REGISTRATION - Broadband Communities Magazine

Transcription

REGISTRATION
NOW OPEN
AUSTIN
GigafyAmerica.com
APRIL 8 – 10, 2014
Renaissance Hotel – Austin, Texas
REGISTER
NOW
USD $350
(Save $545 off regular
Summit price of $895)
Use VIP Code:
BBCSUB
(Offer to expire soon.
Visit BBCMag.com/2014s.)
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www.bbcmag.com
TO SPONSOR OR EXHIBIT:
email: irene@bbcmag.com
phone: 505-867-3299
877-588-1649
APRIL 8-10, 2014 — GIGAFYAMERICA.COM — AUSTIN, TEXAS
EMPOWERED OUR ENTIRE TEAM
PANELISTS BROUGHT THE CONTENT TO LIFE
“As Developers, we always felt technology could and should serve as a
cornerstone of our Nexton Community in Charleston SC. Attending the 2013
Broadband Communities Summit has empowered our entire team to understand
and then demand excellence in broadband infrastructure. While our industries
have very different focus and planning requirements, we are aligned with the
commitment to enable what Broadband Communities defines as achievable and
cost effective next generation all fiber broadband networks.”
— John Grab, MWV - Nexton, Vice President
Real Estate Development & Land Management
“Participating in this year’s Summit was very beneficial to learn
of rapidly emerging best practices. The speakers and panelists
brought the content to life and there was greater focus on
what’s working well in the broadband ecosystem. I’m looking
forward to attending in 2014.”
— Stanley Adams, Broadband Planning Manager
Kansas City Department of Commerce
Milo Medin, VP, Access Services, Google Inc. addresses
the crowd at the 2013 awards luncheon.
CONTENT FROM EVERY
PANEL SUPERB
“… The quality of content from
every panel over the three days
was superb. The speakers were
truly expert and motivating, and
the technologists and corporate
representatives, especially those
provisioning fiber, and gigabit
solutions, were world class…”
— Galen M. Updike, Broadband
Planning Manager
ADOA - Arizona Strategic
Enterprise Technology (ASET)
Office | State of Arizona
DISCUSSIONS BALANCED
AND INFORMATIVE
“Each session had such diversity between the panelists.
They kept the discussions balanced and informative.”
— L etitia Tucker, Director of Ancillary Services, UDR
POSITIVE ENERGY
EVERYWHERE
FULL OF
INTERESTING,
RELEVANT
CONTENT
“This was my first
Broadband Communities
Summit and I am so
happy that I attended.
The Summit program
was full of interesting,
relevant content and
allowed for great
networking with others.
It was fantastic timing
with Google Fiber
coming to Austin.”
— Rondella Hawkins,
Telecommunications
& Regulatory Affairs
City of Austin
Here’s what attendees are saying
about the 2013 Summit!
“This was the best Summit ever.
Great substance, strong speakers,
and positive energy everywhere.”
— J im Baller, President
Baller Herbst Law Group, PC
Milo Medin, VP, Access Services, Google Inc. (middle) seen here with the two mayors of the Kansas
City-Google Fiber rollout, Mayor Sly James of Kansas City, MO and former Mayor Joe Reardon of
Kansas City, KS.
BROAD CROSS-SECTION OF VIEWS
AND COMMON VISION
“The Summit is unique in combining a broad cross-section of views with a
common vision and a massive amount of energy. I couldn’t have left more
excited about what people all across the country are thinking and doing
to make broadband a better platform for delivering a better future.”
—B
lair Levin, Executive Director Gig. U
April 8 – 10, 2014 • Renaissance Hotel - Austin • www.bbcmag.com
To sponsor or exhibit: email irene@bbcmag.com or call 505-867-3299
Make plans to attend the
2014 Summit now.
GIGAFY
AMERICA
CO-HOST & SPONSORS
OFFICIAL CORPORATE HOST:
DIAMOND SPONSORS:
Fiber Ready Building
PLATINUM SPONSOR:
GOLD SPONSORS:
FEATURED SPONSOR:
SILVER SPONSOR:
EXHIBITORS:
To exhibit or sponsor, contact: Irene G. Prescott at irene@bbcmag.com, or call 505-867-3299
OUR MISSION
Helping Communities Take Control
Of Their Broadband Futures
JIM BALLER is the chairman of the Economic Development
program at the Summit and at regional events produced
by Broadband Communities around the country.
With the unique credentials of both economic development
expert and the nation’s leading telecom lawyer for
municipalities seeking next-generation networks, Jim Baller has
a special appreciation for your community’s concerns. He knows
these concerns involve creating jobs, attracting and retaining
businesses, fostering economic development and contributing
to America’s global competitiveness.
As he recently told hundreds of public officials at a
Broadband Communities event:
Our mission is to help you meet these goals – as rapidly and
effectively as possible.
To that end, for our Austin program we will be emphasizing
economic development throughout – in every session, with
every speaker.
As attendees you will get useful, practical information –
including insights, examples and principles – that you can take
home and put to use at once.
You’ll learn from the leaders and individuals at the very center
of the gigabit revolution – from a city that is taking advantage
of the development of entirely new fiber infrastructure. As
such, it is the ideal place to explore the best ways of linking the
communications infrastructure of the future to economic vitality
and the quality of life.
Each attendee will also receive a wealth of economic research,
case histories, how-to materials, and other practical information
that you can use effectively in your communities.
Jim Baller, Chairman,
Economic Development Program
In our workshops and sessions, we
will address the latest, hottest topics –
including Google Fiber, telemedicine,
distance learning, getting seniors online,
and much more.
You’ll learn, of course, about Austin
– but also about many other state,
regional, and community networks.
You’ll also hear about several ways
to improve your chances of getting a
gigabit network, including vehicles to
attract private-sector network providers,
public-private partnerships, and
collaborating with vendors.
You’ll hear about a variety of successful
efforts to fund broadband – including
investments in education, healthcare
institutions and community anchors in
underserved areas.
Other topics include:
• the social and economic opportunities that ultra-fast
broadband provides citizens and businesses
• the benefits in creating commercial and innovation corridors
• the value of broadband in bolstering neighborhood safety,
enhancing education and improving health care services.
You’ll also enjoy ample time for networking and learning
about relevant cutting-edge products and services.
See You In Austin – Center of the
GIGABIT CITY REVOLUTION
Get prepared for the impact on communities
as well as residential and commercial buildings
NOW MORE THAN EVER, THE SUMMIT IS THE LEADING
EVENT FOR NETWORK BUILDERS AND DEPLOYERS
Across the nation broadband leaders agree that the Summit is the number one
venue for information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and
communities.
Our Austin location and the new relevance of the nation’s gigabit cities make the
Summit and its focus on advanced broadband now make that true in spades.
2014
Cornerstone
Awards and
Keynote
Luncheon
WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
New
Educational
Advisory
Board added
Everyone involved in the design and development of community networks will
find vital information at the Summit. Regular attendees include:
Real Estate Developers • Property Owners • Town Planners • Independent
Telcos • Municipal, County, State and Federal Officials • Private Cable
Operators • Economic Development Professionals • Architects and Builders •
System Operators • Investors • Utility Organizations • System Integrators
AMENITIES INCLUDE:
Two Evening Cocktail Receptions
Three Continental Breakfasts
Major Awards Luncheon
Working Lunches
Multiple Refreshment Breaks
Austin: A unique and charming
destination spilling over with
culture, music, history and style –
and technology, too.
AUSTIN
50+ SESSIONS WILL HIGHLIGHT:
Major New Survey of the MDU Market
World-Class Keynoters
New Research On Broadband and
Economic Development
Renaissance Hotel is nestled
in the picturesque hills of
the Texas Hill Country in
northwest Austin
Revenue Generation for Network Operators
EXCITING PROGRAMS NOW IN DEVELOPMENT:
Vital lessons from the nation’s new gigabit cities
New sessions on commercial properties
Enlisting customers in support of your plans
Top strategies and tactics for increasing the ROI of buildings
REGISTER NOW AND GET MAJOR DISCOUNTS
Don’t delay. Low early rates will expire soon.
Exhibit Hall
and evening
cocktail
receptions
SUMMIT 2014 will be held at the
Renaissance Austin Hotel, within
easy driving distance from the city’s
main airport, the Austin-Bergstrom
International Airport (AUS).
GIGAFY
2014 Broadband Summit Chairmen
Lending Their Expertise to the Creation of a Timely, Dynamic Program
CEO and Lead Consultant
NEO Fiber
Diane Kruse
President
The Baller Herbst Law Group, PC
Bryan Rader
CEO
Bandwidth Consulting LLC
The Hon. Hilda Legg
Andrew Cohill
Roland Cole
Kyle Hollifield
Jane Patterson
President
Design Nine
Jim Baller
Senior Fellow
Sagamore Institute
Magellan Advisors.
Vice Chairman
Broadband Communities Magazine
Former RUS Administrator
and Vice Chair,
Secure your seat today by calling 877-588-1649,
or visit our website at www.bbcmag.com
President
The View Forward
AMERICA
THE SUMMIT is the leading event
for network builders and deployers
The Broadband Communities Summit is the leading venue for
information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and
communities. With a focus on residential properties, developments and
municipalities, the Summit has become a must-attend event for network
builders and large-scale and wholesale buyers and users of broadband
technologies, equipment, and services.
An Essential Venue For
Industry Leaders
Lori Reeves, Vice President, Forest
City Residential Management
meets with Richard Sherwin,
CEO, Spot On Networks
Developers and property owners attending the Summit include
representatives from such organizations as:
Hillwood Communities – A Perot Company • Trammell Crow Residential • Buckingham
Companies • Education Realty Trust • Fairfield Residential • Peak Campus Management •
Camden Property Trust • Forest City Residential • AIMCO • American Campus Communities
• AMLI Residential • Associa • Atticus Real Estate • Herman & Kittle Properties • KB Home •
Landmark Properties • Laramar Communities,
LLC • Midtown Alliance Development • Avalon
Bay Communities • Baxter Southwest Corporate
New Ideas,
Realty Services • BH Management • BRE Properties
New Markets,
• Campus Living Villages • Post Properties •
Preiss Company • Pulte Group • Raymond James
New Agenda
Real
Estate
•
Related
Companies
•
Capstone
Linda Willey, Director of Ancillary
Real Estate Management • Carmel Partners
Services, Camden Property Trust
A Place
Developers • Casey Development Ltd • Choice
Property Resources • Colonial Properties Trust • Edward Rose Companies • Equity
Where Deals
Residential • Essex Property Trust • Flournoy Properties • H Properties LLC • Mills
Get Done
Properties • Picerne Development • Riverstone Residential Group • The Michelson
Organization • The Roberts Companies • Tonti Properties • Trimarchi Property
Management • Trump Organization • UDR Inc. • Verde Apartment Communities
• Village Green Apartment Communities • Waterton Residential • Westdale Asset
Management Broadband providers in attendance include the major incumbents –
telco, cable and satellite – plus private cable operators,
rural telcos, competitive overbuilders, municipalities,
Excellent Content and more. Economic development professionals, state
broadband officials and community broadband activists
Plus The Best
are also well represented.
Networking
David Daugherty, CEO & Founder,
Korcett Holdings
To exhibit or sponsor, contact: Irene G. Prescott at
irene@bbcmag.com, or call 505-867-3299
AUSTIN in April...
LEARN ABOUT the newest broadband
trends and developments . . .
And how to take advantage of them.
Meet the experts and the customers.
All in one place. All in one week.
The housing market is recovering.
MDU construction is strengthening.
There is growing demand for bandwidth.
Technology amenities are more vital than ever for rents and occupancy rates.
Whether you need financing, financial modeling, construction help, a new service
provider or a new MDU build in which to provide service, Austin is the place to be.
Areas of opportunity you’ll learn about include:
The aging population
Seniors crave in-home health care – and assisted-living facilities are pushing to install more fiber.
Young families
Their employers are demanding good broadband at home.
College students
Even on-campus students are taking courses on-line.
Home-based businesses with FTTH
They’ve generated $140 billion in revenue since 2010.
Cellular providers
More are dependent on in-building hot spots and subscribers’ own wifi routers.
Only the Broadband Summit brings real estate and communications together so intimately. And
with 2013 racking up the best FTTH numbers in both industries since the start of the
recession, this year’s Summit is sure to be a barn-burner. Consider these hard facts:
• The door is wide open for extra-profitable greenfield deployments: New annual housing
starts crossed the million mark in October for the first time since 2008.
• 400,000 starts were multiple dwelling units, mostly rentals.
FTTH Connections Set All-Time Records
• More than one million net customers connected directly to fiber from March to
September and 1.7 million from September to September – both all-time records.
• More than 3.4 million homes were newly passed by fiber in North America – the most
since 2009.
• FTTH is the only transmission medium to gain video customers for the past two years.
With its world-famous Google deployment, AT&T building out
fiber to the home, and even a private cable operator offering gigabit service,
tech-savvy Austin is the place to be.
Introducing the NEW 2014 MDU Chairmen,
Property Owner Advisory Panel and the
New Educational Advisory Group
Superior Multi-Housing Program
An Agenda Developed by Industry Leaders
THE NEW 2014 MDU CHAIRMEN
Cheryl Barraco
Director Of
Telecommunications
Avalon Bay
Communities, Inc.
Steve Sadler
Vice President,
Ancillary Services
Post Apartment
Homes, LP
THE 2014 ADVISORY PANEL OF PROPERTY OWNERS
Scott Casey
Sr. VP & Chief Technology Officer
Education Realty Trust
Lori Reeves
Vice President
Forest City Management
Michael Hallbrook
AVP of Business Development
Mid-America Apartment Comm.
Letitia Tucker
Director, Ancillary Services
UDR Inc.
Karen Seeman
Director, Ancillary Income
Essex Property Trust
Steve Merchant
VP, Revenue Strategy
Equity Residential
Barney Pullam
Vice President, Business Process
Waterton Residential
Kathleen Austin
Assistant Vice President
Equity Residential
Linda Willey
Director, Ancillary Services
Camden Property Trust
THE 2014 EDUCATION ADVISORY PANEL
Come Early For This
$4,500 Opportunity
SIX FREE PRE-CONFE
Workshops begin at noon on Monday, April 7.
• All registered attendees are welcome at no extra charge.
• Each attendee can attend three workshops – value $4,500.
• No limit on the number attending from any individual company.
• Learn from leading experts teaching six valuable sessions.
Workshop #1:
Content will include:
HANDS-ON FINANCIAL
MODELING FOR MDUS
• The effects of new revenue streams such as
hot spots or distributed antennas for cellular
signal enhancement
Workshop Leader
Steven Ross – Corporate Editor,
In this session, you’ll gain financial expertise
in planning an FTTH project for a multipledwelling-unit community.
You’ll master the use of Broadband Communities’
proven financial modeling tools, including the
FTTH Analyzer for MDUs. All FTTH Analyzers are
available at no charge.
MDU builds were once the domain of private
cable operators (PCOs). Now the players include
competitive exchange carriers, real estate
developers and specialized amenity providers
and large ISPs – including AT&T, Verizon,
CenturyLink and Google.
Steve Ross, tool
developer and
Gain financial
corporate editor
expertise in
– whose decades
of university-level
planning
teaching experience
include Columbia and
Harvard – will lead the workshop.
• Why all greenfield MDUs should start with fiber
• Why fiber to the
basement is often an
excellent alternative
if existing wiring can
carry the bandwidth
Tricks to get
to positive
cash flow
• Tricks to get to positive
cash flow within
9 months of the start of system build
• Hybrid systems -- satellite for linear video and
fiber for everything else
• Extra benefits for managing building energy
and security issues
• What to tell your mortgage holder
• Mastering Tool #2, for investors, and Tool#5,
for operational cash flow
Steve’s workshop attracted over 100 attendees at
Broadband Communities’ 500-attendee Chicago
economic development conference, November 5-7
Join hundreds of network builders, consultants,
communities, fiber activists, investors and bankers
who are using these tools now.
Each FREE two-hour workshop is a
$1,500+ value
ERENCE WORKSHOPS
With Broadband Communities’ FTTH Tools you
can analyze the viability of any FTTH Project.
The Tools include:
• FTTH Financial Analyzer Tutorial
• MDU Financial Analyzer Tutorial
• Rural Financial Analyzer Tutorial
• The Revenue Analyzer
• The Monthly Cash Flow Calculator
This workshop is a must-attend for economic
development officers, elected officials and
community stakeholders who want to learn how a
broadband investment can pay off.
Workshop Leader
Michael Curri – President, Strategic Networks
Group
The SNG presenting
team will work with
Extra time will
audience members on
be added to this
successfully
approaching businesses session for those
to drive network
seeking in-depth
adoption. Instruction
instruction.
includes how to
educate businesses in
the profit-enhancing
value of broadband and responding to and
overcoming the multiple objections raised by
business managers. An extra half hour to an hour
will be added to this session for those seeking indepth instruction.
What do you do once your network is built?
Workshop #3:
Workshop #2:
MAXIMIZE THE PAYOFF
FROM YOUR
BROADBAND
INVESTMENT
The economic benefits of broadband come
only after businesses and individuals are
convinced of the value of high-speed services.
Learn why businesses may be slow to adopt
broadband and its solutions – and how you
can overcome these barriers to grow your region
and drive mass adoption of your network.
In this highly acclaimed
workshop you’ll learn how
to grow your region and
drive mass adoption of your
broadband network.
GIGABIT TO THE MDU
Workshop Leader:
Richard Holtz – CEO, InfiniSys
Gigabit Internet to a multifamily
building is still rare. But there can be little doubt
the momentum is increasing. Over the past year
there’s been powerful evidence that certain
MDU customers crave gigabit speeds. This is
especially true of
tech-savvy customers
MDU customers
such as students and
crave gigabit
technology company
employees.
speeds
SIX FREE PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
Workshop #4
CONNECT ED &
DISTANCE EDUCATION
Workshop Leader:
Jane Patterson – President,
The View Forward
This workshop will provide
Learn from
lessons from people who
experts who
have connected schools
connected schools
to a statewide broadband
to a statewide
platform. Learn from them
network
about financing, cloud services
initiation, teacher training, student assessment,
statewide telehealth networks and technologybased economic development initiatives.
Workshop #5:
PUBLIC OFFICIALS WORKSHOP:
DEMAND AGGREGATION
Public officials will find the practical information
in these two hours alone worth the trip to Austin.
They will learn how communities can aggregate
the demand for broadband services with methods
that include dedicated grassroots initiators who
educate residents and sign them up to purchase
future broadband services.
Workshop #6:
INTRODUCTION TO FIBER TO THE
USER NETWORKS (FTTH & FTTB)
Workshop Leader:
Larry Johnson – Founder & President,
The Light Brigade
This free workshop for public officials and
executives will be led by the president and
founder of leading training and education firm
The Light Brigade. Larry Johnson is an expert in all
aspects of fiber optic design, installation, testing
and measurement.
The Light Brigade to Host 2-Day
FTTH Certification Course at Summit
This two-day course will address FTTH design and
planning, physical network architecture, video systems,
Ethernet/ IP networks, business and economic issues, and
future migration considerations.
Taught by The Light Brigade to certify FTTH professionals,
the FTTH Council’s Certified Fiber-to-the-Home Professional
(CFHP) program is the only curriculum and examination
program specifically designed to determine and certify
professional competence in FTTH design, architecture,
deployment and administration technologies.
Call 206-575-0404 or visit
www.lightbrigade.com
for details.
Make plans to attend
Course Days:
April 7-8, 2014
Separate CFHP
registration required
Register online at www.bbcmag.com
How Broadband Enables Prosperity
In a 21st Century Economy
Co-Locating for the 5th Consecutive Summit
WHY ATTEND?
Rural TeleCon Austin is aimed at developing policies,
strategies and best practices to enable states and
communities to expedite deployment of critical
infrastructure and support the use of next-generation
broadband for rural prosperity.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN?
INTERACT in sessions on the $7 billion FirstNet initiative.
EXPLORE best practices on the “how to’s” of rural
collaboration.
CONNECT with leaders and stakeholders at networking
sessions and receptions.
EXAMINE criteria and guidelines to using technology to
have significant impact in rural communities.
HEAR from experts on successful projects that exemplify
collaboration and partnerships.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
• Representatives from all communities with current
or planned broadband initiatives.
• Leaders in Economic Development, Education,
Healthcare, Government, Public Safety.
• Officials from the USDA, FCC, NTIA, USAC in telecom and
rural development.
• State telecom and broadband mapping and planning
leaders.
Collaborating for Rural Broadband at the
Community, State and Federal Levels
John Padalino, Acting Administrator, Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) addresses a full crowd.
p
EDITOR’S NOTE
It Isn’t Magic
CEO & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Scott DeGarmo / scott@bbcmag.com
Fiber networks – even gigabit networks –
don’t magically generate economic growth.
