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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
Friday, December 19, 2003
Utah: "Utopia a big step forward for Cedar City"
The Spectrum, a local newspaper, has published an editorial supporting Cedar City's participation in the multi-city UTOPIA fiber to the home (FTTH) project.
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Netherlands: City officials accelerate Groningen FTTH project
City officials in Groningen, Holland are accelerating the launch of their Community Network Groningen (CNG) fiber to the home project; operation will now begin next month.
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Thursday, December 18, 2003
Utah: "UTOPIA courts Lindon residents during Mayor's open house"
NewUtah.com has a long article on the presentation UTOPIA officials gave to Lindon residents earlier this week regarding the money ($345,000) Lindon put in an escrow account to backstop UTOPIA bonds -- basically 5% of Lindon's share of the project's cost.
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Wednesday, December 17, 2003
"FibrLINK Networks to offer broadband services via Beijing's electric power grid"
FibrLINK Networks is power utility telecommunications company owned by the power utilities of China's 36 provinces. FibrLINK is currently serving 100 Beijing neighborhoods with broadband over power line (BPL) technology from DS2 and Tecnocom.
A June, 2003 press release gives more information on FibrLINK"s plans and pricing.
Tecnocom and its' Chinese partner ECOM hope to supply power line broadband equipment for 200,000 Chinese end-users in 2004 and 5 million within 3 years.
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Light Reading: "Hype Is Back"
Light Reading had an interesting article earlier this month about FTTH and VoIP (voice over IP) warning that both technologies are now getting over-hyped.
The number given (50%) for FTTH (fiber to the home) construction costs is actually low -- outside plant costs are more like 80% to 90% of a FTTH project's cost.
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Posts will be intermittent and delayed for several days
I'm traveling on business; posts will be sporadic and delayed until I get back and catch up on the news.
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Community Broadband Networks reaches the 1500 posts milestone
This blog now has over 1500 entries since it was started early this year. See the Archives section for older posts or use the built-in Google search function to search them by keyword.
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Oregon: Amateur radio operators oppose Eugene's proposed BPL system
Amateur radio operators are opposing Eugene Water and Electric Board's proposal to deploy broadband over power lines (BPL) next year.
EWEB's telecom department is one of the savviest in the U.S.; I would expect them to be very thorough in their planning for such a trial.
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Utah broadband update
Utah has become a busy place for public broadband projects. Here are some updates:
UTOPIA
UTOPIA is the large project to deploy publicly-owned FTTH (fiber to the home) systems in 18 Utah cities:
- First, a correction: I noted in an earlier post on the UTOPIA project that the project managers had selected PON (passive optical network) equipment from Allied Telesyn. This was incorrect -- the Allied Telesyn equipment being used is an active system as this system description notes. (Many thanks to Jorge Ortiz at Interfibra for pointing out this mistake.)
- UTOPIA representatives were out to discuss the project in Cedar City (1, 2) in the southwest corner of the state. As usual, incumbent cable TV and telco providers were out in force to speak against it. This is ironic considering that Qwest could not even bother to build a redundant fiber link to this corner of the state (St. George leaders finally got construction on a second link started by another company this fall: 1, 2, 3)
- The UTOPIA organization issued a good white paper describing the project and its economics. The project has taken some criticism, especially from the Deseret Morning News, which ran an editorial entitled "Leave UTOPIA to the dreamers". Backers responded with an Op-Ed piece of their own -- "Bring on the bandwidth: UTOPIA not just a dream" and circulated an e-mail to Utah political leaders defending the project. While support for UTOPIA remains strong in many of the smaller towns that first made up UTOPIA, some politicians in Salt Lake City are reportedly getting cold feet. Salt Lake City was one of the last cities to join the UTOPIA project.
- Three good Utah blogs that cover the UTOPIA project are Utah Politics (1, 2), David Fletcher's Government and Technology Weblog (1) and Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog (1, 2).
iProvo:
Other Utah broadband news:
- CeriStar announced it will be developing a privately-owned FTTH system for a planned residential community in Genola, Utah. Ceristar is also deploying FTTH to 4 planned communities in the St. George area.
- The City of American Fork is running a fiber cable to nearby Spanish Fork as a backup link to the Internet for its' FTTH system (1, 2). This would also allow American Fork to tie into Spanish Fork's very successful broadband system and potentially share programming or head-end resources. Like Provo, neither Spanish Fork and American Fork are participating in the UTOPIA project since all 3 already had municipal broadband systems under development when the UTOPIA initiative began.
