale FTTH Deployment"
Another article about the UTOPIA project.
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"Alcatel's FTTU Drives Communications for Louisiana Golf Course Community"
Press release
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England: "Community broadband effort chalks up a win"
"Broadband connectivity has reached West Haddon and Winwick in Northamptonshire, thanks to the efforts of one man who refused to accept that it couldn't happen and was nothing more than a fat pipe dream. West Haddon and Winwick fall within the 10 percent of the country that BT has said will never be ADSL-enabled but 'Broadband Hero' Sherman and a number of like-minded souls refused to take 'no' for an answer and set about finding a way to bring broadband to their area, as ZDNet UK's sister site silicon.com first reported in October 2002.
Article on the broadband wireless network local townspeople have built.
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Norway: Power utility Ella picks Allied Telesyn for FTTH
Press release
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BroadbandReports.com: "Canadian Broadband Expansion"
"Government invests in broadband have-nots"
"The Canadian Government works to bring broadband to under-served areas, while Canada trails only South Korea in per capita connections. The Canadian Government has announced plans to invest $200-million to expand high-speed Internet services, as part of its plan to bring broadband to the majority of Canadians before 2005."
Article
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Search engine logic?
We look at the access logs for this weblog from time to time and sometimes see some unusual referrals from search engines. Some recent referrals:
"'gay legg' baltimore city -lesbian"
"people search my e mail adss 2002"
"Zipp Code of Perth"
"paperless agendas"
"plaindealer 2003 advertising revenue"
"yehuda cern"
"falsely Scaring citizens"
"where can I play plca vale?"
"looking+for+email+address+of+farmers+in+japan"
"Haysi Fire Department phone number"
"skydiving accident in paris california september 27, 2003"
... and my two favorites:
"Roseanne Roseannadanna poster"
"prisoners in jail and thier secret working tools"
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Indiana: Elkhart candidate running on municipal broadband platform
"We must embrace new infrastructure such as fiber optics and begin to think in terms of those types of things as utilities. One option is to create a municipal utility, Metrolink, that would allow businesses more rapid access to the broadband link at the toll road."
Article
(Link from Casey Lide at the Baller Herbst Law Group via their mailing list)
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TIME Magazine: "What's Always Next?"
"Predictions are dicey. Past prognosticators vowed that these innovations would change our lives. A sampling of the future that wasn't."
This article from the August 24 issue of Time magazine looks at jetpacks, videophones, moon colonies and other futuristic technologies that never developed as promised. The accompanying photograph is priceless and worth including in your next PowerPoint presentation.
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Esme Vos: "Baltimore goes wireless"
Esme Vos looks at Baltimore's free wireless broadband project, "Baltimore Unwired", and has some comments on the implications of free service to other wireless ISPs.
MuniWireless article
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Utah: Allied Telesyn selected to supply FTTH gear for UTOPIA project
"Allied Telesyn, a global leader in Ethernet networking solutions for the access edge, today announced that its RG223 Residential Gateway has been chosen as the customer premises solution in the Phase I rollout of fiber-to-the premises services for UTOPIA, the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency. Covering Salt Lake City and 17 surrounding cities that encompass some 250,000 households and 35,000 businesses, UTOPIA is the world's largest fiber-to-the home (FTTH) and fiber-to-the-business (FTTB) project launched to date."
Article
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New York City: "Keeping the City Running"
A comprehensive article looking at what it takes to keep New York City critical infrastructure (power, telecommunications, sanitation, etc.) running.
The article also touches on the city government's program of converting abandoned water mains to conduits for city-owned fiber cables.
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Sunday, October 05, 2003
Washington: State senators hold hearing on public utility districts' fiber systems
"Public utilities should move forward with their plans to provide telecommunications to rural areas. That was the opinion of the majority of people who spoke at last night's state Senate Technology and Communications Committee public hearing held at Ephrata City Hall."
The article quotes attendees' opinions from around the state.
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Colorado: Grand Junction linking traffic cameras, public facilities
Article
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Iceland: Reykjavik Energy Company's Lina.net
Ericsson's 2000 press release announcing it was supplying FTTH (fiber to the home) gear to Lina.net.
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"Korea leads in making homes more intelligent"
"Electronics makers, telecom carriers, state agencies join to spur home-wiring technology"
"Korea is taking steps to commercialize intelligent home network technologies, one of the 10 government-designated next-generation growth engines, taking advantage of the country's solid information technology infrastructure."
Article
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Iceland: Digital Reykjavik Conference to showcase and discuss city's FTTH plans
"Reykjavik, the northernmost capital in the world, is close to becoming a digital role model for communities all over the world, large and small. With unsurpassed fiber infrastructure, Reykjavik could become the world's first city with fiber to every home."
"Digital Reykjavik explores the potential of "the digital society" and how it will be affected by the bandwidth abundance."
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