Communities must draw the connection.
PUBLISHER
Nancy McCain / nancym@bbcmag.com
CORPOR ATE EDITOR, BBP LLC
Steven S. Ross / steve@bbcmag.com
EDITOR
Masha Zager / masha@bbcmag.com
ADVERTISING SALES ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
Irene Prescott / irene@bbcmag.com
ONLINE NEWS EDITOR
Marianne Cotter / marianne@bbcmag.com
DESIGN & PRODUCTION
Karry Thomas
CONTRIBUTORS
Joe Bousquin
David Daugherty, Korcett Holdings Inc.
Joan Engebretson
Richard Holtz, InfiniSys
W. James MacNaughton, Esq.
Henry Pye, RealPage
Bryan Rader, Bandwidth Consulting LLC
Robert L. Vogelsang, Broadband Communities Magazine
BROADBAND PROPERTIES LLC
CEO
Scott DeGarmo
VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS & OPERATIONS
Nancy McCain
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
Robert L. Vogelsang
VICE CHAIRMEN
The Hon. Hilda Gay Legg
Kyle Hollifield
BUSINESS & EDITORIAL OFFICE
BROADBAND PROPERTIES LLC
1909 Avenue G • Rosenberg, Tx 77471
281.342.9655 • Fax 281.342.1158
www.broadbandcommunities.com
Broadband Communities (ISSN 0745-8711) (USPS 679-050) (Publication
Mail Agreement #1271091) is published 7 times a year at a rate of $24 per year
by Broadband Properties LLC, 1909 Avenue G, Rosenberg, TX 77471. Periodical
postage paid at Rosenberg, TX, and additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Broadband Communities,
PO Box 303, Congers, NY 10920-9852.
CANADA POST: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns
to be sent to Bleuchip International, PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
Copyright © 2013 Broadband Properties LLC. All rights reserved.
F
or the 10th consecutive year,
Broadband Communities devotes
the year’s final issue to the
relationship between broadband and
economic development. A decade
ago, broadband’s effect on economic
development was still speculative.
Today, multiple studies all over the
world have confirmed that more
broadband can lead to more jobs, higher
income and more business success. A
new “Giganomics” model introduced
by David Sandel at Broadband
Communities’ recent economic
development conference confirms that,
under the right conditions, superfast
broadband can yield super results.
Best of all, bandwidth-fueled
economic development isn’t a zero-sum
game. Communities don’t have to steal
jobs from one another – they all benefit
as individuals and businesses become
more productive and creative.
However, economic development
doesn’t happen by itself. We have all
heard of fiber networks that fizzled and
failed to produce the desired results.
Perhaps their operators offered me-too
products at me-too prices or didn’t
communicate the networks’ benefits well
enough. Or perhaps their communities’
overall economic development climates
were so poor that even great networks
couldn’t make up the difference.
As Sandel states, “Economic impact
is not guaranteed. Intentional focus is
necessary to achieve these results.”
UTILIZATION IS NEEDED
What should be (but isn’t always) selfevident is that for networks to affect
local economies, they must be well
utilized. When broadband first became
available, consumers, businesses and
application developers seized upon it
gleefully, freed from the constraints of
dial-up Internet.
Today, however, increasing
broadband utilization isn’t so easy,
especially on high-bandwidth networks.
Most individuals and businesses that
don’t use – or barely use – broadband
today have financial, educational or
other hurdles that must be addressed.
And because today’s new productivityboosting applications are less obvious
than email and e-commerce were a
dozen years ago, even expert broadband
users may miss opportunities to benefit.
That’s why this issue includes several
articles about educating individuals
to use broadband for personal
productivity and skills development
and educating businesses to become
more profitable through broadband.
These programs help participants,
and they also help network operators,
communities and local economies.
Developing technology skills isn’t the
most common approach to promoting
economic development, but it’s a
valid and time-tested one. (It’s also
less expensive and more effective than
offering tax incentives.)
This issue also reports on a variety
of other broadband-related strategies
that cities are using, such as promoting
dialog and collaboration across
economic sectors, funding business
incubators and encouraging startups in
other ways, aggregating demand, and
identifying community assets that are
valuable to broadband operators.
To quote Sandel again, “Building
a successful gigabit city is 90
percent sociology and 10 percent
infrastructure.” Those who hope to
succeed at a gigabit transformation
must be conversant with both. v
masha@bbcmag.com
Did you 2013
like this article? Subscribe here!
14 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER STORY – ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
42
80
Introducing Giganomics / A BBC Staff Report
86
Broadband Adoption and
Economic Opportunity /
IN THIS ISSUE
PROVIDER PERSPECTIVE
Hold the Phone! /
20
A Gigabit Garden Begins to Grow /
By Blair Levin and Ellen Satterwhite, Gig.U
Digital voice can be a highmargin, trouble-free offering
for private cable operators.
By Bernadine Joselyn, Blandin Foundation
91
42
The Battle for Digital Inclusion /
By Michael Liimatta, Connecting for Good
94
97
By Brian Mefford,
Connected Nation Exchange
104 Economic Development
in Brief
The Basics of
HOME
FIBER TO THE
TESTING
and FIBER
FIBER OPTIC TESTING PRIMER
47
The Basics of Fiber to the Home and Fiber Testing/
By the Editors of Broadband Communities
fing
• future-proo
development
• economic
ased • secur ity
• reliab ility
• standards-b
• symmetry
bandwidth •
affordability
sustainability
Fall 2013
the Editors of
FEATURES
FTTH DEPLOYMENTS
Q&A With CenturyLink’s Danny Pate and Jeff Oberschelp
CenturyLink has entered the FTTH arena with a splash. Are Omaha and Las Vegas just
the opening salvos in a larger deployment?
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
Fiber to the Home Expands at a Record-Setting Pace /
32
FTTH deployments come roaring back – and customers are eager to sign up for services.
The best places to buy equipment, software and services for delivering voice, video,
data and more.
BROADBAND APPS
Seeing Double: Multiscreen Video Trends / By Masha Zager, Broadband Communities
119
An FTTH network in North
Dakota supports utilities,
agriculture, education and
health care.
MUNICIPAL FTTP
DEPLOYMENT SNAPSHOT
ONE Burbank –
Burbank, Calif.
24
Burbank is called the “Media
Capital of the World” for good
reason. ONE Burbank aims to
keep it that way.
DEPARTMENTS
14 EDITOR’S NOTE
18 BANDWIDTH HAWK
123MARKETPLACE ADS
124ADVERTISER INDEX /
CALENDAR
ABOUT THE COVER:
New York artist Irving Grunbaum
envisions the impact of gigabit
connectivity.
By Steven S. Ross, Broadband Communities
2014 BUYERS GUIDE
Buying for Ultra-Broadband Builds and Services
108
By Joan Engebretson,
24
Household Income
30
22
102 How Broadband Boosts
A Primer from
WHY WE NEED MORE FIBER
Building a Smart
Community With Fiber /
Broadband for Gazelles / By Ken Demlow and Tom Chapman, Beehive Industries
Asset Mapping Catalyzes
Broadband Development /
By Bryan J. Rader,
Bandwidth Consulting LLC
New technologies help operators improve the multiscreen experience, lower costs and
tap new revenue streams.
Visit www.bbcmag.com
for up-to-the-minute
news of broadband
trends, technologies
and deployments
f acebook.com/bbcmag
t witter.com/bbcmag
16 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
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I N T E G R I T Y
I N T O
E V E R Y T H I N G
BANDWIDTH HAWK
Good Prospects for 2014
The FTTH deployment business is beginning to look normal again,
even considering the fact that much of this year’s fiber deployment
in the U.S. was powered by the last of the 2009 stimulus funds.
By Steven S. Ross / Broadband Communities
A
lot of people have been talking about how badly the
fiber-to-the-home industry is doing. But that’s old
news, and it’s no longer true.
Part of my job, as you might expect, is to take the pulse
of the industry I write about. That means going to a lot of
conferences, Wall Street seminars and private meetings.
After 2008, I saw that the worldwide recession, along with
predatory pricing by Chinese suppliers, dampened enthusiasm
for FTTH in many quarters. However, the pulse quickened
substantially in the past year. The last of the federal stimulus
funds, combined with the first stirrings of a housing recovery,
produced the best year for fiber to the home since the 12
months ending in March 2009. In some ways, the 12 months
that ended in September 2013 were the industry’s best yet.
According to market research by Michael Render of RVA LLC,
• Net new FTTH customer connections in North America
totaled 1.04 million from March to September and 1.7
million from September to September, both records.
• New homes marketed totaled 4.2 million over 12 months
– just shy of the 2008 record – and reached 2.8 million in
March–September 2013, a record for any six-month period.
• New homes passed with fiber totaled 3.4 million, the most
since 2009.
• There were 665,000 new video customers for the year,
hardly a record, but fiber was the only transmission
medium to gain video customers for the past two years.
You can read all the details in “FTTH Expands at a
Record-Setting Pace” on p. 32.
Fewer suppliers now share the business, as many vendors
have merged or fallen by the wayside. Under strong pressure
from the U.S. government, Chinese vendor Huawei is
abandoning the American market. I have mixed feelings
about that. Huawei is accused of posing a security risk, but
many U.S. vendors manufacture equipment in China. Lower
equipment prices make FTTH more affordable, and that
means FTTH networks are more likely to be built. Still,
the initial purchase cost of equipment is only a small part of
the overall cost of building a fiber network, and American
vendors, though unable to routinely match Huawei’s pricing,
compensate with more flexible financing and invoicing.
Two trends power FTTH deployments right now. The first
is the push toward gigabit-per-second bandwidth pioneered by
Google and several smaller players. New network capabilities
2014 SUMMIT
FREE
WO R K S H O P S
Austin, TX
April 7
beget more network services – a virtuous feedback loop.
Only fiber can handle new revenue-generating products and
services designed for high-bandwidth environments. It is little
wonder that FTTH customers pay, on average, a monthly bill
of more than $150, half again as much as the average cable or
DSL bill for customers surveyed by Render.
The second trend is a sharp increase in housing starts
concentrated in the MDU rental market. MDU fiber systems
are easier to finance than communitywide systems (I’ll
discuss that in depth during a free preconference workshop at
the Broadband Communities Summit this April in Austin),
and highly mobile tenants, a young demographic, had great
bandwidth in college and want it where they live now.
In a primer Broadband Communities published last
summer for the Australian market (www.bbcmag.com/
Primers/ftthprimerAUS_Aug13_webFINAL.pdf), we pointed
out that full FTTH for Australia would be slightly more
expensive than the FTTN plan favored by the winning
Liberal Party Coalition but had a far stronger business case
because of the higher revenue potential. That view has since
been ratified by Australian government officials, even though
they opted for the FTTN plan anyway.
New fiber-enabled services also spur economic
development, help care for the aged and invalid and even
obviate the need to issue new FCC regulations – the call for
à la carte cable pricing, for instance, has been muted by the
existence of over-the-top video service providers.
In fact, looking toward 2014, perhaps the biggest
regulatory threat to new FTTH deployments is a push by
politicians in many states to restrict municipalities and
other public entities or public/private partnerships that want
to build their own networks where incumbent providers
(typically milking old, obsolete systems) refuse to do so.
As I said at the start of this column, we go to a lot of
meetings. But you don’t have to go to many at all. Get all
the information you need at Broadband Communities’
regional economic development conferences and at the
annual Broadband Communities Summit, April 8–10 in
Austin. Come a day early for the workshops, which are free to
conference registrants. v
Contact the Bandwidth Hawk at steve@bbcmag.com.
Did you 2013
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Open houses, building maintenance, landscaping. You’ve got a lot to worry about. With XFINITY,® keeping your residents entertained
and connected doesn’t have to be one of them. With XFINITY On Demand,™ residents can access thousands of TV shows, movies
and more. And, with the XFINITY™ TV Player app, residents can download their favorite TV shows and movies on their mobile device
and watch them anytime, anywhere — even when they’re offline. Plus, XFINITY Internet delivers the fastest in-home Wi-Fi for all
rooms and devices, all the time. With XFINITY, keeping your buildings occupied has never been easier.
Silver Linings Playbook® available
with XFINITY On Demand.™
Parks and Recreation available
at xfinity.com/tv and
on XFINITY Streampix™
Call 1 - 800 -XFINITY today.
xfinity.com/multifamilies
Not available in all areas. Restrictions apply. Features vary depending on level of service and are subject to change. Digital Starter TV (or above) required for XFINITY
On Demand service. Wi-Fi claim based on August 2012 study of comparable in-home wireless routers by Allion Test Labs, Inc. Actual speeds vary and are not guaranteed.
Download feature available with XFINITY TV Player app and requires subscription to XFINITY TV service with SHOWTIME,® STARZ,® Encore, or Movieplex. Data charges may
apply. Check with your carrier. Call for restrictions and details. ©2013 Comcast. All rights reserved. Celebrity endorsement not implied. Parks and Recreation ©2012 Open
4 Business Productions LLC. Silver Linings Playbook ® ©2012 SLPTWC Films, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
PROVIDER PERSPECTIVE
Hold the Phone!
Not all MDU residents are in wireless-only households. Many of them would be happy
to subscribe to digital voice products.
By Bryan Rader / Bandwidth Consulting LLC
T
he phone business isn’t dying
after all, is it? Comcast and
Charter Communications just
announced that in the third quarter of
2013, they added almost as many phone
subcribers as they did Internet subs.
Were any of them in multiple-dwellingunit (MDU) communities?
Over the last decade, the big cable
companies have built digital voice
businesses that now reach 20 percent
of their potential homes passed. And
though the overall landline telephone
business is declining (just look at the
AT&T and Verizon figures), the cable
guys are still finding ways to expand
this market.
Initially, they pushed phone as
part of the triple-play bundle to drive
subscribership and take rates. “If you
want the best rates for digital TV, you
need to take phone, too,” they would
tell subscribers. Now, however, they
often sell digital phone at lower price
points, wrapped in a broadband bundle
as part of an up-sell.
And guess what? It is working! Just
ask Comcast and Charter.
But what about MDUs?
The phone business doesn’t need to
be a capital investment project for an
operator. Private cable operators (PCOs)
can work with independent phone
providers that use VoIP technologies
to launch their phone businesses. The
economics are quite simple.
For less than $10 per customer,
many operators can push a digital
phone up-sell to a new broadband
subscriber for an incremental $25 a
month – a 60 percent sales margin.
Operationally, the product is easy. A
technician simply installs an analog
telephone adapter while activating a
broadband customer. This adds barely
five minutes to the installation process.
But can it work in MDUs?
Darren Ascone, CEO of Hover
Networks, a VoIP service provider, is
experiencing great success with Hover’s
white-label digital voice product. “It’s
a no-capex model that adds more
stickiness to customer relationships
with a good margin product,” Ascone
explains. “Cable operators that don’t
offer phone are leaving money on the
table.”
Hover Networks (www.
hovernetworks.com) has customers
in 17 states and provides back-office,
marketing and customer support for
its operator partners. “We help teach
providers how to market phone in a way
that seems to work well,” Ascone says.
Yeah, but answer my question: Can
phone be a part of an MDU play?
OK, OK. I am not ignoring your
question. The answer is a resounding
“yes.” Digital phone can be a highly
effective product for many PCOs
that sell to MDU communities, even
though many people think, incorrectly,
that most MDU residents use only
wireless phones today.
At a recent Independent MultiFamily Communications Council
conference in Dallas, speakers agreed
that although digital phone may not
be a good match in student housing,
it can be very attractive in retirement
communities, in high-rise condos
that have poor cell phone reception
on higher floors or even in upscale
apartment communities that have
work-at-home residents.
One MDU operator said, “Digital
voice is a great solution to have in
your bag of tricks if you promote it
correctly with the right audience.” A
PCO executive said he routinely sees 50
percent penetration rates among older
MDU audiences. Another said he can
include digital voice in bulk packages.
One even spoke about its broad appeal to
customers who make international calls.
Adding voice to a product mix
doesn’t have to create new headaches.
After all, digital phone is not a new
product, and it isn’t in an experimental
phase. It has been broadly marketed
for more than 10 years, and most
operational issues today are fairly
minor. Most operators that offer phone
find it easy to service and easy to
deploy. They say it requires very little
technical support.
One PCO explained, “If you have a
good broadband network, phone won’t
be a problem at all.”
Stop leaving money on the table,
and begin marketing digital voice again
selectively in MDU markets. Why give
25 million phone customers to Comcast,
Charter and Time Warner Cable?
PCOs should have their fair share
of these subscribers. And yes, many of
them do live in MDU communities.
I encourage you to try digital
phone again to answer this question for
yourself. v
Bryan Rader is CEO of Bandwidth
Consulting LLC, which assists providers
in the multifamily market. You can
reach Bryan at bryanjrader@yahoo.
com or at 636-536-0011. Learn more at
www.bandwidthconsultingllc.com.
Did you 2013
An Invitation from the Broadband Economists.
Gigabit is Not Enough
Attend the Broadband Communities Summit to Learn Why
“Supply” is Not Enough and How to Drive Demand to Your Network
There are lots of great reasons to attend the Broadband Communities Summit in Austin
April 8-10, 2014 – including the opportunity to understand why your network is falling short in
terms of adoption and sustainability and some steps to ensure you maximizing the
socio-economic returns from your broadband network investment.
Too often we’re focused on simply planting a gigabit seed and hoping it will grow. Strategic
Networks Group, the world’s leading authority on broadband economics is offering a one-of-akind workshop that will help you understand why “build it and they will come” will not or is
not working – and how to overcome barriers, drive adoption and economic growth.
“I attended Michael Curri’s presentation and found quantitative information, based
on statistically significant studies, on the community impact, job growth, and overall
economic development potential of broadband deployment. I left with actionable
information that I can use to further broadband deployment in my community. His
presentation made the entire trip worthwhile.”
- Chicago Workshop Attendee
-Michael Curri, President, SNG
AUSTIN
See SNG at the Summit in Austin. Free pre-conference
workshop with Michael Curri April 7.
info@sngroup.com
www.sngroup.com
Register today at www.bbcmag.com/2014s
WHY WE NEED MORE FIBER
Building a Smart Community
With Fiber
The FTTH network a North Dakota telco built supports utilities, agriculture, education
and health care in its service area.
By Joan Engebretson / Broadband Communities
N
orth Dakota–based telephone
company Dickey Rural
Networks (DRN) didn’t set
out to build a smart community, but
over the last six years, that’s what it has
achieved.
About 10 years ago, DRN began
to deploy fiber to the premises to
about 9,000 locations spread across a
5,644-square-mile area roughly the
size of Connecticut. To maximize
take rates, DRN began exploring ways
to enhance the value of a high-speed
broadband fiber connection.
“We were trying to find applications
for our customers and [learn] how they
could utilize fiber to help themselves,”
comments Janell Hauck, DRN sales
manager.
Today, DRN’s fiber network
supports a smart electric grid, smart
water distribution, smart farming, and
advanced educational and health care
applications.
The company’s investment in the
smart grid came about when two
local utility companies that together
serve a large part of the state wanted
to interconnect 67 power stations to
support advanced monitoring. “They
gather data from the substations, and
that allows for efficiencies and faster
response,” explains Hauck.
Dakota Carrier Network, a
statewide fiber network owned by a
group of rural telephone companies,
operates the fiber backbone for the
smart grid communications network.
Virtual private network capability helps
support a secure connection. Dakota
Carrier Network manages the smart
grid network, which includes last-mile
fiber connections to power stations from
several rural telcos, including DRN.
DRN’s smart water application
came about after DRN approached the
local water company, which previously
relied on an aging wireless system to
provide connectivity to 12 booster
stations within DRN’s territory. By
upgrading to fiber connectivity from
DRN, the water company enhanced its
monitoring and diagnostic capability.
“They can tell if there is a leak,”
explains Hauck. “If pressure drops, it’s
reported immediately to technicians.
Instead of [their] driving to each
reservoir or lift station, an alert is texted
to them or comes through email.”
SMART FARMING,
EDUCATION AND
HEALTH CARE
DRN’s smart farm applications
use digital video cameras installed
in customers’ barns and shops and
connected to the Internet via DRN fiber.
“As farms get bigger, you have a lot
of farms that no one is living on,” notes
Hauck. “But they may have millions
of dollars’ worth of equipment. With
video surveillance, farmers can monitor
their equipment from a smartphone or
the Internet.”
In addition, she says, “Some farmers
Contribute to Why We Need More Fiber
This column welcomes fresh, informative, eye-opening contributions from readers – in lengths from a paragraph to a page.
To share your thoughts on why we need more fiber, email masha@bbcmag.com.
are monitoring grain bins and dryers
at harvest time for temperature so they
don’t have to check on the dryer in the
middle of the night.”
As for educational applications,
DRN’s fiber network supports distance
learning via videoconferencing.