- Karl Bode published a good article on Utah fiber projects.
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New York: Town of Waterloo to help fund Seneca County broadband study
The Town Board of Waterloo, NY agreed to help fund Seneca County's broadband study.
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New York: Greenwood mayor wants to develop wireless broadband network
The mayor of Greenwood, NY on Long Island is exploring ways to develop a municipal wireless system as one means of fostering a greater sense of community. The article has an strong ideological bent to it; I'm not sure how much of that comes from the mayor and how much from the writer.
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California: City of Lompoc approves municipal broadband network
The Lompoc City Council last night approved construction of a $26.7 million municipal broadband network to be designed by McKibben Consulting.
In an interesting departure from some other municipal broadband networks, the Lompoc will initially deploy a wireless broadband system then later a fiber to the home (FTTH) system using the municipal power utility's infrastructure.
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"European FFTH developments and the role of Public Private Partnerships"
The Dutch group InterimIC has prepared a report on FTTH activity in Italy (Milan) and Sweden (Stockhom and Uppsala) as background for discussion on FTTH development in the Netherlands.
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Karl Bode: "Future Proof? Fiber and the regulation blockade"
Karl Bode looks at the Bells' continued whining about FCC regulations and their on-again, off-again commitments to deploy FTTH (fiber to the home) if regulators will only give them exactly what they want.
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Norfolk Southern railroad writes down value of its telecom business
Norfolk Southern Corporation is writing down the value of its' telecom assets by $80 million dollars to reflect their loss in value since the height of the fiber boom of the late 1990s. Norfolk Southern owns Thoroughbred Technology and Telecommunications, known as T-Cubed. T-Cubed's assets include 1,600 miles of fiber-optic infrastructure on Norfolk Southern's eastern rail corridors, and it has completed a number of transactions to provide infrastructure to telecommunications service providers.
"Norfolk Southern, through its T-Cubed subsidiary, remains committed to its participation in the telecommunications industry, which allows us to leverage our assets to participate in the future development of telecommunications infrastructure."
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California: Palo Alto selects Quantum Bridge/Motorola team for FTTH project
The City of Palo Alto Utilities has selected Quantum Bridge and Motorola to provide equipment for the municipal utility's FTTH (fiber to the home) project.
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Washington: Grant County PUD officials questioning costs of FTTH project
Moving beyond previously noted controversies over individuals associated with Grant County Public Utility District's FTTH (fiber to the home) project, the PUD's commissioners are now studying the Zipp project's economics. They're worried about major cost overruns in completing the system.
According to the article, they've connected 10,000 users at a cost of $80 million; another 30,000 remain to be connected.
The numbers in the article are a little murky since it's unclear whether these are costs per home passed or per actual subscriber. Most FTTH system developers build fiber to within a hundred feet or so of every house but do not invest invest in the equipment and labor to connect the house until the resident signs up for service.
As other communities look at these numbers, it's important to realize that this was the first wide-scale FTTH deployment in the U.S. Equipment costs have dropped dramatically since the Zipp project was initiated. Depending on a municipal power utility's line density (number of homes per mile) and its' mix of aerial versus underground service, current costs can be under 25% of the $8,000 per user that the first Zipp subscribers cost.
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Tuesday, December 16, 2003
Tennessee: Chattanooga's EPB Telecom "Ready With All-Fiber Internet Solution"
Chattanooga's municipal power utility has been aggressive in deploying fiber; Don Strobeck passed along this article from last month (I'm still catching up on some old posts):
"EPB Telecom announced that it will begin offering business customers 'an all-fiber Internet solution that will make Mayor Corker’s vision for an affordable, high speed, high bandwidth Internet product a reality in Chattanooga.' EPB Telecom’s new Internet product 'gives Chattanooga business customers access to a 100 percent fiber Internet path and the best connectivity available in the industry,' officials said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. They said, 'This technological advancement will catapult Chattanooga to a competitive position with other technology-driven cities such as Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles in appealing to companies who are considering relocating or expanding.'"
"Officials said, 'EPB Telecom’s all-fiber Internet service starts at 1.5 Mbps, the maximum capacity for most providers, and can be customized to provide up to 500 Mbps—capacity that is 300 times faster than traditional connections through T1, cable and DSL…that’s far more than businesses need today, but is what they will need in the near future. And while traditional service alternatives upload information at a notably slower speed than downloads, this new Internet product provides remarkably symmetrical upload and download speeds."