This enables local students to take
specialized courses such as advanced
math and science that are not offered
locally. In addition, one of the local
schools recently began giving iPads to
all students, which they use at home as
well as at school.
The school would not be able to
support student iPads without a fiber
connection, Hauck observes. Even
at home, families may require fiber
connections. Hauck, who has four
children, recently calculated that her
family needs at least 15 Mbps when all
family members are on the Internet at
the same time.
To help improve health care in
the area, DRN is conducting trials of
When home health nurses can’t visit patients
in person, they can check blood pressure and
diagnose illnesses via fiber connections.
webcam diagnostics in collaboration
with home health nurses. On days
when a nurse is unable to visit a patient
in person, the nurse can set up a video
link using a PC and a webcam and
walk the patient through a series of
diagnostic questions. In addition, the
patient takes his or her blood pressure
using a monitoring device attached to a
computer, and the results are sent to the
patient’s physician.
Another aspect of DRN’s smart
community involves making people
in the community smarter about
technology. DRN regularly offers
classes on basic computer skills to
help attract seniors unfamiliar with
technology. The company also hosts
“tech days” when local residents can
try out and ask questions about iPads,
digital cameras and other devices.
DRN’s efforts are paying off in
increased broadband subscribership,
which increased from just below 50
percent in 2008 to about 80 percent
today. v
Joan Engebretson is a Chicago-based
freelancer who has been writing about the
telecom industry since 1993. She can be
reached at joanengebretson@cs.com.
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
2013 | www.broadbandcommunities.com | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | 23
MUNICIPAL FTTP DEPLOYMENT SNAPSHOT
ONE BURBANK –
BURBANK, CALIF.
The City of Burbank is maximizing unused assets in its
municipal power utility’s fiber network to offer ultrahigh-speed connectivity to all city facilities as well as
businesses such as media companies transitioning to
electronic file–based production and distribution. ONE
Burbank is one reason Burbank remains the “Media
Capital of the World.” Thanks to John Cassidy and Jim
Compton for providing the information for this profile.
– BBC Editors
L
ocated only a few miles northeast of Hollywood
and billed as the “Media Capital of the
World,” Burbank is home to many media and
entertainment companies. The Walt Disney Company,
Warner Brothers Entertainment, Warner Music Group,
NBC, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network all have
headquarters or significant production facilities in
Burbank. Nestled on the slopes and foothills that rise
to the Verdugo Mountains at the eastern end of the San
Fernando Valley, Burbank is 17 square miles in size and
has 103,340 residents.
Burbank began installing fiber optic cables in 1986.
The first fiber link connected Burbank Water and Power
(BWP), the municipal utility, to the city’s information
technology department in City Hall. By 1996, Burbank
had completely replaced its copper communications
circuits with fiber. This immunized the equipment that
protected the electric system from the disabling surges
that arise during electric equipment failures – surges that
often prevented the protective equipment from doing
its job. Fiber improved Burbank’s electrical reliability
to the high level the city enjoys, and even takes for
granted, today.
The same fiber optic network that
serves BWP so well also provides fiber
service to Burbank’s major media and
entertainment companies. Ever since
the BWP fiber network was installed, it
has been used by the studios to produce
movies and television programs and
to run their business operations. As
well as being an important service to
these companies, this fiber optic service
generates revenues that allow BWP to
provide highly reliable electric service
with no impact on rates.
Burbank Water and Power installed a fiber optic
network for its own needs and then made
excess capacity available to local businesses.
At BWP, fiber optic applications
were originally justified on the basis
of improved communications for
the control of the utility as well
as for other city government uses.
However, in 1992, Burbank’s vice
mayor asked whether BWP could
make communications services
available to others. The timing of this
inquiry proved fortunate. Changes
in communications technology and
regulations made construction of a
public fiber optic network feasible. At
the same time, Burbank’s entertainment
companies had a need for such systems
as they converted to digital technology
for film and video production. A
public network that would be locally
controlled and thus able to quickly
meet the specific needs of Burbank’s
customers was very desirable.
Reviewing and considering the
market for this technology took a
year and a half. BWP devised a plan
to build a fiber system that would be
able to meet future needs for high-
speed networking. By building on this
foundation, as applications improved
and customer usage increased over time,
BWP could take advantage of maturing
technologies as they became available.
The plan took advantage of BWP’s
existing management structure and
the capabilities of existing in-house
personnel. The utility recognized that
its marketing and representation would
have to be strengthened; however, it
decided to begin with little change in
staffing levels.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013 | www.broadbandcommunities.com | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | 25
The plan called for BWP to provide
retail telecommunications services.
The Burbank City Charter defined
utility services broadly, not limiting
them to water and power. The fiber
optic network would help improve
communications technology where
available. BWP would provide this
service at cost, without long-term
subsidies by electricity customers.
The intent of the plan was to provide
a broad range of telecommunications
services and attract new services and
service providers, starting with simpler
applications and expanding into more
complex applications.
The plan also called for BWP to
work with other telecommunications
companies and provide services in
a cost-effective manner. Specialized
service providers and the city could
both compete and cooperate in bringing
modern telecommunications services to
the city at a competitive price.
Initial coverage was designed to
provide services to BWP’s electrical
facilities and would allow the linkage
of the media district, the airport
and downtown. Additional fiber
backbone would be constructed as
needed and feasible. Constructing
a telecommunications system with
sufficient capacity to meet the needs of
the utility and others required larger
capability than the city would construct
for its own needs. At the time, other
ETHERNET SWITCHED SERVICES NETWORK
The Ethernet Switched Services Network (ESSN) is
the fiber network that supports BWP’s command and
control network. This network uses only BWP facilities
and is colocated with its power lines. Access to the fiber
and associated devices is restricted and monitored.
The system is designed to operate without interruption
or loss of performance during extreme emergencies,
including blackouts, earthquakes and other disasters.
Although most such networks are designed to work
with a best-efforts response, this network is designed
to operate at a specific level of service even if any one
element is out of service.
The ESSN uses carrier-class equipment that not
only connects to the Internet but also routes traffic
over specific Internet pathways. Managing the route
through the Internet allows BWP to control and manage
applications across the Internet.
This ability to route traffic allows BWP to employ
a high level of security in its network. It can take any
signal from a given port, add certain information and
then allow that signal to be delivered only to specific
ports. In this manner, traffic from the Wi-Fi mesh can be
insulated from contact with the ports that control the
substations or power plants.
The ESSN also supports Multiple Protocol Layer
Switching (MPLS), a method of ensuring that certain
applications are not delayed in passing across the
network. This is very useful for video and voice
applications in which delays can cause a picture to
freeze or audio to distort. A network using MPLS can
identify which streams contain video and audio so those
streams are not delayed during periods of congestion.
MPLS allows BWP to ensure that signals associated
with protection of the electric system are not delayed in
the network. A signal to trip a breaker must get through
the system as soon as possible to effectively protect the
power grid.
The ESSN supports IPv6, the next generation of
Internet Protocol. An important feature of IPv6 is the
ability to send a single stream of data to multiple
receiving devices, allowing transmission of video
or voice over a limited bandwidth path to multiple
recipients without unnecessarily congesting traffic. This
method is also a very fast way for the electric utility to
send a command to shed load to a large number of
devices in a single instance. This can provide for a very
fast load-shedding response.
The ESSN is composed of three 10 Gbps switches
located at three separate locations in the city. Each
switch is directly tied to the other two switches over
10 Gbps links. Each of the three switches is linked to
about a third of the BWP substations and provides an
alternative feed to another third of the substations. This
approach ensures that any element can fail and service
can still be maintained to all substations.
ONE BURBANK
Under previous city council authorizations, BWP offered
customers dark fiber leasing and Communication
Transport Service – Video. In January 2011, BWP added
to its service offerings high-speed, high-quality, fiber
optics–based data communication via its Ethernet
Switched Service Network to Burbank customers
through its new ONE Burbank (Optical Network
Enterprise Burbank) service.
ONE Burbank is best viewed as a means of obtaining
revenue from otherwise underutilized capacity from
BWP’s smart grid communications network while
fulfilling customer needs for high-speed, secure data
communications. This program promotes economic
development by providing customers with very
high-speed communications and Internet access at
competitive prices, thus promoting business in the
community.
municipal utilities installed fiber optic
systems solely for their own needs. They
later wished they had spent the little
extra required for a larger system. To
add this capacity after construction, they
would duplicate many expenses. BWP
found building surplus capacity into a
new system was far less expensive than
adding capacity to an existing system.
With the consent of the city
council, BWP began the construction
and operation of the proposed
telecommunications system. As the
utility modernized its water and
electric utilities, it made increasing use
of both overhead and underground
fiber optic cables as a secure means of
telemetry and control. By using existing
CITY OF BURBANK
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Fiber Cable Legend
Future fiber build outs
144 STRAND
96 STRAND
All Other
0
Proposed fiber build outs (conduit ready)
0.25
0.5
1
Miles
Burbank Water and Power Operational Technology, City of Burbank, 164 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, CA 91503 (818) 238-3113
The City of Burbank has no indication to believe that there are any inaccuracies or defects with information incorporated in this work, and make no representations of any kind including, but not limited to, the warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use, nor are any such warranties to be implied with respect to information or data furnished herein.
No part of this map may be reproduced or transmitted to any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording system, except as expressly permitted in writing by the City Engineer. This map incorporates digital map products licensed to the City of Burbank by Thomas Bros. Maps and is furnished in accordance to the terms of such license.
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N Frederic St N Frederic St
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N Keystone St
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N Niagara St
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underground and electrical facilities,
BWP installed fiber optic cables easily
and at a much lower cost than if it had
been required to install new poles or
underground conduits. BWP was then
in a position to lease its unused fiber
strands, or dark fiber, to customers
that needed additional, secure “roads”
on the “information highway” and
that had their own means of obtaining
switched services.
As BWP developed more
sophisticated communications networks,
including Ethernet, it developed the
capacity to do optical switching. As with
dark fiber, BWP had excess capacity
that it could provide to generate revenue
from interested customers and assist
in at least partially offsetting costs of
establishing the Ethernet network that
the electricity and water systems needed
for their own operations.
Owner: City of Burbank, Calif.
FTTP service area: City of Burbank/
Burbank Water and Power service
area – approximately 17 square miles
Number of business premises in
service area: 6,000
Number of subscribers: 58 businesses
Prior history with broadband: Before
launching lit commercial services,
the city offered municipal dark fiber
to businesses.
Competitive landscape: Triple-play
services are available from AT&T
and Charter Communications.
NETWORK PROFILE
Year deployment started: 1986 for
utility fiber, 1996 for public fiber
Year services began: 1997 for dark fiber
leases, 2011 for managed services
Years to complete buildout:
Construction is still in progress.
Network architectures: Active
Ethernet and DWDM
Business model: Burbank Water and
Power is the retail provider. Services
are available only to businesses.
Burbank is home to a cluster of media and
entertainment companies with specialized
broadband requirements. ONE Burbank helps
retain and grow that cluster.
Services offered:
• Dedicated Internet Access – 20
Mbps to 1 Gbps symmetrical
• Virtual Private LAN Service
(VPLS) – Layer 2 any-to-any
Ethernet connectivity @ 1 Gbps
• Wave Lambda Service – point-topoint connectivity @ 1 Gbps and
10 Gbps for bandwidth-intensive or
latency-sensitive applications
• Communication Transport Service
– single-channel, unidirectional,
point-to-point transport for highquality video using SD-SDI, ASI
and HD-SDI standards.
Number of subscribers for each
service:
Dark fiber leases – 28
Direct Internet Access – 35
Wave Lambda Service – 4
Communication Transport
Service – 3
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
IMPACT
Companies from Beverly Hills, Santa
Clarita and Glendale, Calif., have
all relocated to Burbank specifically
because of the ONE Burbank fiber
network and to conduct business with
others already on-net.
DEPLOYMENT DETAILS
Design, construction, installation and
integration: All handled in-house
by Burbank Water and Power staff
Aerial or underground? Both
Method for underground
installation: Cable is installed in
communications conduit included in
the electrical system duct packages.
Method for connecting fiber:
Preterminated at patch panels using
fusion splicing, splice-on connectors
and field fusion splicing using Tyco
splice cases
Splicing equipment: Fujikura FSM60
fusion splicer (2), Fujikura 40
fusion splicer (1). Splicing is done
in a Coachcraft Technologies fiber
splicing trailer.
OPERATING EQUIPMENT
AND SOFTWARE
Central office electronics: Cisco and
MRV routers and switches
Customer-premises equipment: Cisco
3400 and MRV EM316
Fiber cables: Corning and Siecor
Fiber distribution cabinets:
Chatsworth Products
Geographic Information System:
Schneider Electric – Fiber Manager
Testing equipment: Noyes light
meters, EXFO OTDR
NETWORK OPERATION
Central office personnel: 4
OSP personnel: 5
Customer service representatives: 2
SUCCESS STORIES
City Facilities – “Connected at the
Speed of Light”: Burbank Water and
Power (BWP) is maximizing unused
assets in its fiber network to provide
ultra-high-speed connectivity to all
Burbank city facilities. BWP began
installing fiber optic cables in 1986,
with the first fiber link connecting the
BWP campus to the city’s Information
Technology Department in City Hall.
In July 1998, the Central Library
fiber connection was completed in
anticipation of a computer grant and
rollout in 2000. The Buena Vista
Library followed in October 2002 and
Northwest Library in April 2004.
These fiber connections provide
high-speed Internet access to 130
public computer workstations, with
the capability of easily handling the
demand for bandwidth.
BWP’s most significant challenge of
extending fiber infrastructure to remote
facilities was solved with some creative
planning. ONE Burbank’s engineering
staff became aware of BWP’s Water
Division’s multiyear project to install
recycled water lines throughout the city.
Following a joint meeting, an agreement
was reached to install a fiber conduit
during the excavation work. This new
infrastructure was instrumental in
extending fiber connectivity to remote
city facilities as well as to schools.
Burbank Unified School District:
At its July 10, 2012, meeting, the
Burbank City Council authorized
the general manager of Burbank
Water and Power to extend fiber optic
network connectivity to the Burbank
Unified School District (BUSD).
With the expansion of the Ethernet
Switched Services Network (ESSN)
and the completion of several capital
improvement projects, which increased
fiber optic and communications
resources, BWP was able to offer an
affordable and significant bandwidth
solution to the BUSD.
The BUSD was operating on a 155
Mbps connection shared among all
the schools. This limited bandwidth
connection rapidly overloaded when
several schools attempted to utilize
the connection simultaneously. With
BWP’s solution, the new 1 Gbps BUSD
broadband connection represents a 700
percent increase in bandwidth.
During the last quarter of 2012,
ONE Burbank staff extended fiber
infrastructure to connect the BUSD
Service Center to One Wilshire in
downtown Los Angeles and connected
both Burbank and Burroughs High
Schools back to the BUSD Service
Center. Recently, ONE Burbank
engineering staff met with BUSD staff
to visit and review connecting the
remaining schools in the order BUSD
felt would most benefit the district. v
Did you 2013
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Hear from the people behind the optical advances
transforming telecom, datacom and IT.
From core and data center networks to photonic integrated circuits, advances in optical
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the research that’s driving the revolution—from the industry thought leaders and solutions
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Technical Conference: 9-13 March 2014
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Moscone Center
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Sponsored by:
FTTH DEPLOYMENTS
Q&A With CenturyLink’s
Danny Pate and Jeff Oberschelp
CenturyLink is entering the FTTH arena with a splash, building gigabit networks in two
mid-sized cities. Depending on customer response, these may prove to be the opening
salvos in a larger deployment.
W
ith the acquisition of Embarq
and Qwest, the rural telephone
company CenturyTel became
CenturyLink, a Tier One telecommunications
provider. Though the company has extensive
fiber-to-the-neighborhood infrastructure, over
which it offers its Prism IPTV service, its fiberto-the-premises assets are restricted mainly to
greenfield subdivisions – so the announcement
last May of a new, gigabit-capable network in
West Omaha, Neb., was welcome news. (As of
press time, the Omaha deployment was in its
final stages.) In October, CenturyLink followed
up with an announcement that it would deploy
similar technology in Las Vegas, connecting
residents beginning in late 2013 and small
businesses in early 2014.
In a statement, Jeff Oberschelp,
CenturyLink vice president and general
manager for Las Vegas, said, “1 Gbps
symmetrical speed provides a tremendous
economic advantage for small businesses
because it allows them to purchase their
IT infrastructure through the cloud while
substantially lowering operating costs. This
Oberschelp says, “This [1 Gbps] capability
is key to growing a vibrant startup and
tech community in Las Vegas.”
capability is key to growing a vibrant startup
and tech community in Las Vegas.”
Recently, Broadband Communities had
the opportunity to interview both Oberschelp
and Danny Pate, CenturyLink vice president
and general manager for Omaha, about the two
FTTP projects. Following are the highlights of
that discussion.
Broadband Communities: Now that you’ve
deployed fiber in Omaha, what kind of
feedback are you getting from customers?
Danny Pate: We are still early in our trial in
Omaha in terms of operational effectiveness
and customer experience, so longer-term
assessments will need to be made, but we
are very encouraged by performance to date.
The response from our customers and the
Omaha community has been very positive.
BBC: Are Omaha customers being converted to
fiber automatically, or do they have to request
upgraded services first?
DP: CenturyLink upgraded its existing fiber
architecture in west Omaha to FTTP
technology directly to each home or
business. All current customers in our fiber
pilot footprint will receive the fiber optic
connections. As a result, we have a growing
number of customers who are choosing to
upgrade their current high-speed Internet
service to a higher speed and/or bundle those
with new products.
BBC: Can Omaha residents in the fiber
footprint get FTTP services if they
were not previously CenturyLink
customers?
DP: We have provided an FTTP
network for approximately 48,000
households that are a mix of current
and potential customers.
WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS
BBC: How did you select Las Vegas for an
FTTP buildout?
Jeff Oberschelp: We received a
positive response to the launch of
our Prism TV service in 2011 and
wanted to show our commitment
by offering our Las Vegas customers
new broadband technology that they
can use to enhance their quality of
life, now and into the future.
BBC: How large is the Las Vegas pilot
area?
JO: The initial installation this fall
will be available to a few thousand
homes throughout the Las Vegas
area, and that number will
significantly increase into 2014. We
are not disclosing the number of
homes in our launch footprint.
BBC: Will the deployment eventually be
citywide?
JO: Expansion of our 1 Gbps service
throughout Las Vegas will be
dependent on customer demand
during our initial launch phase in
2013 and 2014.
BBC: Did CenturyLink receive
concessions from the city of Las Vegas
of the type that Google received from
the Kansas City governments?
JO: We are receiving great support
of our 1 gigabit service launch
from city officials, who are helping
to expedite the inspections and
permits we need to begin our fiber
upgrades throughout the city. We
have also received full support
from government leaders, including
Mayor Goodman and Governor
Sandoval, who have pledged to
help us communicate this service
offering to our customers.
BBC: Are the technology and services in
Las Vegas the same as in Omaha, or
are you testing different alternatives?
JO: We are extending our advanced
fiber network in Las Vegas directly
to homes using fiber-to-the-premises
technology, just as we did in Omaha.
BBC: What inspired these two projects?
JO: Customers within the 1 Gbps area
in Omaha were previously served
Photo: CenturyLink
Photo: Las Vegas Photo & Video
Jeff Oberschelp, CenturyLink VP and general manager, Las Vegas
Danny Pate, CenturyLink VP and general
manager, Omaha
by pre-DOCSIS hybrid fiber-coax,
so we decided to upgrade that fiber
architecture to fiber-to-the-premises
technology and offer gigabit service.
Las Vegas is an extension of our
gigabit trial in Omaha to test the
potential in the marketplace for this
kind of service.
BBC: What kinds of results are you
looking for before deciding whether to
go forward on a larger scale?
JO: The company will evaluate the
Omaha and Las Vegas 1 Gbps
offers before determining further
deployment of this advanced
technology, considering such
factors as positive community
support, competitive parity in the
marketplace and the ability to
earn a reasonable return on our
investment.
BBC: Do you have any ideas about how
people will use gigabit networks? Are
you surveying or tracking to find out
what they are doing?
JO: With 1 Gbps technology, the
opportunities are endless. We are
not tracking our customers’ use of
the service, but we know they will
enjoy using this next-generation
broadband technology. v
here!
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
Fiber to the Home Expands
At a Record-Setting Pace
In North America, 10.7 million customers are now connected to fiber. More FTTH
customers were added in the last 12-month period than ever before, take rates rose
significantly and more new homes were passed with fiber than at any time since 2009.
FTTH also provides the only good news for operators of traditional pay-TV services.
By Steven S. Ross / Broadband Communities
N
orth American fiber-to-the-home
deployers signed up 1.04 million
new customers in the six months
ending September 2013 – a new record for any
six-month period. The year-over-year total, 1.7
million new customers, was also a record.
Recovering from a stormy winter, the
industry posted strong percentage gains in almost
every category last summer. Of the 10.7 million
FTTH customers connected by September 2013,
9.6 million (90.1 percent) were in the United
States. Almost a quarter of all U.S. households –
about 25 million – now have fiber available. The
North American total is about 28 million.
Michael Render, president of market
research firm RVA LLC, interviewed 350
vendors, service providers and experts between
March and September 2013 to arrive at the
data for FTTH in the U.S. and Canada. He
also surveyed 2,100 consumers in June. Data
for Mexico comes from the French consultancy
IDATE. Mexican deployers tripled the number
of homes passed by fiber last year to almost
half a million but are only beginning to market
services. Because of low take rates in Mexico,
the overall North American take rate lags the
U.S. rate. (Take rate is defined as the number
of customers divided by the number of homes
actually marketed.)
Altogether, deployers passed 3.4 million
new North American homes with fiber between
September 2012 and 2013 – the highest volume
since the recession accelerated in 2009. Prior to
the recession, many homes passed by fiber were
in new subdivisions that were not occupied for
a long time, if ever. Today’s new deployments,
however, aren’t fueled by that kind of rampant
speculation. Fiber deployers are succeeding at
selling services in rural areas (where there is
little competition) and in medium-dense urban
settings where a little fiber can pass a lot of
dwelling units, often in multiple-dwelling-unit
buildings.
Says Render, “In the 1998–2007 housing
boom, relatively few lots were fiber-fed – so
many people overestimated the impact of
greenfield FTTH. In the coming housing
increase or boom, more and more lots will
be fiber-fed. Many underestimate the coming
greenfield FTTH boom, based on their
experience with the last housing boom [and
bust].” Render estimates greenfield builds will
account for as many as a third of all FTTH
homes newly passed in 2014.
Even without new builds, FTTH
connections will continue to grow as the
backlog of 2 million unmarketed homes (that is,
homes for which physical fiber is available but
Homes Passed by Fiber, September 2013
(Cumulative, North America)
27.7
25.5
25
21.9
20.8
Millions
20
19.7
18.3
17.2
15.2
15
24.3
22.6
13.8
10
11.8
9.6
5
0
Sep-07
Mar-08
Sep-08
Mar-09
Sep-09
Mar-10
Sep-10
Mar-11
Sep-11
Mar-12
Sep-12
Mar-13
Sep-13
Source: RVA LLC
In the six months between March and September 2013, network builders made up for time lost in the harsh winter of 2012–13 by passing an
additional 2.2 million homes with fiber. This was a strong overall showing for the year even as stimulus projects ended in the United States. About a
quarter of all U.S. households are now passed by fiber – that is, fiber comes close enough to be connected to the house.
Homes With Fiber Services Marketed, September 2013
26
25.5
24
22.7
22
20
18.7
Millions
18
16.5
16
14
12.4
12
10
13.3
14.4
21.3
19.2
17.5
15.5
10.1
8.0
8
6
4
2
0
Sep-07
Mar-08
Sep-08
Mar-09
Sep-09
Mar-10
Sep-10
Mar-11
Sep-11
Mar-12
Sep-12
Mar-13
Sep-13
Source: RVA LLC
The increase in homes marketed for FTTH rose by a healthy 2.8 million for the March–September period, a new six-month record for the industry.
FTTH services are not yet available)
is brought to market. This number
includes only homes that are expected
to be marketed. It does not include
the dwelling units (typically in MDUs
and typically in the Verizon footprint)
in buildings passed by fiber, or even
connected to fiber, where operators
have no formal plans to offer fiberbased services to individual living units.
Fiber’s competitive strength is
easily seen in take rates, which rose to
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
Customers are signing up for fiber to the home
as fast as services are marketed to them, and
services are being marketed at a record rate –
2.8 million in the last six-month period.
45.8 percent in the United States for
the latest six-month reporting period
despite the fact that FTTH services
were newly marketed to a record 2.8
million homes in the same period. In
other words, customers are adopting
FTTH almost as soon as it becomes
available to them.
Fiber’s strength is also evident in the
attitudes of home buyers, who said they
would knock an average of 2 percent off
the price of a $300,000 home if it did
not have FTTH access. Home buyers
who had had FTTH accounts in the
past were even more adamant.
VIDEO ADVANCES
Because many broadband customers
have been “cutting the cord” and
switching to online video, cable
providers lost an estimated 400,000
video customers in 2013 – not
counting 300,000 lost by Time Warner
Cable alone during a dustup with CBS.
Providers of video over DSL fared even
worse. FTTH customers continue to
sign up for video services, although
their momentum is slowing.
More than 6.5 million North
American FTTH customers now
subscribe to video services. The
665,000 rise year-over-year did not
match 2012’s strong 738,000 showing
or the million-plus increases of the
recent past. However, the industry sees
any increase as a victory.
Render notes that, on average,
American households now have almost
three HDTVs and DVRs, but many
of these devices are connected only
to the Internet and not to traditional
pay-TV services.
Pay TV is not going away, of course.
However, cable networks receive
serious pushback from customers to
that FTTH deployers provide 111 HD
channels on average, compared with 63
for cable deployers.
their preferred offering – large bundles
of channels, from which any one
household might only select a few
for regular viewing. Only a third of
the under-35 crowd gets all its video
from traditional pay-TV services, and
20 percent get little or no video that
way. All ages are experimenting with
over-the-top video ordered program
by program over Internet connections.
More than 40 percent of all consumers
surveyed by Render in June get at least
some of their video programming over
the top.
Speed and reliability matter even
for conventional TV services, as does
choice of video content. Render notes
OTHER ONLINE ACTIVITIES
Broadband customers now spend more
than half their waking hours at home
online – about twice as much time as
they spend watching traditional TV
programming on a traditional TV.
Consumers surveyed in June
spent an average of 36 minutes a day
watching online videos, 2.6 hours in
personal communication via email or
social networking and 1.6 hours a day
working online.
Uploading large files, especially
for video, is becoming more common.
Growth in such activities since 2010
has been startling. In 2010, only 7
percent had participated in two-way
videoconferencing. That’s almost
tripled, to 19 percent, thanks in large
part to Skype video calls but also due
to an increase in videoconferencing for
employment, whether at home or at the
office or factory.
GROWTH OR DECLINE, HALF OVER HALF
HOMES
PASSED
HOMES
MARKETED
HOMES
CONNECTED
VIDEO
CONNECTED
Mar-07
-5%
-16%
38%
37%
Sep-07
-19%
-13%
42%
118%
Mar-08
43%
54%
16%
33%
Sep-08
-7%
10%
10%
4%
Mar-09
-35%
-59%
-22%
-2%
Sep-09
52%
17%
29%
13%
Mar-10
-50%
0%
-38%
-24%
Sep-10
37%
-9%
17%
10%
Mar-11
-19%
0%
9%
-63%
Sep-11
-4%
20%
-40%
45%
Mar-12
-36%
-58%
23%
12%
Sep-12
143%
320%
100%
18%
Mar-13
-29%
-33%
-34%
-7%
Sep-13
83%
100%
58%
-21%
Recovering from a stormy winter, the industry posted strong percentage gains in almost every
category. The growth in video customers ran counter to drops among cable and DSL customers,
but it has slowed during the last year. Source: RVA LLC
Homes Connected to Fiber, September 2013
10.7
11
9.7
10
Millions
9
9.0
8
7
6.4
6
5.3
5
3
1.5
2
2.9
2.1
7.5
7.1
5.8
4.4
4
8.0
3.8
1
-
Mar-07
Sep-07
Mar-08
Sep-08
Mar-09
Sep-09
Mar-10
Sep-10
Mar-11
Sep-11
Mar-12
Sep-12
Mar-13
Sep-13
Source: RVA LLC
The number of homes connected to fiber services rose by 1.04 million in the six months ending September 2013, a new six-month record. Year over
year, new connections totalled 1.7 million, also a record.
FTTH Video Subscribers, September 2013
7
6.2
6
5.1
Millions
5
4.0
4
4.6
5.5
6.5
5.9
4.8
3.5
3
2.9
2.3
2
1.1
1.6
1
-
Sep-07
Mar-08
Sep-08
Mar-09
Sep-09
Mar-10
Sep-10
Mar-11
Sep-11
Mar-12
Sep-12
Mar-13
Sep-13
Source: RVA LLC
More than 6.5 million North American FTTH customers now take video. The year-over-year rise did not match 2012's strong showing but was close.
GIGAFICATION
Small deployers, particularly
municipalities, have been the leaders in
offering gigabit services. Although there
are fewer than 150 municipal FTTH
systems in the United States, 11 offered
a 1 Gbps Internet tier to residential
customers as of September. At least nine
competitive carriers, ranging from giant
Google to small CLECs and private
cable operators, also offered a gig.
However, incumbent telephone
companies have been relatively slow to
introduce gigabit services. Among the
larger ILECs, AT&T has future plans
for such service in Austin in 2014, and
CenturyLink began deploying it in
parts of Omaha and Las Vegas. Among
Tier 2 and Tier 3 ILECs, there are
very few gigabit carriers. Incumbent
carriers account for seven of every eight
FTTH connections in the United
States (Verizon alone accounts for 77
percent of all FTTH connections),
so the relative lack of interest among
ILECs – or ability, in the case of some
rural telcos – is clearly holding back 1
Gbps adoption. Only one franchised
cable company offers residential gigabit
services.
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
FTTH Deployment in North America
During Each Six-Month Period Since September 2007
(Calculated by BBC from RVA Data)
3
Millions
3
2
2
1
1
0
Sep-07
Mar-08
In six months ending:
Sep-08
Mar-09
Sep-09
Mar-10
Sep-10
Mar-11
Sep-11
Mar-12
Sep-12
Mar-13
Sep-13
Passed
Sep-07
Mar-08
Sep-08
Mar-09
Sep-09
Mar-10
Sep-10
Mar-11
Sep-11
Mar-12
Sep-12
Mar-13
Sep-13
1,549,300 2,210,700 2,062,000 1,350,000 2,050,000 1,030,000 1,410,000 1,140,000 1,100,000 700,000 1,700,000 1,200,000 2,200,000
Marketed
1,353,400 2,085,665 2,286,935 940,000 1,100,000 1,100,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,200,000 500,000 2,100,000 1,400,000 2,800,000
Connected
663,403
770,500
847,500
662,000
853,000
529,800
618,200
671,800
405,200
500,000 1,000,000 660,000 1,040,000
Video Connected
442,600
587,000
609,367
599,633
679,700
518,900
569,200
207,840
301,360
338,870
399,080
372,050
293,000
The number of FTTH customers added rose sharply in the six months that ended in September 2013. The pace is now above the long-term trend and
above prerecession norms. Most new builds are in rural areas with historically high take rates.
Take Rates, US and North America, Through September 2013
50%
US Only
45%
All of North America
41.0%
40%
37.8%
37.0%
35%
30.4%
30%
25%
36.7%
33.4%
37.4%
38.8%
37.7%
43.3%
42.3%
39.9%
39.5%
41.7%
44.2%
42.2%
44.8%
42.5%
45.8%
41.8%
33.3%
28.8%
26.8%
20%
Sep-07
Mar-08
Sep-08
Mar-09
Sep-09
Mar-10
Sep-10
Mar-11
Sep-11
Mar-12
Sep-12
Mar-13
Sep-13
Source: RVA LLC
Last year's good showing pushed the U.S. take rate for FTTH to 45.8 percent despite a boost in homes marketed. Mexico's low take rate (FTTH is just
getting started there) depressed the North American average..
This is despite an FCC call for at least
one gigabit community in each state.
Motivations for offering gigabit
speeds range from creating a tech buzz
to stimulating economic development.
According to Render, employed FTTH
users said they worked an average of 1.3
extra days per month from home, and
14 percent of FTTH users had homebased businesses that yielded more
than $10,000 in estimated incremental
income from FTTH, compared
with other types of broadband. That
additional money stays in a community,
helping the economy as a whole.
Perhaps the biggest near-term
motivator is Ultra HDTV, which has
four times the pixel count of today’s
highest-definition program content.
Ultra HD television hardware is already
available for less than $1,000.
BROADBAND TECHNOLOGY
STILL A MYSTERY TO MANY
The push to gigabit speeds, and indeed
the push toward rational broadband
policies, continues to be hindered by
consumer unfamiliarity with the way
modern telecommunications systems
actually work.
Almost all broadband users are
familiar with cable modems and DSL,
but they are much less familiar with
FTTH technology and thus with
fiber’s unique advantages – especially
its reliability and bandwith, and
particularly its upstream bandwidth
potential. Only a quarter of broadband
users are familiar with the terms
FTTH, fiber to the home and gigabit
Internet. This is about the same
proportion of homes that are passed
by fiber.
Almost everyone uses a cellphone,
and – it would be reasonable to assume
– almost everyone has seen a cell tower.
Two of three cellphone users said they
have connected their phones to their
Wi-Fi networks, Render notes. Yet
36 percent of consumers surveyed in
June 2013 believed that cellphone-tocellphone communications take place
entirely over the air; another 27 percent
said they were not sure.
Only 37 percent knew that cellular
traffic is carried both wirelessly and
through fixed networks.
It seems the best way to learn
about FTTH is to be persuaded to
connect to fiber or to have a friend
who already is connected. FTTH
customers are about twice as likely to
be satisfied with their connections,
compared with customers who use
other connection technologies.
90 Percent of North American FTTH Customers Are in the US
Canada .52M
4.9%
Caribbean .05M
0.5%
U.S. 9.6M
90.1%
Sources: RVA LLC, IDATE
Of the 10.7 million FTTH customers in North America, about 9.6 million are in the United States.
US FTTH Connections by Provider Type
Tier 1 ILEC
77%
Tier 2 & 3 ILEC
10%
Municipal 4%
Competitive
Provider 4%
Electric
Co-Op
0.2%
Cable TV/ MSO
2%
Real Estate
Developer
3%
Source: RVA LLC
Incumbent local exchange carriers account for seven of eight FTTH connections in the United States.
Awareness of Broadband Terms
Among Random Broadband Users
Cable modem
98%
DSL
Fiber to the home / FTTH
Broadband users are familiar with cable modems
and DSL but are much less familiar with FTTH
technology terms.
Mexico .49M
4.6%
Gigabit Internet
95%
27%
24%
Source: RVA LLC
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
Average Online Hours for a Broadband User
Who Spends Nine Waking Hours at Home
2.7
Traditional TV (Cable, Off-Air, DVD)
Online:
Communication/ Personal
2.6
Work
1.6
Online TV
0.6
Source: RVA LLC
Consumers now
spend much more
time online than
they spend watching
traditional TV
programming on
traditional TVs.
On average, broadband customers spend more than half their waking hours at home online –
about twice as much time as they spend watching traditional TV programs on a traditional TV.
Internet Usage by FTTH Subscribers
Activities Completed at Least Once per Month
2013
2010
Shopping online
81%
68%
Uploading large files
36%
25%
Using VoIP for audio calls
24%
10%
Download/streaming video to TV
23%
5%
Uploading video content to Internet
13%
Two-way videoconferencing
7%
20%
19%
Source: RVA LLC
Uploading large files, especially for video, is becoming more common. Since 2010, growth in
many online activities has been startling.
Users Are More Satisfied With FTTH
Percent “Very Satisfied” With Aspects of Data Service
Streaming quality
Consistency of speed
Broadband speed (download)
Broadband speed (upload)
42%
FTTH
19%
Wireless
35%
26%
27%
20%
DSL
27%
26%
31%
23%
Cable
53%
53%
51%
32%
31%
36%
COST SAVINGS FOR
CARRIERS
Carriers continue to report significantly
lower operating costs for FTTH than
for other broadband technologies. The
reported savings are generally in the
20 to 30 percent range, with a fifth of
the companies reporting savings higher
than 30 percent. Those that report
lower savings tend to be deployers just
getting started with FTTH. Verizon is
by far the largest FTTH deployer, of
course, and Verizon officials informally
report savings in the 80 to 90 percent
range compared with copper networks.
Households connected to FTTH
enjoy the lowest prices per Mbps (great
for customers) and pay the highest fees
(great for carriers). Fiber-connected
consumers reported monthly bills
that averaged $151. Users of other
broadband technologies reported $109.
Users who have no bandwidth caps
and who enjoy high-bandwidth tiers
now routinely use more than 20 Mbps
for data downloads and another 20
Mbps for HD video. Both uses have
more than doubled since 2007.
FTTH download speeds are
double to triple those for cable-based
technologies. Upload speeds are seven
times higher (2 Mbps versus 14 Mbps
median speed).
FTTH deployments are growing –
and accelerating as the recession ends
– simply because they offer more to
customers. v
Source: RVA LLC
FTTH customers are far more satisfied with their connections than customers who use other
connection technologies.
Corporate editor Steve Ross can be
reached at steve@bbcmag.com.
Over-the-Top (Internet) Video Drives Wireline Traffic
AGE UNDER 35:
Traditional TV only
OTT medium (33%–65.9%)
OTT light (1%–32.9%)
OTT only (video cord cutter)
OTT heavy (66%–99.9%)
33.2%
26.6%
20.1%
12.2%
7.8%
ALL AGES:
Traditional TV only
OTT light (1%–32.9%)
OTT medium (33%–65.9%)
OTT only (video cord cutter)
OTT heavy (66%–99.9%)
59.7%
19.0%
13.5%
4.9%
2.9%
Source: RVA LLC
Only a third of the under-35 crowd gets all its video from "traditional" TV, but all ages are experimenting with OTT.
FTTH Take Rates by Deployment Type
Take Rates Are Often Higher for Individual Projects
Municipal wholesale
25%
Municipal retail, urban/suburban
30%
Competitive provider, urban/suburban
31%
Tier 1 ILEC
38%
Municipal retail, rural
48%
Tiers 2 and 3 ILEC
51%
Competitive provider, rural
52%
Cable TV/ MSO, greenfield
62%
Real estate developer, greenfield
81%
Source: RVA LLC
The overall FTTH take rate is above 45 percent, but many deployers, especially in greenfield developments, can
expect to do much better.
FTTH Lowers Operational Costs
Estimated Opex Savings for Operators With Active
FTTH Customers
30+%
20-29%
10-19%
0-9%
21%
16%
27%
37%
Source: RVA LLC
Telcos continue to report significantly lower operating costs for FTTH hookups than for other
broadband technologies – and the savings is generally in the 20 to 30 percent range, with a fifth
of the companies reporting savings greater than 30 percent. Those reporting lower savings tend
to be deployers just getting started, with few FTTH customers connected.
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
FTTH Has the Lowest Cost per Mbps
Wireless ($44)
$9.78
DSL ($45)
$5.87
FTTN ($52)
$5.00
Cable ($50)
FTTH ($53)
Homes connected to FTTH enjoy the lowest prices
per Mbps (great for customers) and pay the highest monthly fees (great for carriers).
$3.33
$2.22
Source: RVA LLC
FTTH Raises Home Value Discount
Required to Consider Equal $300,000 Home Without FTTH
Buyer with FTTH experience
Buyer without FTTH
experience
$6,451
Home buyers would knock 2 percent off the
price of a $300,000 home if it did not have FTTH
access. Those who have prior experience with
FTTH place even more value on fiber.
$5,337
Source: RVA LLC
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Introducing Giganomics
At Broadband Communities’ second annual conference on broadband and economic
development, the terms “giganomics” and “gigametrics” made their debuts, and
speakers shared their experiences with networks designed to stimulate economic
growth. Following are summaries of several of the presentations.
Gigabit Networks Move Communities Ahead
David Sandel explains the concepts of giganomics.
David Sandel, Sandel & Associates: The
“killer app” for a gigabit network is community
cash flow. The impact of gigabit networks
on local economies can be large, requiring
new ways to model and measure economic
development. So today, I’m introducing two
new terms.
Giganomics is concerned with the
significant impact on community economic
development that gigabit networks,
accompanied by holistic planning and
collaboration, can bring about. More
specifically, giganomics is the branch of
social science that deals with the production
and distribution and consumption of goods
and services across a specific entrepreneurial
market or ecosystem, incorporating a specific
collaborative business model that uses
bandwidth, cloud and open data infrastructure.
Gigametrics refers to the way we measure
the impact of giganomics, which requires a new
type of economic development impact statement.
By upgrading the economic development
impact model that cities currently use, Patrick
McKeehan and I were able to estimate the
impact of gigabit fiber across a market in terms
of revenue flows and jobs by category. Our
initial study, which focused on a small area
in the creative center of St. Louis, showed a
significant impact:
• 1,000 high-tech jobs paid at industry
standard
• 972 additional jobs across a number
of industries, including real estate,
employment services, food service and
drinking establishments, hospitals/health
care providers, telecommunications and
wholesale trade
• $132,590,000 in wages and benefits
• $172,227,000 in additional economic
benefits, such as sales, rents and services.