The article goes on to give very detailed information on EPB Telecom's system.
EPB Telecom is using Wave7 Optics' FTTP (fiber to the premises) equipment for this project.
Previous Chattanooga posts:
"Tennessee: Chattanooga mayor sees fiber connectivity critical to area's growth"
"City of Chattanooga merges its’ Internet and telecom businesses into one organization"
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Verizon to spend $600 to $800 million on FTTP next year
From a Telephony article last week on FTTH vendor AFC comes this quote:
"Verizon CTO Mark Wegleitner said the carrier would spend between $600 million and $800 million (at least 10% of its roughly $6 billion wireline capital expenditures budget) on FTTP in 2004."
(Link from Jim Baller at the Baller Herbst Law Group via his mailing list)
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Canada: Federal government to provide satellite broadband access to remote communities
"Government of Canada launches National Satellite Initiative to provide broadband access to northern and remote communities"
"This joint project between Infrastructure Canada, Industry Canada, and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will provide high-speed broadband Internet access services via satellite to communities located in the Far and Mid North, and in isolated or remote areas of Canada."
Press release
(Link from Casey Lide at the Baller Herbst Law Group via their mailing list)
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Florida: Planned communities in Tampa and St. Augustine to offer FTTH
Litestream Technologies announced it is deploying FTTH (fiber to the home) technology in planned community developments it's wiring up in the Tampa and St. Augustine, Florida area.
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Italy: "Milan jumps ahead in broadband content offering"
Profile of FastWeb's FTTH services in Milan.
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Japan: Regulators order NTT-East to open FTTH system
As the Nippon Goro Goro blog puts it:
"Toothless Japanese Fair Trade Commission accuses NTT East of monopolistic behavior regarding fiber line access. The phone company tells JFTC to take a hike."
(Link from Jay Herman)
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Arizona: City of Mesa deploys fiber-linked traffic monitoring system
The City of Mesa, Arizona is deploying a fiber-networked video surveillance system to monitor traffic congestion.
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Ontario: "Telecom Ottawa expands to Cornwall area"
"Telecom Ottawa Ltd. announced its second acquisition in a month on Tuesday, this time for a provider of network services in Cornwall southeast of the nation's capital. Under the terms of the deal, Cornwall District Communications (CDC) immediately becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telecom Ottawa."
"In a related deal, Telecom Ottawa also picks up 70 kilometres of fibre optic cable installed in the area, as well as a long-haul connection to Kingston. These assets were owned by the local electrical utility, Cornwall Street Railway Light and Power Co. Ltd., but operated by CDC under a long-term lease."
Article
Telecom Ottawa is a subsidiary of Hydro Ottawa, Ottawa's municipal power utility.
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Ohio: "Butler homes could save with fiber optic network"
Last Friday's Cincinnati Enquirer has a long article on Neal Shaw's analysis of a FTTH (fiber to the home) network for Hamilton, Ohio and parts of surrounding Butler County. Such a project would be easier inside the city because it's already in the power business and is already installing a municipal fiber backbone. The county portion of the project would utilize water utility rights of way.
Update:More information on Neal's analysis.
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Light Reading: "Utilities Key to Euro FTTH"
Light Reading has a good article on FTTH (fiber to the home) activity in Europe. Much of it is dominated by power utilities.
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Are open access requirements a poison pill for municipal FTTH projects?
I have argued before -- most recently in a post yesterday about possible Wisconsin municipal broadband legislation -- that requirements that municipal broadband networks offer open access to all video, voice and data service providers can be a poison pill for new broadband networks. This is because of the chicken-or-egg issues that can arise when trying to launch a new network, recruit service providers and iron out initial deployment bugs.
In response, John Overby with Alloptic has posted some good comments on the other side of this issue.
I encourage readers to make use of the comments link at the end of each post to share their own thoughts and information.
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Iceland: "Fiber To Every Home In Reykjavik"
Hjalmar Gislason, one of the Digital Reykjavik conference's organizers, has written an article on Reykjavik Energy's FTTH (fiber to the home project) for Broadband Home Central.
Hjalmar has also posted all the presentations from this year's conference on Digital Reykjavik's web site.
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Washington: Grant County PUD general manager resigns, 2 subordinates face disciplinary proceedings
Don Godard, Grant County Public Utility District's general manager, resigned this week in the wake of controversy surrounding contracting irregularities associated with the PUD's Zipp FTTH (fiber to the home) project. Two other employees are on paid administrative leave pending disciplinary hearings.