Conservatively, we estimate a total annual
economic output in excess of $265 million
deriving from an initial investment of less than
$3 million.
The numbers strongly reflect a community’s
capabilities and commitment, so economic
In earlier years, Kansas City exported talent to
the coasts. Today, the talent is coming back.
KC’s new tech startups require coworking space
in walkable areas with gyms and coffee shops.
impact is not guaranteed. Intentional
focus is necessary to achieve these
results.
Rick Usher, Kansas City, Mo.:
Google Fiber is proving to be a talent
attractor and retainer in Kansas City.
People are moving there to use the
network to start businesses. There are
now close to a dozen houses in the new
KC Startup Village [an entrepreneurled initiative that helps the Kansas
City startup community, in part
by supplying live/work space]. City
government is compiling a database of
startups and business successes related
to Google Fiber.
Mike Burke, Launch KC: Things are
moving at dizzying speed in Kansas
City. There’s a digital event almost
every week. The way organizations
such as the Digital Sandbox [a federally
funded, proof-of-concept incubator
for tech companies], Code for America
[a nonprofit that helps develop new
technology for government use] and KC
Startup Village work together has huge
implications for urban design. Many
tech companies are applying for free
space, and we’re helping them find it.
Launch KC is working as an economic
development organization and
surpassing the traditional organizations.
Cerner, a corporation that already had a
presence in Kansas City, just announced
a new campus with 15,000 employees.
We were exporting talent, but now the
talent is coming back.
New tech startups require
coworking space, and private
companies are opening these spaces.
Unlike traditional office parks, the
coworking spaces are located in the
central city in walkable areas with
plenty of coffee shops, restaurants and
gyms and with access to transportation.
The sociology is fascinating! And it
all happened organically, not through
the big hand of government. If you
try to build something that’s cool, it’s
probably not.
Aaron Deacon, KC Digital Drive:
KC Digital Drive’s goals are
Economic development: Digital
Sandbox has funded 27 early-stage
companies, and KC Startup Village has
31 more. Some of these companies will
succeed. Some are already attracting
real financing.
Digital inclusion: We’re making
sure opportunities extend across the
economic spectrum. Working with
organizations such as Connecting
for Good and the Free Network
Foundation, we have projects to address
the digital divide so that everyone
can move forward together. We’re
expanding skill sets to include coding,
3D digital printing and more.
Application development: We’re
working with US Ignite to get people
to envision what the next generation of
applications looks like.
Gigabit city leadership: We’ve hosted
visitors from dozens of other cities and
countries.
Taking Charge of Adoption
Michael Curri, Strategic Networks
Group: A successful broadband
network requires not only great
technology but also great utilization.
Utilization is what generates cash flow
for network operators and produces
economic benefits for communities. For
a business, simply adopting broadband
isn’t the same as using it effectively.
Adoption isn’t sustainable unless
businesses actually use broadband to its
fullest potential and connect with their
partners and customers via the Internet.
When the North Georgia Network
launched its new business services,
only 18 percent of potential customers
signed up. The network needed 30
percent to break even. Networks in
Scandinavian countries and Australia
have experienced similar problems.
Strategic Networks Group found
that Georgia businesses had many
barriers to using broadband (other
than lack of awareness that superfast
broadband was available), including
security and privacy issues, cost,
expertise and fear of losing personal
contact with their customers. Operators
can address many of these concerns –
for example, by explaining how to offer
secure payment processing.
We profiled businesses to determine
how they were using the Internet and
compared them with similar businesses.
SNG has a huge database, and we could
show businesses that their utilization
levels related directly to their revenue
growth. If a business isn’t utilizing
e-solutions, it’s losing market share.
Many businesses need help adopting
the e-solutions that aren’t self-evident
– and those are the ones with the
biggest benefits. They should learn to
use social media to build trust and
influence. A local hardware store could
recommend additional purchases the
way Amazon does; a local barber shop
can allow customers to sign up online
for the time slots they want. Or, a
business may need help in changing
its organizational culture to permit
Source: Strategic Networks Group
telecommuting or deliver services
online.
In a North Carolina study, we
found that 31 percent of households
had home-based businesses, and
another 14 percent wanted to start such
businesses but needed help starting up.
Home-based businesses increase
employment levels and tax bases.
These incremental benefits can be
used to drive awareness of how to use
broadband to operate a business.
Kyle Hollifield, Magellan Advisors:
In Bristol, Va., we benchmarked
businesses and suggested changes they
might make to use the community
network more effectively. Now we’re
helping the community of Jupiter,
Fla., learn how businesses are using
broadband. Jupiter plans to use its
municipal fiber for an open-access
network that serves business, and the
survey will show providers who their
potential customers are. Persuading
community officials to fund such a
survey may require explaining to them
that they have a dormant asset they
could use to increase the tax base.
In Bristol, the network authority
funded an economic development staff
member who focused on retaining
businesses rather than attracting new
ones. The tax base grew faster that
way. People in the 50- to 65-year-old
age bracket are starting more new
businesses than anyone else – and
they’re already in your community.
They don’t need to be attracted.
Economic Revival: The Chicago Southland Fiber Network Story
Ed Zabrocki, Mayor, Tinley Park:
The Chicago Southland area has
reasonably priced land available, but
broadband has been lacking. One of the
Big Three automakers wants to locate a
dealership here, but it needs broadband
to do so. A company that makes glue
for labels – it’s so specialized that it has
a worldwide market – needs broadband.
The first water main to Tinley Park was
built in 1972, and now we have to build
a new one. Just as we need more water,
we need more broadband. Businesses
that are thinking about locating here
look at all the infrastructure – roads,
water and sewer – as well as incentives.
Broadband has to be part of the entire
package.
Mayor Ed Zabrocki, Tinley Park
Ed Paesel, SSMMA
Bruce Montgomery, PCI
Ed Paesel, South Suburban Mayors
and Managers Association:
Any economic development has to
be holistic. We began building the
Chicago Southland Fiber Network
where the new airport will be located,
so we will be able to serve it when it
opens. Then we can use this to play off
all the other economic development
in the area. Institutions of higher
education use the network to connect
to the K–12 schools and bridge the
digital divide. The joint 911 dispatch
centers will be able to monitor public
facilities such as parking lots with video
cameras. We’re working with Northern
Illinois University to identify other
anchor institutions that can benefit
from the network.
this purpose. With broadband, we can
bring manufacturing back to Illinois,
and add technology companies and
telehealth. All our communities have
brain drain problems. We have great
schools, but graduates go where the
action is. We have a net outflow of
e-commerce. Sears was started here, and
so was Montgomery Ward. Amazon
should have been here, too! Great ideas
came out of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, but then people
headed west.
Bruce Montgomery, Partnership
for a Connected Illinois: The big
universities are scrambling to put
business accelerators on their campuses
– well, we have land here available for
Communities Will Drive America’s Global Competitiveness
Rollie Cole, Sagamore Institute
for Policy Research: Much of the
economic development challenge for
cities is being able to imagine what’s
possible. In the 1920s, city fathers
who contemplated building a road
might have wondered why they should
accommodate travel faster than 20
miles per hour. That’s the stage we are
at now with broadband.
It’s wrong to say that wiring homes
with fiber isn’t necessary for economic
Rollie Cole, Sagamore Institute
Mark Ansboury, Gigabit Squared
Lydia Murray, Cook County
development. Homes are where startups
start! That’s where schoolchildren are.
Businesses, government and
nonprofits must all work together to
encourage broadband access and use.
A city’s decision isn’t just to “buy or
build” anymore – it’s to beg, borrow,
buy, build, boss, boost or ban. Cities
can encourage or even require that
certain activities be conducted online.
A city can offer its resources to gather
data about applications. Imagine an
application developer who says, “My app
works 10 times better in a gigabit city.”
Mark Ansboury, Gigabit Squared:
Cities have all the requirements for
gigabit networks. They have the mass
audiences, the assets they’ve already
invested in, the goals of providing
quality of life and jobs for their citizens.
All they need to do is leverage their
assets. In some cities, major employers
with visions for their community
are realizing it’s up to them. In one
community we work with, local
businesses are planning to fund,
though not to operate, a network.
Lydia Murray, Cook County Bureau
of Technology: The question isn’t
whether we’ll be a gigabit community
but when and how. Certainty
about permitting and partnering is
huge – and in a county with many
municipalities, coordinating this can
be difficult. Cook County has a good
GIS system, and we’re giving it to
municipalities in return for their data.
Focusing on Economic Development Helps Broadband Projects Succeed
Networks that are expected to contribute to the local economy can make a better case for
getting funding, panelists agreed.
Sharon Stroh, Indiana
Metropolitan Area Network: Our
most pressing issue was manufacturing
decline. We did presentations in all
the towns, inviting local officials,
businesses and anchor insitutions so we
could educate people about broadband
and what it could do. We responded
to their concerns and operated with
accountability and transparency, letting
everyone know what we were doing.
Then we held discussions with the
regional economic development folks.
We invited the press and incorporated
them into the discussion so we could
keep the public informed.
When people voiced opposition, we
invited them for private conversations
afterward. Most objections concerned
the cost of the network, but we were able
to implement it gradually and in phases.
CHICAGO SHOULD BE THE NEXT SEOUL
Katherine Yager, City of Chicago: Chicago issued an RFI for broadband
access in the business district and underserved areas as well as for free
wireless service. We’re exploring partnerships with service providers. In
five years, we want Chicago to be the Seoul of the United States. We want
to grow the technology sector and entrepreneurship. We can’t wire the
whole city yet, but this targeted approach gives us a good foundation. By
partnering with libraries for digital workforce development, we are seeing
an 18 percent increase in wages and salaries.
Continued on page 79
The Basics of
FIBER TO THE HOME
and FIBER TESTING
bandwidth • reliability • economic development • future-proofing
sustainability • affordability • symmetry • standards-based • security
Fall 2013
A Primer from the Editors of
Optical Time Domain Reflectometers
Light it Up
with Confidence
Introducing Fiber Visualizer
Fiber Visualizer is designed to simplify. The latest ACCESS
Master™ MT9083x2 incorporates Fiber Visualizer, a onebutton fault locate function that automatically selects testing
parameters to ensure correct setup and provides a simple,
graphic summary of the fiber under test within seconds.
The MT9083x2 also features a 7-inch widescreen TFT-LCD
display for both indoors and outdoors, enhanced battery operation
time (up to 12 hours), increased operating temperature range
(–10° to +50°C) and new short-cut function keys weighing in
at only 5.7 pounds.
Other Features:
> Up to 46dB dynamic range
> < 1m dead zones
> Up to 150,000 data points
> Supports single mode and multimode fibers
> PON testing up to 1x128 splits
Find out more at: www.goanritsu.com/BC9083 and download our
FREE APPLICATION NOTE: Fiber Optic Testing Simplified.
USA/Canada 1-800-ANRITSU Europe 44 1582-433433
Japan 81 (46) 296-1208 Asia-Pacific (852) 2301-4980
South America 55 (11) 3283-2511
© 2013 Anritsu Company
ACCESS Master™ MT9083x2
with Fiber Visualizer
Contents
Reliability...
Bandwidth...
Affordability...
Future-Proofing...
Symmetry...
Security...
Economic Development...
Sustainability...
New Broadband Content & Services...
Higher Revenue...
SPECIAL SECTION ON FIBER TESTING
7
8
PLAN AHEAD FOR TESTING
The key to making fiber networks long-lasting is to build in
quality from the beginning – and that means developing a
testing plan along with a construction plan.
TESTING: WHAT NETWORK OWNERS AND
OPERATORS NEED TO KNOW
Certifying an FTTH network confirms proper installation
before customers start using it. That means fewer service
problems and easier routes to modifications.
10
12
TRAINING STAFF TO TEST FIBER
Qualifying installers, contractors and maintenance staff is
just as vital as properly designing the system.
FOUR TIERS OF OPTICAL
TELECOMMUNICATIONS VENDORS
Testing fiber networks is only the final stage in a qualitycontrol life cycle.
14
OPTICAL NETWORK TESTING:
WHAT THE TERMS MEAN
An introduction to the ABCs of fiber optic testing. It’s all
here, from attenuation to zero water peak.
4
FIBER TO THE HOME: PATHWAY TO NEW
BROADBAND SERVICES
24
Fiber communities experience economic revitalization of
many kinds. They may retain growing businesses, attract
new companies or play host to tech startups.
Optical fiber is the basis of the world’s communications
systems. Its limitless capacity can easily support today’s
broadband services and those of the future.
15
IS IT REALLY FIBER TO THE HOME?
20
FIBER AND BANDWIDTH
21
27
INTRODUCING 1 GBPS TO THE HOME
28
SERVICES: BEYOND THE TRIPLE PLAY
29
REDUCING HEALTH CARE COSTS
THROUGH TELEHEALTH
Not all fiber networks are FTTH!
Driven by video, the demand for bandwidth continues to
grow. Unlike copper, optical fiber carries high bandwidth
over long distances – in both directions..
FIBER: THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
Fiber is superior to copper in many ways. It’s strong, resilient
and impervious to lightning strikes.
FTTH GENERATES JOBS:
FTTH SUCCESS STORIES
Some 50 communities now boast gigabit service – and new
applications will leverage this bandwidth.
Providers can deliver more than just the “triple play” over
fiber – including many high-margin services.
Broadband-enabled health care allows the chronically ill to
live more independently.
This primer was originally written by Steven S. Ross and updated by him and by Masha Zager, both of the Broadband Communities staff.
FALL 2013 | www.bbcmag.com | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | Fiber Optic Testing Primer |
3
Fiber to the Home:
Pathway to New Broadband Services
every five households is within reach of
fiber, and nearly 10 million households
are using FTTH services now.
These numbers continue to grow
rapidly. China alone expects to have
fiber broadband available to 200
million households by 2015 and to 300
million by 2020. It expects to have 70
million FTTH subscribers by the end
of 2015, with gigabit speeds available in
some of the larger cities. Other nations
are also embarking on aggressive
FTTH rollouts.
WHO CAN BUILD
FTTH NETWORKS?
Most of the FTTH connections in
the United States come from large
telephone companies. Verizon’s FiOS
network has captured most of the
media attention, and some of AT&T’s
U-verse service is also based on FTTH.
But that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Today, about 850 companies supply
fiber-to-the-home broadband in the
United States. Who are they?
The great majority of
these companies were in the
telecommunications business before
they ever built fiber to the home –
more than 600 are local telephone
companies, and others include
franchised and private cable companies,
local Internet service providers, wireless
ISPs and even a satellite company.
Larger telcos are deploying fiber in
cities and suburbs, and smaller telcos
and ISPs in rural areas. Cable providers
use fiber to compete for lucrative
commercial-services business and to
serve new housing developments and
rural areas.
Photo courtesy of Adena Health System
A
round the world, telecom
providers are transforming
their networks to deliver
next-generation services. In
their future networks, fiber optic wires,
rather than copper, will run all the way
to customers’ homes and businesses.
Most of them have already started
building these fiber optic connections
– called fiber to the home (FTTH) –
because they know that only FTTH
can meet the exploding demand for
broadband services.
Consumers who subscribe to
FTTH consistently rate it as the
fastest and most reliable broadband
technology. They also appreciate that
fiber networks can deliver many unique
broadband services for medicine,
education, home-based businesses,
home automation and entertainment.
Over the last few years, businesses
have made a massive shift to “cloud
services.” For economic efficiency, their
critical systems now operate at huge,
remote data centers rather than on-site
computers. The speed, reliability and
security of fiber connections make
cloud services viable.
Already, fiber connections are
available to more than 200 million
homes globally – a tenth of all the
households in the world – and
worldwide, an estimated 107 million
households subscribe to fiber-based
services, including voice, video, data
and more. In the United States, one of
TESTING TIP
FTTH networks stay reliable
because test equipment can
automatically document
changes as technicians add
new customers and test
their work.
One of the new services enabled by fiber networks is telemedicine, which can improve the health
care available in smaller communities.
4 | Fiber Optic Testing Primer | BROADBAND
COMMUNITIES | www.bbcmag.com | FALL 2013
In addition, several new companies
have formed specifically for the purpose
of building fiber optic infrastructure in
underserved areas. RST Fiber in North
Carolina and ValuNet in Kansas are two
recent examples of this phenomenon.
In areas where no established
or new telecom providers have taken
the initiative to build fiber to the
home, communities are reaching out
to nontraditional providers. Local
governments are attracted to FTTH
because it positions their communities
for tomorrow’s jobs and economic
growth. In 2010, when the Internet
search giant Google announced
that it planned to build one or more
community fiber networks, more than
1,100 local governments proposed their
communities as suitable locations.
Google, on its way to becoming a
new “phone company,” is now building
superfast FTTH networks throughout
the Kansas City metropolitan area,
as well as in Austin, Texas; it is also
expanding and upgrading an existing
fiber network in Provo, Utah. Several
other technology entrepreneurs
have followed Google’s lead on a
smaller scale, spinning off new fiber
optic ventures and working with
communities to build infrastructure.
Other nontraditional providers include
cooperative electric utilities, property
developers and even universities.
It makes sense for these forwardlooking organizations to build FTTH
networks. For example, even in a down
economy, most property developers can
enhance the value of their real estate
by putting fiber into new properties or
upgrading existing properties. Some
small electric companies built fiber
optic networks to manage their own
facilities, and they can easily extend
these to serve their customers as well.
In some cases, municipal
governments build their own
fiber networks or collaborate with
neighboring communities to do so
– there are now about 130 FTTH
projects of this kind, as well as about
a dozen FTTH networks built by
Native American tribal authorities.
(Some municipal networks serve only
businesses, not households.)
The newest model for FTTH
deployment involves collaborations in
which both public and private entities
take significant ownership stakes in a
network. This model, currently being
tested in neighborhoods of Chicago
and Seattle, among other cities, has the
potential to combine the best aspects of
public and private ownership.
FTTH IS THE ONLY
UNLIMITED BROADBAND
TECHNOLOGY
Other types of broadband have
improved a great deal over the last few
years – mostly because providers have
brought optical fiber much closer to
their customers. Most cable providers
now use fiber to get close to homes and
then employ copper coaxial cable for
the last hundred to 1,000 feet. Many
phone companies also bring fiber to
within a few thousand feet of the
home and use plain copper wire for
the rest of the trip. Fourth-generation
wireless broadband, which is being
deployed today, usually requires fiber
connections at cell sites.
These new hybrid networks are
much more powerful than older
copper and wireless access networks.
But copper and wireless “last miles”
still have inherently limited capacity.
Tweaking more bandwidth from them
becomes increasingly difficult and
expensive as time goes on. This isn’t
true of optical fiber, whose capacity is
effectively unlimited.
Providers and governments around
the world all agree that unlocking the
potential of broadband requires taking
optical fiber all the way to subscribers’
doors. Everyone also agrees that fiber
will meet the world’s needs for the
foreseeable future. The only debates
involve the speed of the transition.
The reason for this striking
degree of unanimity is simple: FTTH
offers far more bandwidth, reliability,
TESTING TIP
Fiber networks are the
most reliable – and one
reason is that fiber testing
is more precise than is
copper testing technology.
flexibility, security and longer economic
life than alternative technologies, even
though its price is comparable. On
average, It is slightly more expensive
to build, but it is far less expensive to
operate and maintain than copper.
Fiber can handle any bandwidth
demand with ease. In fact, one bundle
of fiber cable not much thicker than
a pencil can carry all the world’s
current communications traffic. The
technologies for transmitting data
over fiber are well understood, and
the upgrade path for the electronic
components that send and receive
signals has been defined for years into
the future. If anything, increasing fiber
bandwidth will become less expensive
rather than more expensive.
THE PAYOFF
FTTH providers enjoy much greater
revenue than traditional broadband
providers. FTTH subscribers today
often spend 30 to 40 percent more per
month than DSL subscribers – not
because basic services are more expensive
(they aren’t) but because more and better
premium services are available.
For example, multiple
simultaneous HD channels are difficult
to implement well over any medium
but fiber; the new 4K TV and highdefinition video communications
are even more challenging. Taking
pay-TV services on the road (true TV
Everywhere) requires high upstream
bandwidth at home. Home energy
management services, home security
and medical monitoring services benefit
from fiber’s high reliability.
5
Fiber to the Home
TESTING TIP
Testing a network helps
to make sure it will work
reliably in the future, not
just when it is new.
Businesses are also willing to pay
for new services, including emerging
services such as cloud computing and
Internet-based backup, storage and
business continuity solutions.
In general, access to utilities
makes private property more valuable,
and FTTH is among the utilities that
owners and renters especially value.
Fiber connections make single-family
homes easier to sell and multiple
dwelling units easier to rent – in
fact, according to a recent survey by
RVA LLC, buyers of houses and
condominiums are willing to pay a 2
percent premium for a fiber-connected
home, and renters are willing to pay
a 15 percent premium. Renters and
buyers both know they can get the
most attractive services available on the
market today – and that if an exciting
new service is introduced in a few years,
they’ll be prepared for that as well. In
addition, working from home – either
as a telecommuting employee or a
home-based entrepreneur – is far easier
with FTTH than with other types of
broadband connections.
Communities benefit from FTTH
in ways that don’t always accrue to
telecom providers. They become more
attractive as locations for people to live
and do business. They have an advantage
in attracting everything from advanced
manufacturing to contact centers to data
centers. They can nurture the tech startups and home-based businesses that
will provide tomorrow’s jobs. They can
provide better education and health care
for residents, deliver government services
more efficiently and engage citizens
in government.
This publication explores these
issues, and more, in detail. It’s written
in nontechnical language so you can
understand the value of next-generation
infrastructure – and what it means
to you – without a degree in optical
engineering.
We want to communicate ... the
advantages of fiber to the home. v
1+
ER
USE
PER
ER ING
W
FIB
P S G RO
GB ND
1+ , A
BANDWIDTH
COMPARISONS
US
GB
R, A P S F I
BE
ND
GR R P
OW E R
IN
G
How Big Is A Gig?
64 Kbps: Phone Line
1.5 Mbps for a T1 Line
40 Mbps: Wireless maximum per
user with latest technology
100 Mbps: DSL maximum per user
with latest technology
The speeds shown
here are downstream.
Upstream speed
comparisons are
even more lopsided.
300 Mbps: Cable maximum per user
with latest technology
1+
GB
US
P
SF
ER
,A
IB
N
E
R
D
PE
GR
R
O
W
IN
G
ER
R P ING
E
B
W
I
S F GRO
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D
GB AN
1+ ER,
US
Fiber offers much
more bandwidth than
other technologies
do. And as the new
generation of 10 Gbps
equipment is deployed
(some businesses are
already using it), the
fiber circle will move
off the page.
Plan Ahead for Testing
Fiber optic networks will last for decades if quality is built in from the very beginning.
A
nyone building a fiber
network has to make sure
not only that it works but
also that it will continue
working over 25 years or more, despite
disturbances by wind, water, extreme
temperature and harried technicians.
Planning for fiber network
longevity starts with the RFP for
construction because testing the
network is part of the construction
process. You will have to budget for it,
provide the time for it, decide who will
carry out the work and decide how any
problems that might be found will
be handled.
All too often, says consultant
Andrew Cohill, president and CEO
of the design and engineering firm
Design Nine (www.designnine.com),
network owners consider only the final
acceptance test – the one in which
technicians place an optical timedomain reflectometer (OTDR) on a
line and make sure the fiber can carry a
robust optical signal. Though such tests
are part of any overall comprehensive
test plan, Cohill says, “If you wait until
you get your OTDR results to test the
network, you will have problems.”
DESIGN QUALITY INTO
NETWORKS
Quality has to be designed into a
network. It cannot simply be inspected
in. For instance, good splicing starts
with well-designed splice diagrams
and a carefully planned network
architecture.
Cohill strongly recommends that
the scope of work in any construction
RFP or final contract contain enough
detail to allow an owner to manage
construction as it is taking place.
Though contracts often refer to this
process as “inspection,” Cohill says
it is really testing to ensure that the
contractor is building the network to
specification.
The process includes random
physical inspection of ducts, handholes,
splice closures, pole attachments and
other particularly critical components.
It should also include careful inspection
of the fiber being placed to make sure
fiber cable is not kinked and that
bend radii do not exceed what the
manufacturer allows.
Though it is true that final
acceptance tests will usually detect
poor splicing and most other defects,
correcting defects at that point is
expensive and time-consuming. In
addition, some defects cannot even be
caught by an end-of-build test. These
include fiber cable that is not tagged
properly, ducts that are not tagged
or clearly marked in other ways, and
empty ductwork that has not been
capped to reduce the chance of insect
infestation or water or soil intrusion.
TEST THE DOCUMENTATION
One of the of the biggest problems
Cohill encounters relates to as-built
drawings and other documentation
that detail spots where builders had
to deviate from the original design
because of physical obstructions,
network design changes or unforeseen
events such as flooding. As-built
drawings may not be delivered at all,
they may be inadequate or they may
not match the actual construction.
Cohill recommends that-asbuilt documents submitted by the
contractors be randomly tested against
the actual network. Of course, that
requires including funds in the original
contract documents for such timeconsuming inspections.
When it comes to end-of-project
optical testing using an OTDR and
other instruments, Cohill advises
•
•
Testing both ends of any fiber run
from cabinet to customer.
Testing every span (between fiber
splices) so that the instrument
•
will produce a database that
enables technicians to narrow any
problems to a small length of fiber.
Testing equipment such as OLTs,
ONTs and splitters.
One issue that has emerged over
the years is that OTDRs and other
instruments may produce test results
in a variety of file formats. These files
can help identify the location and tag
number of every fiber and every active
component in the system, as well as
the location of every splice. Cohill says
contractors should provide test results
to network owners in a searchable,
computer-based format and not merely
print them out from a huge file.
Different vendors’ OTDRs may
format data in different ways or list
data columns in different orders. An
operator that has built fiber in phases,
over time, will want to make sure that
the new test data can be merged with
older data so that in an emergency
everything can be searched quickly, at
once, to pinpoint problems.
Cohill says that even the medium
on which a file is delivered – as a
download or on a CD, a DVD or a
thumb drive – should be specified and
agreed to.
Cohill says he prefers to hire a
third-party testing firm rather than
have a general construction contractor
perform fiber testing. “For large
quantities of fiber testing, a testing
firm may have better pricing than a
contractor,” he says, adding that many
contractors prefer to hire a specialist to
perform the testing anyway.
There are “soft” benefits as well,
Cohill adds. “A third party looking
over the contractor’s shoulder while
the network is being built may deliver
better contractor results,” he says. “And
an experienced third party can help
establish a performance baseline,” –
that is, an acceptable standard for the
frequency of network defects. v
7
Testing:
What Network Owners and Operators
Need to Know About Fiber Testing
Certification of an FTTH network confirms proper installation before customers start
using it. That means fewer service problems and easier routes to modifications. It also
gives comfort to those who financed the build. Fiber test equipment makes testing and
certification easy – often easier than for copper wiring.
N
TESTING TIP
etwork testing and
certification should be
part of the contract
for any network build.
Following is what network owners,
operators, technicians and installers
need to know.
This, of course, cuts technician errors
and the time needed to run tests. Test
equipment can even be upgraded to
meet the latest, evolving standards.
This emphatically does not mean
technicians can go without training.
But as a result of large FTTH builds
ramping up after 2004, there is now a
large cohort of technicians who can do
the job.
All testing-related photos and graphics are courtesy of Anritsu.
MAJOR INDUSTRY
STANDARDS
There are dozens of industry standards
for which compliance has to be
certified. Today, most test instruments,
such as OTDRs and test sets, offer
colorful screen displays and on-screen
“wizards” that guide technicians stepby-step through fiber certification tests
for each standard. The instruments even
calculate the thresholds – the levels
needed to pass – for each situation.
Testing is only the final step; inspection should be performed
throughout the construction period for every fiber network.
In fact, to ensure quality, network builders should develop
inspection and testing plans before issuing a construction RFP.
Today’s fiber testing instruments are small, and they are rugged enough to survive a fall. Note
how key information on this screen is in red.
To use a test set, for instance, a
technician attaches a light source at
one end of a network link. The source
can be set to alternate between both
test wavelengths (850/1300 nm for
multimode fiber and 1310/1550 nm for
single-mode). At the other end of the
fiber span, the test device automatically
synchronizes with the light source to
perform a dual-wavelength insertion loss
measurement in seconds. Sometimes it
isn’t that simple – the technician may
have to control the amount of light
entering the fiber. Test devices can cover
most conditions automatically, but there
are always oddities. v
TESTING TIP
Fiber test equipment
works for in-building
networks as well as for
communitywide systems.
The same principles apply,
even though different types
of optical fiber may be used.
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Training Staff to Test Fiber
Whether you need to certify error-free operation on a new build before paying the
contractor, or whether you handle constant additions and upgrades, you should know
how testing works and how staff should be trained. That’s obvious when you’re using
in-house staff; it’s also necessary when testing is contracted out.
By Larry Johnson / The Light Brigade
I
n the planning and design of a
fiber system, qualifying installers,
contractors and maintenance
staff is just as vital as properly
designing the system itself.
Qualified staff members are
necessary to future-proof your
investment. Personnel must keep
current with technology advances and
with new generations of equipment,
as well as with changes in standards.
Through timely, high-quality training,
an organization can keep its staff
abreast of the latest trends and further
protect its investments in infrastructure
and systems.
There are many opportunities for
error in selecting and installing fiber
optic equipment. Your staff must be
capable not only of performing the
rigorous testing procedures necessary
at every level but also of analyzing the
information they receive and making
informed decisions. Even though
today’s test equipment is rugged and
easy to use, keeping current with new
products and technologies requires
upgrading the staff’s knowledge
and skills by means of training and
certification programs. Being able
to properly understand test results
is key for acceptance, operation and
maintenance of any system.
TRAIN AS YOU HIRE
At the end-user tier (see box), testing
involves either the end-to-end
performance of the system, only the
outside plant or only the premises
portions of the system. Turnover of
the workforce requires that new staff
members be trained as they are hired.
Companies that outsource testing
must assure that their contractors are
qualified to perform the tasks required.
Supervisory training is required for
those who own and operate systems
to become knowledgeable about the
various necessary tests. They must be
able to write work statements, review
contractor bids and review test reports
as needed.
Personnel must understand the
major principles of fiber optic theory,
such as attenuation, dispersion
and reflection, and be well versed in
operation of the test equipment. Service
providers are primarily concerned
with performance of the entire optical
network. Rugged, portable test
equipment is available that can measure
installed spans, individual components
and end-to-end system performance.
Network planners need to
understand the limitations of today’s
technology and should know that these
three key principles impact all fiber
optic systems. Any single one can be
a network killer in the future if not
considered during today’s network
design and installation.
THREE CRITICAL ISSUES
Today’s designers, planners, installers
and maintenance staff must know how
these three factors can impact their
systems and which types of tests are
required for a system to operate with
the best signal quality possible, for as
long a time as possible.
Attenuation is the degradation of
an optical signal as it travels through
fiber cable between a transmitter and a
receiver. As long as the attenuation level
is above the manufacturer’s specified
level, the system should operate at an
A block diagram of how an OTDR works – the test device sends pulses of light down the fiber,
then times and measures the reflections that are returned. It displays the results graphically and
saves the data for future analysis and documentation of the network’s integrity and location of
splices, electronics and other items.
acceptable bit error rate. Traditionally,
testing for attenuation focuses on
comparing a transmitter’s output power
level with the received power level. For
most systems, this test requires only a
simple optical power meter (OPM), but
technologies such as CATV, DWDM
and FTTH have specific varieties of
optical power meters designed to be
used for these applications.
Just as too little power can
cause errors in an optical system, too
much power can cause the receiver’s
photodiode to be overdriven or
“saturated,” impacting signal quality.
Although an OPM can measure the
incoming power level, only a technician
can compare that level with the
manufacturer’s specifications. To do so,
a technician must be able to properly
operate a variable optical attenuator
to duplicate the attenuation of a fiber
span and document its minimum
received power levels. Designers must
understand how to correctly calculate a
light-loss budget to ensure the system’s
overall attenuation level is acceptable.
Optical dispersion is the second
major concern. If light pulses – the
pulses that comprise the data signal
– spread out too much, they overlap
and create errors in the signal, which
causes latency in the transmission
performance. Dispersion is a critical
factor for systems operating at high
transmission rates, especially those at
rates of 10 Gbps or higher.
Technicians should fully
understand the principles of dispersion
and how they impact transmission.
Further, they must know how to
correctly perform fiber characterization
testing and how to use equipment
such as dispersion compensators to
counter dispersion. Designers must be
able to perform bandwidth analysis
to measure modal dispersion (for
multimode systems) and chromatic and
polarization dispersion (for single-mode
systems).
The effect of reflections on
different types of laser diodes is the
third key element. For example,
distributed feedback lasers are especially
Different wavelengths behave in slightly different ways in a fiber span. Here’s an example,
showing two OTDR traces.
TESTING TIP
An FTTH network may not
have to deliver gigabit
speeds today, but proper
testing helps ensure that it
will when you need it.
sensitive to reflections, and vertical
cavity surface-emitting lasers used in
multimode systems are insensitive.
Fresnel reflection commonly occurs at
the interface between two dissimilar
surfaces, as in connectors, mechanical
splices or open fiber ends.
Technicians must be well versed
in the causes of reflection and how it
affects the various light sources. They
should be properly trained in the use
of optical time-domain reflectometers
(OTDRs), dead zone boxes and optical
terminators in reflection testing of
terminated fiber spans, and they should
be able to obtain these values and
compare them with manufacturers’
specifications for both system optical
return loss (ORL) and component
reflectance values.
DESIGN AND PLANNING
Staff responsible for writing bid
documents and specifying performance
levels must be capable of writing the
testing and inspection criteria and
of reviewing and understanding the
documentation to ensure that the
system is operating as specified.
Those who are bidding projects
that involve only physical links (see
box) should provide the installers
or contractors with “not to exceed”
spreadsheets.
These spreadsheets form a
blueprint of sorts for the span: what
losses are to be expected, the fiber’s
type and length, which wavelength
(or wavelengths) is used for testing,
the number of connectors, splices
11
Training the Testing Staff…
FOUR TIERS OF OPTICAL
TELECOMMUNICATIONS VENDORS
The communications industry is made up of four tiers. At each tier,
technicians are constantly making measurements using different
and constantly changing knowledge and skill sets. Testing must
be performed thoroughly and correctly at each tier to ensure that
the end product meets the next tier’s performance criteria. Your
organization may own a network, and therefore your needs may
be focused only on that tier (Tier 4). However, you may find that
monitoring the products, standards and innovations that develop at
the other tiers could impact the decisions you make for modifying
your own network in the future.
TIER 1
The first tier is the manufacturing of components such as optical
fiber, connector ferrules or the laser diodes used in transmitters. The
primary concern is testing each component for quality assurance
and maximum yield at various stages during the manufacturing
process. Personnel use specialized optical and physical measurement
test equipment in a controlled factory environment.
TIER 2
The second tier integrates the optical components manufactured
at Tier 1 into optical subassemblies. Testing at this level focuses
on enhanced optical and performance measurements. Personnel
use most of the same test equipment used by Tier 1 companies
but add additional tests as required to verify specific performance
parameters.
TIER 3
At the third tier are the system manufacturers that build
the transmission equipment used for voice, video, and data
communications systems and applications. Data transmission
protocols are involved, so end-to-end simulation of the operating
network is required along with bit error rate (BER) tests. Noise and
eye-pattern analysis to confirm signal quality must be performed as
well. Equipment must be rigorously tested to ensure that it meets
performance criteria. Tier 3 personnel should have a great deal of
knowledge regarding fiber optic system operation as well as the
effects of attenuation, dispersion and reflection. They must also be
experienced with a wide variety of test equipment and be proficient
at reading test results.
TIER 4
At Tier 4 are service providers, such as telephone companies
and utilities, that install Tier 3 equipment to build, operate and
maintain fiber optic networks. Tier 4 can also include owners or
operators of optical LANs, such as enterprises, power utilities and
government agencies.
and passive devices used along the span and their
attenuation and reflectance values.
These spreadsheets make it easy for staff to
compare the final results with the specified results.
Staff can easily identify any elements that are out of
specification and rework any spans or components
that do not meet specified values.
MAINTENANCE
Whenever any complex system is integrated,
installed or modified, difficulties are to be
expected. Fiber optic networks are no exception.
Problems often arise during installation, but proper
acceptance testing will identify and resolve these
problems prior to the equipment’s being turned up.
Network outages must be tracked down and
eliminated quickly to minimize their financial,
security and social impacts. This is why testing
must occur prior to network operation. Because
unexpected problems always have time and cost
impacts, it is important for operators to develop the
understanding and skills required to troubleshoot
fiber optic installations.
Troubleshooting efforts can be divided into
two categories: those relevant to installation
technicians and those relevant to maintenance
technicians. Installation technicians involved with
the physical layer (that is, the fiber span) usually
encounter problems as a natural part of the process
and resolve many of these as installation work
progresses. Some problems, however, can escape
attention.
Acceptance-testing a fiber system will catch
many problems before a network is turned over
to its users. Installers generally do not like users’
demanding network access while troubleshooting
is underway. Accessing cable and splice points is
easier during or immediately after installation than
later in the life of the network.
Installation technicians must verify that the
system meets specifications. They must also fully
document the results before any traffic is allowed
on the network. The acceptance testing process
usually requires the use of OTDRs for span and
splice signatures. (An OTDR records the distance,
location and attenuation of all splices and most
components.) The process usually also requires
optical loss test sets to measure overall attenuation
levels and optical power levels.
The process is far more precise than anything
available for copper networks and helps keep
operating expenses low. However, maintenance
technicians are often under tremendous pressure
to find and repair problems quickly and may not
Photos by Anritsu
Today’s best equipment can graphically display test results – including failed fiber spans – while providing an astonishing amount of detail.
be as familiar as installers are with the
physical fiber span.
They are responsible on a day-byday basis for keeping the system in top
operating condition so that emerging
problems can be caught and resolved
before they cause outages. Knowing
the typical causes of fiber optic system
failures will help restoration planning
teams anticipate what may be expected
in their particular systems and help
them develop procedures that can
minimize or even eliminate future
outages.
knowledge and skills to keep pace with
the latest technologies and transitions.
Organizations that provide training
invest their time and finances, but
they gain a return on their investment
through better performance, fewer (and
shorter) system outages and the ability
to grow with a changing industry. v
KEEP PACE WITH CHANGE
The fiber optic industry is not standing
still. Technology training provides the
Controls and screens on today’s devices are compact and easily read.
Larry Johnson, founder of The Light
Brigade, has been involved with fiber
optics since 1977 and is regarded as
an expert in all aspects of fiber optic
design, installation, testing and
measurement. He has participated in
the development of fiber optic standards
and has authored books on fiber optic
technology. For more information,
see www.lightbrigade.com.
13
Optical Network Testing:
What the Terms Mean
Don’t know what index of refraction or single-mode fiber means? Can’t figure out
contract terms or test reports? Review the glossary below. It’s all here, from A to Z.
I
t is a measure – a test, if you
will – of fiber’s popularity that
BroadBand Communities
editors now frequently receive
calls from new network builders
asking about certification testing and
maintenance of fiber networks. These
calls have spurred us to bring the topic
down to earth.
On the one hand, testing fiber is
straightforward. Fiber that is installed
properly may last for 20 years or more
with little or no maintenance. On the
other hand, fiber networks, like copper
networks, are often modified in the
field as new customers are added or
as bandwidth is increased with new
electronics. Central offices in particular
can often evolve into tangled messes.
The good news is that only a few
test devices are needed:
•
•
•
Microscopes for visual inspection
of connections for dirt and other
contaminants.
Light sources and signal level
meters (often in the same
instrument) for checking basic
connectivity.
Devices to trace a specific cable
•
by sensing the light pulses inside
without damaging the fiber.
Instruments such as optical time
domain reflectometers (OTDRs)
that track specific defects by type
and location, and even sense cable
that is likely to fail early, by sending
out carefully timed light pulses,
timing the echoes that return
and determining what kinds of
backscatter or reflections may have
affected the timing of the echoes.
An OTDR is the only really
expensive piece of equipment. It can
cost $5,000 or more, with the easiestto-use and most flexible units costing
$10,000 and up (they can be rented).
They once were rack-mounted. Today,
they are available in handheld versions
as well. Many are modular and can
be outfitted for specific network
technologies and configurations.
Many vendors of fiber and
network electronics sell test equipment,
so negotiating a good deal for test
equipment while buying other
equipment to build a network is
sometimes possible.
Property owners, builders and
service providers large enough to keep
technicians on staff can send them for
retraining in fiber technology when a
fiber network is being installed. Good
test courses (see www.theFOA.org) take
just a few days and are often available at
local community colleges.
This glossary defines the basic
terms used in contract documents, test
reports and instrument spec sheets. It
also offers some approximate pricing
information.
Just as consumer HDTV sets
and digital cameras can vary in price
by a factor of 10 depending on their
features, so can fiber test equipment.
There is quite a bit of used equipment
on the market. The accompanying
articles describe some of the basic test
procedures for indoor and outside
network plant. Testing is always easier
when you fully document the network
you are building. The documentation
should include exact locations of each
node and piece of electronics and even
the index of refraction and type of glass
fiber being used.