"'Because I care deeply about the future success of the PUD and the people who work there,' Godard said, 'I am leaving Grant PUD in hopes that it may have a fresh start.'"
(As we've noted before, these irregularities were technical violations of state regulations committed in the interest of saving the PUD money, not lining the pockets of either PUD employees or contractors.)
This project has been dogged by a group of PUD critics implacably opposed to the FTTH project. Unable to stop the project, they have instead fiercely attacked every aspect of the project's manager as well as the key employees associated with the project. Now that Godard has left, they are saying his resignation is not enough and they are trying to find additional ways to punish him.
Official press release
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Panama to build national fiber backbone on high voltage transmission system
Panama is building a national fiber backbone using 400 km of Corning optical groundwire (OPGW) installed on its' high voltage transmission system.
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California: More information on Lompoc's proposed broadband network
Kathleen A. Griffith with the City of Lompoc has a brief note in the Lompoc Record regarding the feasibility study the City Council will be reviewing tonight.
Links:
Utility staff recommendations
Consultants' feasibility report
Cable TV consulting firm McKibben Consulting performed the feasibility study and is lined up for a sole source, no-bid contract to design the system. According to their web site's client list, this will be McKibben's first project for either a municipal government or a power utility.
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Washington: Will Tacoma put competitor's name on the Tacoma Dome?
Over strenuous opposition from the local cable TV company, the City of Tacoma built a state-of-the-art, and now successful, municipal broadband system, the Tacoma Click! network. Now the city is about to sell the naming rights to the Tacoma Dome to Click!'s competitor, Comcast, although opposition to the deal is building.
The Tacoma News Tribune's editorial against this move also has a good history of the Click! network.
Meanwhile, a group of Illinois leaders travelled to Tacoma recently to learn more about how the city transformed itself from the 'Bronx of the West' to a thriving city using the Click! investment and other initiatives in the 1990s (such as waterfront cleanup and historic preservation).
BroadbandReports.com also recently ran a good article on the Tacoma network's success.
Weblog update: Comcast withdraws bid
link
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Minnesota: Right of way acquisition issues hindering Lakeville Schools' fiber network
In Minnesota, the Lakeville Area School District's plans to run fiber to all of its' facilities is being hindered by difficulties in obtaining rights of way in some areas.
I wonder if they've tried working with the local electric cooperative, Dakota Electric Association? Power coops are usually very interested in working with local schools.
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"Optimizing Fiber for FTTP"
John George, Fiber Optic Development Manager at OFS, has a good tutorial on optical fiber selection for FTTP (fiber to the premises) projects as part of Converge Digest's Telco triple Play series.
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Pennsylvania: York County connecting 40 government facilities with wireless broadband
York County, Pennsylvania is linking 40 municipal and county facilities with an Alvarion wireless broadband system.
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More on SBC's choice of Alcatel
Phil Harvey has a Light Reading article on SBC's choice of Alcatel as a primary supplier of FTTP (fiber to the premises) equipment.
Meanwhile, a CNET article on SBC and Alcatel also quotes BellSouth on it's FTTP vendor plans:
"A BellSouth spokesman said that company is still evaluating FTTP proposals from equipment makers, but does not foresee a decision in the near future."
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Finland: Town of Narpio adding wireless broadband to existing fiber network
"Dynamo Net is a company owned by the city of Narpes, Finland. Dynamo Net was established to run a data communication network in Narpes. The goal is to make the whole Narpes attractive in the sense of data communications. In 2003 and 2004 Dynamo Net is establishing a core network based on optical fiber. The core network will make fast connections within Narpes possible. The wireless access network was started during fall 2003 will enable citizens and companies to connect to the core network. Dynamo Net is an "Open Access Network" where all interested service providers can sell their services."
"'We are investing in the community telecommunications infrastructure, because it will help Narpes business owners and entrepreneurs offer their services to a regional and even global level,' said Andreas Ek, CEO of Dynamo Net. The project is being financed by the European Union, which has also received applications for similar telecommunications funding projects in other towns in Finland. The 25-year loans are aimed at providing incentives for firms to deploy broadband connectivity in underserved communities."