Glossary
Accuracy: How closely test results
conform to the true value. An OTDR,
for instance, can measure the distance
from the tester to many defects, but
its accuracy is limited by its internal
clock or “time base” (which calculates
the interval between the time a pulse is
sent and its reflection is received), the
shaping of the pulse’s width, and the
technician’s knowledge of the fiber’s
index of refraction at the wavelength
being used. See also OTDR, index of
refraction and precision.
Attenuation: Degradation of signal
due to absorption or scattering of light
in the fiber or at a junction (coupling
loss). Different wavelengths of light
have different levels of absorption and
scattering. There are differences among
fibers as well; for example, some absorb
signals particularly strongly at 1244 nm
and 1383 nm due to water in the glass.
See also zero water peak, microbend
and macrobend.
Attenuator: A device that reduces
the strength of a signal. In tests, it can
simulate signal loss in a long fiber link.
A mandrel is one simple attenuator for
bend-sensitive fiber (fiber that “leaks”
some light around a sharp bend); see
mandrel.
TESTING TIP
Budget enough time and
money to allow successful test
completion and necessary
rework.
Auto-configuration: A process by which
instruments select which light levels to use,
which wavelengths to test and so forth.
Automatic configurations can be overridden
by an experienced technician. See also
injection or insertion level.
Bend-insensitive fiber: Fiber that is
resistant to light loss or strain when bent.
Care must be taken when connecting such
fiber to standard varieties. See mode field
mismatch, macrobend, microbend.
Certification test: Initial test of a network,
usually before actual use; often required by
contract before the network owner accepts
the build.
Chromatic dispersion: Spreading of a light
signal as it travels down a fiber, caused by the
fact that different wavelengths of light travel
at slightly different speeds in glass.
Clip-on device: Simple instruments that
detect light from a non-signal source inside a
fiber (such as from a visual fault detector) by
bending the fiber so that some light “leaks.”
Similar to a fiber identifier but usually can
detect only a beam of light stronger than
would be typical of an actual signal. See
fiber identifier.
Coupling loss: See attenuation, injection or
insertion loss.
Dead zone: The distance a light signal
travels during the “recovery period” after
a photodetector in an ODTR is hit by a
brighter back-reflection (reflectance). A
photodetector must be very sensitive to detect
backscatter (at perhaps 0.001 percent of the
original signal strength), and reflectance
briefly overwhelms it before it recovers and
begin to measure the signal.
Is It Really
Fiber To the
Home?
W
hen service providers advertise “fiber rich,” “fiber deep”
and “fiber optic” networks, how do you know whether
you’re really getting fiber to the home? In 2006, the
FTTH Councils for Europe, Asia and North America
standardized the definitions for fiber to the home and fiber to the
building (also called fiber to the basement). They are
FIBER TO THE HOME (FTTH)
A fiber optic communications path that extends from an operator’s
switching equipment to at least the boundary of a home living space
or business office space. The definition excludes architectures in which
the optical fiber terminates before reaching either a home living space
or business office space and the access path continues over a physical
medium other than optical fiber.
FIBER TO THE BUILDING (FTTB)
A fiber optic communications path that extends from an operator’s
switching equipment to at least the boundary of a private property that
encloses homes or businesses. The optical fiber terminates before reaching
home living spaces or business office spaces. The access path then continues
over another access medium, such as copper or wireless, to subscribers.
Only FTTH is truly unlimited, but FTTB can provide as much
capacity as most households and small businesses can use today.
SOME “FIBER” NETWORKS ARE
NOT FIBER TO THE HOME
Other network architectures are not officially defined. Their capacity
depends on how far users are from nodes and/or on the number of users
on each node.
FIBER TO THE NODE OR
FIBER TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD (FTTN)
In an FTTN network, fiber is extended to a street cabinet or an onpole cabinet within 1,000 to 5,000 feet of the average user. From there,
copper or wireless serves users, typically through a variant of DSL
(Digital Subscriber Line).
FIBER TO THE CURB OR
FIBER TO THE CABINET (FTTC)
FTTC is similar to FTTN, except that the fiber is brought closer to user
premises – typically closer than 1,000 feet and often closer than 300 feet.
HYBRID FIBER-COAX (HFC)
This architecture is used mainly by cable TV companies. In a typical
HFC system, fiber runs to a node in each neighborhood, and coaxial
cable running from the node serves between 100 and 500 users.
15
Optical Network Testing
TESTING TIP
A fiber test instrument
can locate a defect within
inches by measuring how
long a pulse of light takes
to get to the defect and
back again.
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
has a standard definition, but you may
also see dynamic range calculated as
RMS, SNR-1, Telcordia and so forth.
To compare different devices, ask for
the dynamic range to be defined using
the same definition.
Effective area or effective
diameter: Same as MFD; see mode
field diameter.
Fault locator: See visual fault locator.
Dispersion: Widening of signal pulses
in a fiber as light travels down it. Once
dispersion causes signal peaks to widen
and flatten too much, the signal cannot
be reliably detected. There are three
main types. See chromatic dispersion,
modal dispersion and polarization
mode dispersion.
Fiber identifier: A simple instrument
that detects a signal inside a singlemode fiber. It works by bending the
fiber enough so that some light “leaks”
out; the fiber’s outer cover does not
have to be cut. See also clip-on devices.
Typical fiber identifier units sell for
$600 to $1,000.
Display resolution: The number
of decimal points or other significant
digits in the display. See precision.
Fiber inspection microscope: Just
what it sounds like – a microscope
designed to easily inspect fiber to
make sure it is clean before splicing or
joining it with a mechanical connector.
It costs as little as $80, but the most
rugged units cost $150–$200. Video
microscopes with small screens sell
for $500 to $1,300 – or less, if the
microscope plugs into a laptop or
Android tablet. These can be used to
inspect fiber in a hard-to-reach spot
such as the back of a patch panel.
Distance resolution: See accuracy.
Dynamic range: A measure of the
signal-to-noise ratio in an OTDR,
in dB (the higher the dB range,
the better). Vendors cite different
measurement methods for dynamic
range, and these methods are not
directly comparable. The International
Fresnel reflection: Reflection or
back-reflection from a splice, connector
or contaminant in the fiber.
Gainer: See splice gain.
Gel: A clear jelly used to fill the tiny
gap between an instrument’s port and
the fiber to reduce signal loss.
Ghost: A reading of an extra-strong
reflection from something in the fiber
link (usually due to a Fresnel reflection
or a mode field diameter mismatch,
where multimode fiber joins singlemode). See Fresnel reflection, mode
field diameter, mode.
Index of refraction: The ratio of the
speed of light in a vacuum to the speed
of light in fiber. The index of refraction
for fiber optic strands is typically around
1.5, which means the speed of light in
the glass is about a third slower than
in a vacuum. Some test measurements
involve timing a light pulse’s travel to
and from a defect site, splice or piece of
equipment in the network. To determine
the location of a defect, the index of
refraction must be known exactly.
Injection level or insertion level:
The brightness of a light pulse sent by
a test instrument into the fiber being
tested.
A span or run of fiber can contain splices, splitters, waveguides and various electronic devices.
Rayleigh scattering occurs when an imperfection in the glass fiber scatters the light carrying a signal.
Injection loss or insertion loss: The
amount of a signal’s light that does
not enter the fiber for transmission.
Some light is reflected at the interface
between the test device and the fiber.
This can be mitigated using a gel or a
mandrel wrap. Single-mode fiber can
accept light only in a narrow angle
from the axis of the fiber.
Kink: A bend caused by a fiber’s
having been looped as it was laid. See
macrobend and microbend.
Laser diode: A light source used in
some instruments. More expensive than
an LED. Fabry-Perot lasers are the type
used most commonly in instruments.
They are more powerful and less
expensive than distributed feedback
(DFB) lasers, but DFB lasers can be
tuned to specific wavelengths more
precisely.
TESTING TIP
Modern test instruments
produce computer files that
automatically document
network features for use
by technicians far into
the future.
instrument that combines a power
meter and a light source. Using an LTS
at each end of a fiber strand allows
a technician to test the link in both
directions at once. In a bidirectional
LTS unit (almost all are bidirectional),
the power meter and the light source
can be connected to the same port.
Most do the tests totally automatically.
Good basic units are available for well
under $1,000; the most automated
devices can cost $1,500 or more.
Macrobend: A bend in a fiber with
a radius larger than 2 mm, often at a
stapling point or kink.
Mandrel: A dowel around which
fiber can be wrapped to reduce
signal insertion level. See injection or
insertion level.
Microbend: A bend in a fiber
caused by stapling or other fiberlaying constraints, thermal stresses or
manufacturing defects. See attenuation.
Modal dispersion: See mode.
Light-emitting diode (LED): A
light source used in some instruments,
especially for multimode fiber. LEDs
are less expensive than lasers but also
less powerful. Multimode fiber is most
common in older optical LANs, where
fiber distances are not long and low
power levels are sufficient. Multimode
fiber is no longer common in new
network builds.
Linearity: See accuracy.
Live fiber detector: See fiber
identifier.
Loss resolution: See precision.
Loss test set (LTS): An inexpensive
Fresnel reflection (pronounced “fre-nell”), typically from a splice, sends a weak light pulse back to
its source. This creates a “dead zone” that an OTDR can sense but cannot read directly.
17
Optical Network Testing
The dead zone in any length of fiber tends to be short. It is caused by Fresnel reflections from various splices in the same fiber span.
Mode: A path that light follows in a
fiber. Multimode fiber is thicker than
single-mode (also spelled singlemode
and single mode in contracts and
catalogs), so the light beam that
carries a signal may follow multiple
paths, depending on the angle at
which it enters the fiber’s end. The
more off-center the angle, the more
the light bounces off the inner surface
of the fiber and the longer the path.
Because single-mode fiber has a sharply
restricted entry angle, a signal retains
its sharpness better than it does in
multimode fiber (that is, it has lower
modal dispersion). Multimode fiber is
less expensive to deploy than singlemode fiber. The smaller diameter of
single- mode fiber makes splicing and
testing more difficult. Single-mode is
also more expensive than multimode to
“light.” Multimode, because of modal
dispersion, cannot carry a signal as far.
Mode field diameter (MFD): The
width of the fiber that transmits most
of the signal. In single-mode fiber,
this tends to be a bit wider than the
fiber itself, because some of the signal
travels in the cladding, which is glass
that surrounds the inner fiber. Wider
MFDs lead to greater signal loss in fiber
bends, but wide-MFD fibers are easier
to connect to other fiber.
Mode field mismatch: A splice
between fibers with different mode
field diameters, usually occurring
when single-mode fiber is spliced to
multimode or when certain thin, bendinsensitive fibers are spliced to standard
fibers.
Multimode fiber: See mode.
Optical continuous wave
reflectometer (OCWR): A device that
uses a light source to inject a signal into
a network and then measures backreflection to calculate optical return
loss. An OCWR can test much shorter
pieces of fiber (such as drop cables)
than an OTDR can.
Optical link loss: End-to-end signal
loss, measured in dB. Every system
has a link loss “budget” or allowable
amount of attenuation.
TESTING TIP
A third-party testing firm
(or the network operator, if
large enough to justify it)
should do the testing – not
the firm laying the fiber.
Optical loss budget: See optical link
loss.
Optical power meter: See power
meter.
Optical return loss (ORL): Light
reflected back (“returned”) to the
source after it scatters and reflects from
couplings. ORL can interfere with RF
video signals in particular. The higher
the ORL value (in dB), the better the
system.
Optical time domain reflectometer
(OTDR): A device that sends carefully
timed light pulses down a fiber path.
An OTDR is more expensive and
slightly less accurate, but easier to use,
than an OCWR in testing for signal
loss. However, because the light pulses
can be timed and the time related to
a distance (as the speed of light in
the fiber is known), an OTDR can
quickly calculate the distance between
itself and a fault. Depending on how
it is used, it can guide a technician to
anywhere from a few inches to 150
feet from a fault. Basic handheld
OTDR models on the market cost as
little as $2,000, but prices, including
modules for superflexible modular
OTDRs, can be more than 5 times
that. Many companies rent the more
sophisticated units when they need
them, paying $500 to $1,000 a month
or even more.
Polarization mode dispersion
(PMD): Spreading of a fiber optic
signal caused by polarization of light
in the fiber. When glass is stressed by
bending, stretching or the presence
of a manufacturing defect, the
molecular structure changes in a way
that can polarize light; the different
polarizations travel at different speeds
in the fiber. PMD can limit bandwidth
in network links that have very high
bandwidth (10 Gbps or greater) or
that are very long. Testing for PMD
requires transmitting a signal and
reading it with interferometry or some
other technique such as Jones-Matrix
analysis. See dispersion.
Port: The point in the central office
at which the laser-light signal enters
the fiber. One port’s signal can be
shared among many customers if it is
“split” using splitters or wave-division
multiplexing.
Power meter: A test device that
can be connected directly to a signal
transmitter’s laser-light output to
measure the signal strength being
transmitted. A power meter can also be
connected to a fiber network in place
of an optical receiver to determine the
strength of a received signal. Power
meters have different types of detectors:
Silicon detectors are suitable only
for multimode fiber; indium gallium
arsenide Indium Gallium Arsenide
(InGaAs) and germanium detectors
may be used to test single-mode and
multimode fibers. Look for units that
have temperature compensation and
that can be calibrated at multiple
wavelengths. These devices sell for
about $200 to $600, depending
on features.
Precision: The degree of internal
consistency of test results. Note
that various limitations in a test
device might allow “precise” results
that differ slightly from reality (see
accuracy), just as a tight but off-center
grouping of bullets on a target is
precise but inaccurate. For example,
an instrument’s display might allow
only differences greater than 0.01dB
to be shown. Some instruments
automatically make tens or thousands
of measurements in just a few seconds.
In the test equipment business, the
degree of precision is sometimes
called “resolution.”
Reflectance: A type of optical return
loss caused by back-reflection – light
reflected back to its source from
couplings. It is expressed differently
from ORL, however – in dB but as a
negative value. The more negative that
value is, the greater the loss.
Remote test unit: Test equipment
(often, a rack-mounted OTDR)
installed permanently in a network
to monitor it. Remote test units are
usually controlled from a network
operating center.
Resolution: See precision.
Sampling accuracy: See accuracy.
Sampling resolution: See precision.
Scattering: Departure of light signals
from their intended path. Light signals
scatter slightly even in pure glass. There
are several types of scattering. Raman
scattering transfers power from a signal
sent at one wavelength to a signal at a
longer wavelength. Brillouin scattering
degrades a signal by scattering away
some of its light energy.
Signal level: See insertion or injection
level.
Single-mode fiber: See mode.
Splice gain: An apparent signal gain
at a splice or connector. For a signal to
gain power is a physical impossibility;
an instrument that shows splice gain
is misreading a signal reflection.
Technicians often call the splice point
a “gainer.”
Talk set: A device that allows field
TESTING TIP
Beam me up, Scotty:
Modern FTTH test
equipment is the closest
thing on Earth to a Tricorder.
technicians to talk to each other in
the field over the fiber they are testing.
This is useful when copper wire is not
available and cellular communication
isn’t possible. Talk sets are often rented
(in pairs) when a specific need arises,
for about $500 a month.
Time base error: See accuracy.
Video inspection scope: See fiber
inspection microscope.
Visual fault locator: A bright laser
light, almost always red, with a coupler
to the fiber. Light exits the fiber at a
break or bend, allowing technicians
to find the fault visually. Visual fault
locators, which can shine light through
a fault up to about three miles away,
typically cost less than $300. They are
also used to identify a particular fiber
in a multiple-fiber cable for splicing
or for tracing a circuit. A visual fault
locator can also be used with an ODTR
to find failures in the OTDR dead
zone. See dead zone.
Zero water peak: Fiber that is
manufactured without water and hence
has no attenuation caused by water.
Some fiber, especially older fiber, was
manufactured with a bit of water inside
the glass. In rare instances, the glass
may have absorbed water from the
outside. The oxygen-hydrogen bonds in
water absorb some wavelengths of light,
causing a “peak” in the absorption
pattern. The standard wavelengths used
to send signals over fiber today are not
significantly absorbed by water, but
as network deployers add wavelengths
to increase bandwidth and network
security, water peaks may become an
issue and should be tested for. v
19
Fiber and Bandwidth
Q: What is bandwidth?
A: In a network, bandwidth (what engineers call bitrate) is
the ability to carry information. The more bandwidth
a network has, the more information it can carry in a
given amount of time. Networks with high bandwidth
also tend to be more reliable because fewer bottlenecks
disturb the flow of information.
and analyze data on massive scales. Today’s Big Data
applications range from consumer pricing models to DNA
sequencing to particle physics to control of electrical grids.
Big Data doesn’t work without Big Bandwidth. A DNA
sequencer produces enough data to monopolize a 2.5
Gbps connection.
Megabits per second download speed
Q: Can’t copper carry high bandwidth?
Q: How much bandwidth – or information delivered
A: Copper’s capacity is far less than fiber’s. It can support
by bandwidth – do we need?
high bandwidth for only a few hundred yards. The longer
A: The amount of bandwidth we need grows every year.
a signal travels on copper, the lower the bandwidth.
Worldwide bandwidth use roughly doubles every two
Optical fiber is unique in that it can carry highyears. The biggest growth has been for video – traditional
bandwidth signals over enormous distances. Fiber uses
pay TV, “over the top” or Internet-based video, and video
laser light to carry signals. Under some circumstances,
communications. This trend is expected to continue;
a signal can travel 60 kilometers (36 miles) without
Cisco estimates that by 2017, consumer Internet video
degrading enough to keep it from being received. The
traffic will account for 69 percent of all consumer
international minimum standard is 20 kilometers (12
Internet traffic, up from 57 percent in 2012.
miles). Fiber is also far better able to support upstream
Video requires not only extra bandwidth but also
bandwidth – that is, from a user to the network.
extra reliability. The smallest delay in data transmission
can result in distorted views. More video is available
Q: What’s the difference between upstream and
than ever before, and people are watching video on more
downstream bandwidth, and why is it important?
screens at once. In addition, video formats are becoming
A: In the debate about FTTH versus copper-based
more bandwidth-intensive. HDTV can require 8
broadband, people tend to argue in terms of downstream
megabits per second (Mbps) or even more for fast action
bandwidth because most users need more downstream
such as in sporting events, even with new MPEG-4
bandwidth than upstream – especially for bringing
compression technology. So-called 3D immersive HDTV
video entertainment into the home. But emerging
– already used in some academic and industrial settings
consumer uses such as home video uploads, computer
for telepresence – requires between 50 Mbps and 300
games, distance learning, video communication and
Mbps, and 4K video, which has four times the pixels of
telemedicine may require as much upstream bandwidth as
today’s best-quality HDTV broadcasts,
requires 16 to 32 Mbps, depending on
how fast the screen action is and how
much of the screen is taken up by fastTypical Bandwidth Decrease vs. Distance in Feet from the
moving objects.
Node for FTTN Networks (Example is for BT Deployment)
80
Q: What about other kinds
of data?
70
ADSL
A: Bandwidth requirements for many
60
kinds of data are exploding. For
VDSL2
50
example, new digital cameras can create
larger and larger images; 30 megabytes
40
is not uncommon. Amateur HD video
30
cameras use about 10 gigabytes per hour
20
of video – the equivalent of 300 of those
10
30 MB still images. In health care, the
medical images produced by equipment
0
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
10000
such as CT scanners are a hundred
times larger than camera images, and
The bandwidth of a DSL signal declines with distance from the fiber node. VDSL2, the most
more. In the last few years, business
advanced form of DSL, can deliver about 30 Mbps at 3,000 feet, depending on the quality
and science both entered the era of
of the copper. A new technology called vectoring increases VDSL2 bandwidth at very short
“Big Data” applications that collect
distances if the copper is in good condition. .
TESTING TIP
The sophisticated instruments used
to test new FTTH networks also rely
on light.
downstream. Small businesses, often homebased, may need upstream bandwidth as well
– imagine a wedding photographer sending
proofs by email to clients. Larger businesses
may wish to copy all their working data files
for safekeeping to a remote computer center.
Q: What about wireless? I hear 4G wireless
can provide 54 Mbps.
A: That’s the potential bandwidth shared by
all users connected to a cellular antenna.
Wireless broadband depends on fiber to
move information to and from cell towers.
Even so, each antenna can support only a
finite number of cellular signals. Cellular
data traffic grew 200-fold from 2006 to 2012
and will grow another eightfold by 2016.
Providers are now severely limiting wireless
data, encouraging or forcing customers to
use Wi-Fi connections instead of cellular
networks for data. Those Wi-Fi connections,
in turn, work best when they can quickly
offload data to a fiber network. A typical
cellular data plan allows 5 gigabytes per
month. Use your phone to view video, and
you quickly run over the limit.
Q: What exactly makes fiber
“future proof”?