Press release
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Ireland: Electricity Supply Board partners with government to link 26 cities with fiber
The Electricity Supply Board, Ireland's power utility, is teaming with the Irish government to link 40 Irish towns with its extensive fiber optic system:
"Speaking earlier today, the [Irish Communications Minister] said that under the new offerings, high-speed broadband packages will be available to towns on the ESB Telecom's fibre optic network. He said that 2.5Gbps wavelength products connecting Dublin to 26 regional towns will be made available on the Esat BT network. In total, over 40 towns will be involved. The minister also said that some of the pricing on offer will be "eight times lower" than that currently available on the market."
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"Lucent and Salira partner to deliver EPON equipment in Asia-Pacific"
Lucent Technologies and Salira Optical Network Systems have announced that they are partnering to sell EPON (Ethernet passive optical network) equipment in the Asia-Pacific market.
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SBC selects Alcatel for FTTP equipment
Alcatel announced today that SBC Communications, the second largest U.S. Bell telephone company, has signed a four-year non-exclusive primary supplier contract to buy Alcatel's FTTP (fiber to the premises) equipment.
SBC's intentions to actually deploy FTTP remain unclear; the press release noted: "Ultimately, FTTP deployment will depend on results of the final lab testing and field trials, as well as clarification of any regulatory guidelines that would apply to FTTP networks."
As we've noted (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) previously, it's unclear how sincere any of the Bells' interest in fiber really was when they issued their RFP (request for proposals) earlier this year, especially SBC's.
SBC has been engaged (1, 2, 3) for some time in a carrot and stick game with federal and state regulators, alternately hinting at fiber to the home deployments while threatening to delay any sort of broadband deployment -- all in an effort to get the freedom from regulatory oversight it has been demanding.
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Monday, December 15, 2003
Utah: "Cities dream of high-speed digital link called Utopia"
The Salt Lake Tribune is carrying another article on the proposed 18-city UTOPIA FTTH (fiber to the home) project.
The article quotes a University of Denver academic, Ron Rizutto, who criticizes such systems on several grounds. The article, however, does not note his employment as senior fellow with the cable television industry's Cable Center.
One Rizutto criticism is that municipal systems duplicate existing private investments. This is not exactly true -- usually substantially exceed existing private investments. That's because they usually only get built in areas where the existing cable TV and telecommunication providers have done a poor job serving local customers and failed to invest in the plant upgrades necessary to offer affordable broadband.
A second criticism is that these systems "are not making money in the conventional sense" and just breaking even -- but isn't that the point of municipal ownership?
Rizutto also notes that some municipal systems are losing money but the article does not go into details. All broadband systems -- public or private -- lose money initially as they are being built. From my own experience, I would expect that most municipal systems in the U.S. are breaking even after the first three or four years.
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South Dakota: Black Hills FiberComm names new manager
Investor-owned power utility Black Hills Corp. announced that Linden "Linn" Evans will be the new general manager of its' telecom subsidiary Black Hills FiberCom. FiberCom, launched in 1998, provides phone, cable TV and broadband Internet service to Rapid City, South Dakota and nearby areas.
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Wisconsin legislators considering whether to kill or encourage municipal broadband projects
The Green Bay Press Gazette reports on the Wisconsin legislature's ongoing debates over whether to kill or encourage municipal broadband development in small towns across the state. One possible compromise would be to require such systems be open access systems.
As I've noted before, while requiring open access schemes for municipal broadband systems is intellectually appealing, such mandates complicate launching municipal systems in small towns. Even the massive UTOPIA FTTH (fiber to the home) project in Utah may have to grant a temporary monopoly to just one provider, initially.
Ironically, these open access requirements for municipal broadband systems are often inserted into state legislation as poison pills by the same cable TV and Bell lobbyists that zealously oppose efforts to open up their own networks.
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"Fiber to the Home Spreads Slowly Across Western Europe According to Yankee Group Report"
"Optical fiber remains the most future-proof broadband access technology and will penetrate the European residential market gradually over the next decade."
"Emerging business models for the development of fiber to the home (FTTH) across Western Europe feature an open network approach that separates ownership of infrastructure from that of service provision--a clear departure from the traditional telco model whereby the network operator typically provides services to the end user. A two-part Yankee Group report, 'Residential Fiber Slowly Becomes a Reality in Western Europe,' presents these developing business models."
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California: City of Lompoc considering municipal broadband network
Lompoc, California officials are considering building a municipal broadband network. Initially they would deploy a wireless network, then later run fiber to Lompoc homes and businesses.
This follows a feasibility study conducted earlier this year.
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