A: The equipment used to send light signals over
glass fiber keeps getting better. So equipping
an existing fiber network with new electronics
and with lasers that pulse light faster, or lasers
that use different wavelengths of light, can
vastly increase available bandwidth without
changing the fiber itself. New electronics are
very cheap compared with the original cost
of laying the fiber. At the customer end, the
system can be designed so that customers
themselves can simply pull the old unit out
and plug the new one in. Therefore, once fiber
has been deployed, network operators can
keep increasing bandwidth as needed at very
little cost.
Fiber: The
Light Fantastic
Fiber optic cable is made up of thin strands of glass that carry
information by transmitting pulses of light, which are usually created
by lasers. (Copper cable, by contrast, carries low-voltage electrical
signals.) The pulses are turned on and off very, very quickly. A single
fiber can carry multiple streams of information at the same time over
different wavelengths, or colors, of light. Fiber has many advantages
over copper wire or coaxial cable:
1
2
Great for rural areas. Signals travel long distances inside
fiber cable without degradation – 35 miles or more in some
real-world networks and 65 miles or more in the laboratory.
Easy to deploy. Fiber cable is thin and flexible. An individual
fiber can be thinner than a human hair. Thin fibers can
be packaged in a narrow ribbon or inside a hollow plastic
microduct less than 1/8 inch in diameter. Fiber cable can be hidden
easily on the surfaces of walls in old buildings. There are even hairthin fiber products that can be attached with adhesive tape and
painted over.
3
4
Future-proof. Once installed, fiber is upgraded by changing
the electronics that create and receive the light pulses, not by
replacing the cable itself.
Rugged and weatherproof. Fiber cable has a longer life
than copper because it does not corrode, is not easily affected
by water and generates no heat. It isn’t damaged by lightning.
Nothing hurts it except a physical cut or the destruction of the
building it is in.
5
Low operating costs and high environmental benefits.
Fiber networks cost less to operate than copper. The most
common FTTH network technology, GPON, uses no
electronics – and therefore no power – between the provider’s central
office and the customer premises, which minimizes operating costs.
Even optical networks that do require electronics in the field use far
less power than copper networks do.
6
Reliable. Fiber is far more reliable than copper. Surveys
by market researcher Michael Render of RVA LLC show
that a typical DSL modem has to be reset by the user about
once a week. For fiber, it is once a month or less. This is critical for
telemedicine and for distance learning, but it is also important for
businesses. We have all sought to pay for something by credit card
only to find that the card reader is not working. This is usually
because the DSL connection has been lost. A few lost sales per month
can cost a retailer more than the monthly fee for the connection!
21
Fiber and Bandwidth
TESTING TIP
Testing terms regularly show up in
construction contracts; learn what they
mean and why they are significant.
Q: How long has fiber optic technology been in use?
A: Fiber optic cable is the foundation of the world’s
telecommunications system. It has been used for more
than 30 years to carry communications traffic from
city to city and from country to country. Almost every
country has some fiber optic cable, delivering services
reliably and inexpensively. The first time fiber delivered
a signal directly to a home (in Hunter’s Creek, Fla.) was
more than 25 years ago. Today, more than 200 million
homes worldwide have fiber connections available, and
more than 100 million homes are connected to fiber.
Q: All providers seem to claim they have fiber
networks. What’s different about fiber to the home?
A: Don’t be fooled! It is true that most cable and FTTN
(DSL) networks use some fiber. In these networks,
the fiber carries the signal close enough to homes so
that copper can carry it the rest of the way. However,
this approach requires expensive, difficult-to-maintain
electronics at the point where fiber meets copper. (These
electronic devices use a great deal of power and are quite
sensitive to lightning strikes. Even the cost of bringing
electric power to them can be huge, depending on where
they are located.) The available bandwidth is far less
than in an all-fiber network. And most of these halfway
approaches do not allow symmetrical bandwidth – cable
and DSL systems generally can’t upload information as
fast as they can download it.
Q: Isn’t a network with some fiber good enough?
A: It may be fine to send emails, download songs or share
family photos. If you want to log on to the corporate
LAN from home and work effectively, or run a homebased business, you’ll need more. And what about
uploading a high-def video of your child’s football game,
or sitting down to dinner virtually with family members
a thousand miles away?
Q: Why does it matter how close to the home fiber
comes?
A: With copper cable, bandwidth drops precipitously with
distance. The most recent expedient, vectored DSL, allows
50 Mbps downstream signals for as far as 1,800 feet under
ideal conditions. It won’t work on very old copper wiring,
its upstream bandwidth is limited and it requires expensive
electronics. However, it is touted as an interim solution for
network builders that cannot afford FTTH. In the next
few years, a new technology, G.fast, will become available;
under ideal conditions and with vectoring (crosstalk
cancellation), G.fast is expected to provide 500 Mbps
symmetrical bandwidth up to 300 feet from the node.
G.fast may prove to be an excellent solution for retrofitting
apartment buildings with fiber to the basement (as long as
those buildings have good internal wiring), but it requires
bringing fiber very close to customer premises and is still
limited in comparison with true fiber to the home.
Q: With cable and DSL, there’s often a gap between
advertised and actual bandwidth. Is that true
for fiber?
A: No. Cable, DSL and even wireless networks are usually
heavily oversubscribed – that is, providers promise users
more than the total amount of available bandwidth
because they know all users aren’t going full throttle
most of the time. As a result, networks slow down
during periods of heavy use, such as when teenagers
come home from school. Copper networks are also more
subject to speed degradation due to the condition of the
wiring. Fiber has enough bandwidth and reliability that
providers can guarantee high speeds with little or no
oversubscription. If a fiber network is designed properly,
users will always get the speeds that are advertised – or
better. Data published by the FCC in February 2013
showed that, on average, fiber-to-the-home services
delivered 115 percent of their advertised speeds.
Q: Is FTTH technology expensive?
A: In new construction, fiber costs about the same as
copper to build, and it costs much less to operate and
maintain. Building fiber to the home is expensive only
when compared with not building a new network – that
is, with making minor tweaks to an existing copper
network. The problem is that these less-expensive
solutions don’t meet users’ needs. In the last few years,
the flood of video content has outrun the ability of older
copper technologies to handle bandwidth demands. In
many parts of the world, providers shut off or slow down
service or impose prohibitive fees for customers who
exceed monthly bandwidth caps. Customers don’t like
these restrictions, and they don’t appreciate being called
“bandwidth hogs” for using services they have paid for.
In addition, it’s not clear that providers save money by
failing to meet users’ needs because limiting bandwidth
means limiting revenue potential as well. v
TESTING TIP
FTTH test equipment will usually take a fall,
but dropping is not recommended!
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FTTH Generates Jobs
S
even hundred thousand FTTH
subscribers operated homebased businesses in 2010,
adding $41.6 billion to the
U.S. economy in the 12 months ending
August 2010 – about $10 billion of
which would have been lost if fiber
connections had not been available.
To place these figures (conservative
estimates by market research firm RVA)
in context, 700,000 jobs are more than
the entire U.S. economy created in 2010!
FTTH access is strongly associated
with home businesses, according to
RVA data. Doubling the download
bitrate of broadband services adds 0.5
percent to the number of broadband
customers with a home business. Small
businesses also depend on broadband
reliability and on upstream speed – both
metrics where fiber vastly outpaces other
broadband technologies.
Larger businesses, too, benefit
from fiber connections. In a 2011
Comcast survey, more than threequarters of commercial building owners
and managers said access to advanced
telecommunications services was an
important selling tool for them. In
high-rise office buildings, access to
advanced communications was the
third most important selling point; for
the largest property owners, it was tied
with location for the most important
selling point.
Surveys of economic development
professionals suggest that businesses
often stay where they are even if
broadband service is less than optimal
– though, of course, they may miss
opportunities to grow and thrive. But
a business that has to move looks for a
location with fast, reliable, affordable
broadband – preferably at least 1 Gbps.
Thus, communities and commercial
buildings without excellent broadband
service have difficulty competing for
new business.
FTTH Success Stories
T
examples:
he reliability, bandwidth and
future-proofing of fiber to
the premises creates new jobs
and preserves old ones. A few
KANSAS CITY DRAWS
TECH STARTUPS
As soon as Google Fiber began
deploying its gigabit network in Kansas
City, tech entrepreneurs started flocking
there. On both sides of the state line,
in Kansas and Missouri – despite the
fact that Google is as yet offering only
residential service – young software
developers with ideas for the Next Big
Thing are renting houses and setting
up shop. The Kansas City Startup
Village, an entrepreneur-led, grassroots
initiative encouraged by municipal
officials, is working to establish several
startup neighborhoods to “help solidify
Kansas City as a premier startup city in
America.” One public-spirited citizen
bought a house in an area served by
Google Fiber and provides rooms to
entrepreneurs rent-free (“Homes for
Hackers”) just to support the city.
The sense of excitement there is
palpable. “The support for startups in
Kansas City is really strong,” says one
entrepreneur. “Startups that optimize
gigabit fiber are really hot here – people
are hungry for these applications.”
DANVILLE MAKES A
COMEBACK
Danville was an economic powerhouse
in south central Virginia until the
decline of tobacco and textiles. Facing
the state’s highest unemployment rates
and unable to attract businesses without
affordable fiber services, local leaders
began a development program centered
on advanced telecommunications
infrastructure, technology education
and workforce training, and targeted
downtown revitalization projects.
Today, companies using
sophisticated new technology are
moving to Danville. The city became
the second site globally for a nextgeneration Cray XMT supercomputer.
The supercomputer, part of the Noblis
Center for Applied High Performance
Computing, will reduce the cost of
access to supercomputing facilities for
businesses regardless of location. IKEA
chose Danville as the location for its
first U.S. manufacturing facility in large
part for its access to fiber, and CBN,
which produces all the driver’s licenses
for Virginia, located in Danville in
part because of the security of its fiber
connections. Employment is higher
today than it has been since 2004.
“We came to Danville because
they get it,” H. Gilbert Miller, Noblis
corporate VP and chief technology
officer, said in regard to the city’s fiber
infrastructure. The center, located
in a former tobacco warehouse,
provides a glimpse of the future of
teleconferencing, with its always-on
video screens that in effect extend
the Noblis Danville offices into other
locations and vice versa.
Corrie Teague of Danville’s
Office of Economic Development
notes the network’s success in
inducing technology companies to
start up or move to the area, creating
a positive spiral effect. “High-tech
companies attract other technology
companies,” says Teague. “Some
town. Together they decided to spend
$4.9 million on connecting each home
to a private-public fiber optic network.
This high-speed access helped connect
them with distant relatives, provided
online shopping and opened up new
markets for local businesses. It also
made the entire population attractive to
virtual call center recruiters.”
Auburn, Ind., retained key employers by providing fiber connectivity.
of these, particularly data centers,
represent a high capital investment
into our community. Each one can
bring hundreds of millions of dollars in
innovations and construction as well as
increase local tax revenue,” she adds.
ESL BUSINESS IN
WYOMING TOWNS
Eleutian Technology partners with
CDI Holdings of South Korea, a
market leader in English education,
to teach conversational English to
South Korean students via high-speed
videoconferencing. Headquartered
in rural Ten Sleep, Wyo., Eleutian
has gone on to partner with Chinese
ministries and operates nine teaching
centers throughout the western
United States, including in FTTH
communities Cody and Powell, Wyo.
The company is open for business
24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It’s the largest new job creator in the
region. Said President Barack Obama
in January 2011, “In Ten Sleep, Wyo., a
town of about 300 people, a fiber optic
network allowed a company to employ
several hundred teachers who teach
English to students in Asia over the
Internet, 24 hours a day. You’ve all heard
about outsourcing. Well, this is what we
call ‘insourcing,’ where overseas work is
done right here in America.”
Rob Duncan, COO of Alpine
Access, a provider of contact center
services that uses home-based agents,
also opened a virtual call center in
Powell. He said, “Consider the 5,500
residents of Powell, Wyo. With 20
percent of the population below the
poverty line and the town located 500
miles from the largest metropolitan area,
the citizens knew something drastic
needed to be done to save the idyllic
quality of life they cherished in a small
BRISTOL, VA., TRANSFORMS
ITS ECONOMY
The fiber network in Bristol, Va., has
fundamentally changed the economic
face of Southwest Virginia. Thanks to
grants from the U.S. Department of
Commerce and the Virginia Tobacco
Indemnification and Community
Revitalization Commission, businesses
in seven rural counties in southwestern
Virginia now have access to broadband
speeds of up to 1 Gbps and to
transparent LAN service, which vastly
improves their communications and
networking capabilities.
High-tech companies Northrop
Grumman and CGI both built major
facilities in Russell County, and two
new industrial parks were built. By
2008, the high-tech infrastructure had
brought 1,220 new jobs to the region,
25
FTTH Generates Jobs
TESTING TIP
Operators of copper
networks have no idea
whether their systems
will support a new service
until they try it. FTTH
operators know, because
fiber test equipment
documents every change,
even over decades.
with more than $50 million in new
private investment and $37 million in
annual payrolls. Growth has continued
through the recession.
Small health clinics in isolated
locations of Southwest Virginia can be
digitally linked to larger comprehensive
hospitals. The University of Virginia
at Wise launched the state’s first
undergraduate software engineering
program in partnership with Northrop
Grumman and CGI. The town of
Lebanon turned a former shopping
center into the Virginia Technology
Development Center, a new hightech training facility managed by the
University of Virginia at Wise.
CHATTANOOGA GAINS
2,400 JOBS
As many as 2,400 jobs – at a new
Volkswagen Passat factory and an
Amazon distribution center, among
others – have come to Chattanooga,
Tenn., because of its fiber-based
broadband and the reliable power
that its fiber-enabled smart electric
grid guarantees. In addition, the
city is attracting a new generation of
entrepreneurs and gaining a reputation
as a place to start and grow businesses.
Even companies based in Knoxville, 100
miles away, now look to Chattanooga
when they want to expand.
operations were located in Auburn,
Ind., was at a crossroads – it had to
either expand its Auburn facility or
relocate. The company’s most critical
requirement was for fast, resilient and
reliable broadband.
Auburn Essential Services, a
municipal broadband provider, worked
with Cooper to craft a businessclass broadband service and thereby
preserve $7 million in annual payroll
for the community. In addition,
the city has retained a number of
Internet-dependent, small but growing
businesses.
GAINESVILLE ATTRACTS
BIOTECH
The municipal fiber network in
Gainesville, Fla., has attracted businesses
and helped them expand. The Progress
Corporate Park, located outside
Alachua, hosts biotech organizations
as well as the University of Florida’s
Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator.
GRUCom provides fiber services to
Santa Fe College’s Alachua Corporate
Training Center next to the research
park. The center provides workforce
training for the biotech industry.
Gainesville partnered with the
Council on Economic Development
to provide high-speed connectivity to
the Gainesville Technology Enterprise
Center, which also fosters early-stage
technology start-up companies. Several
AUBURN RETAINS A
KEY EMPLOYER
In 2005, Cooper Industries, a Fortune
200 company whose global data
businesses there have matured and
moved to locations where GRUCom’s
services are available and continue to
use them today. Through the Gig.U
program, GRUCom also partners with
the University of Florida to provide
gigabit service to the Innovation District.
RURAL OUTSOURCING IN
MISSOURI
Shane Mayes, CEO, describes
Onshore Technology Services as a
rural outsourcing company. It provides
software development and integration
and other technology services in
competition with vendors in India,
China, Mexico, Russia and Brazil.
His company opened in 2005 and has
employees around the state. Mayes said
he chose Macon and Lebanon, Mo.,
for his offices because those cities had
already run fiber to every business and
household in their area. His company
would open offices only in communities
with access to high-speed Internet,
Mayes said.
LAFAYETTE BECOMES A
MEDIA HUB
Lafayette, La.’s fiber network has
attracted call centers and video
production operations – firms that
depend on reliable broadband to
move huge files back and forth among
video editing and special-effects firms
worldwide. The result: thousands of
new jobs. v
At the Noblis Center for Applied
High Performance Computing,
Danville, Va.’s fiber network enables
always-on videoconferencing.
Introducing 1 Gbps
To the Home
T
hough the average broadband
download speed in the U.S.
today is 8.6 Mbps, many
people are betting that a
gigabit (1 Gbps, or 1,000 Mbps) will
be the standard soon enough for both
downstream and upstream links. Only
fiber to the home can support this
standard.
Google’s FTTH deployment in
Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City,
Mo., made “gigabit” a household word,
but Google is hardly the first to offer
these speeds. Many providers now offer
gigabit – or even 10 gig – speeds to
businesses. Among residential providers,
EPB Fiber Optics (the municipally
owned network in Chattanooga, Tenn.)
was the first to offer 1 Gbps access
throughout a large service area. It was
followed by other network operators,
both public and private. Today,
residential gigabit speeds are available in
some 50 communities.
More than three dozen American
research universities are collaborating on
Gig.U, a program to bring 1 Gbps fiber
access to the communities surrounding
their campuses. Several Gig.U projects
are already underway, usually with both
private and public participation.
closely with the private sector and
local foundations to make sure the
community derives maximum benefit
from the new infrastructure.
In Chattanooga, Harold DePriest,
CEO of EPB, called his city’s FTTH
network “the basis for creating the
products and services of the Internet of
the future.” In 2012 and 2013, the city
sponsored summer programs in which
entrepreneurs and students competed
to develop gigabit business ideas, tested
them with customers on a live network,
and won startup money and mentoring
to help commercialize their ideas.
US Ignite, a public-private project
launched with leadership from the
National Science Foundation, chose
Chattanooga, Lafayette and other
communities as test beds to develop the
applications of the future. The project
focuses on new applications in health
care, education, workforce development,
energy, advanced manufacturing and
public safety. Mozilla Ignite, part
of the US Ignite project, is an open
innovation contest that has already
awarded $500,000 to 22 developers of
applications that range from remote
process control to collaborative learning
to public transit planning.
EARLY GIG ADOPTERS
A survey by Telecom Thinktank and
RVA LLC found (not surprisingly) that
1 Gbps subscribers are heavy Internet
users – or even households with several
heavy Internet users. They are online
an average of eight hours per day,
compared with the overall average of 2.5
hours, and they have many networked
devices. Some may be streaming
movies and chatting on Facebook while
participating in multiple online games
through multiple consoles.
In addition, many are content
creators. Traffic measurements by Hong
Kong Broadband, which provides 1
Gbps service in Hong Kong, show its
gigabit subscribers use three times more
upload bandwidth than download
bandwidth. Upload speed is critical for
distributing HD photos and videos,
efficient cloud computing and virtualpresence videoconferencing.
Finally, superfast connectivity also
appeals to work-at-home professionals
who need low latency and rapid file
transfers. v
WHAT WILL YOU DO
WITH A GIG?
When it announced its program,
Google offered several scenarios.
“Imagine sitting in a rural health clinic,
streaming three-dimensional medical
imaging over the Web and discussing
a unique condition with a specialist
in New York,” its statement said.
“Or downloading a high-definition,
full-length feature film in less than
five minutes. Or collaborating with
classmates around the world while
watching live, 3D video of a university
lecture.” Since Google began building
the network, the two Kansas City
governments have been working
27
Services:
Beyond the Triple Play
M
ore than a decade
ago, cable companies
introduced the triple
play of voice, video
and data that is now the standard
telecom offering worldwide. Fiber’s
greater bandwidth and reliability allow
FTTH providers to think beyond the
triple play and offer services tailored to
communities’ needs.
Some of these services help
differentiate fiber-to-the-home
communities; some generate additional
revenue streams (often with high
margins) or help retain customers; still
others are used by providers or property
developers to manage their assets more
efficiently. Many do all three.
GET YOUR COMMUNITY
NOTICED
Telehealth allows instant
access to medical specialists
via videoconferencing from a
home or community center. The
videoconferencing may be integrated
with Internet-enabled diagnostic devices
(blood pressure cuffs, respiration
measurement, etc.), sensor-based home
monitoring, electronic medical records
systems, online prescription services
The services that fiber to the home
supports can make your community a more
appealing place to live, enable efficient asset
management and generate new revenues.
and online appointment scheduling.
Telehealth helps keep older adults
living independently for longer, offering
tremendous savings for payers and
families. It is also a boon for members
of the “sandwich generation,” who are
responsible for caring for both their
children and their elders.
TESTING TIP
Networks built and
tested to precise industry
standards will be able
to meet the needs of
future services and future
bandwidth increases.
Electric meter set up to transmit smart-grid information
Social applications build a
sense of community. They range from
community-focused social networking
sites to intranet sites that feature local
news and events to video channels
that broadcast local athletic contests,
artistic productions and political
meetings. Because these offerings
can be interactive, they easily trump
conventional cable public-access stations.
Home-automation and
concierge services make residents’
lives comfortable and convenient.
Cameras that recognize cars when they
enter a community can alert parking
attendants and security personnel and
then turn on lights and heating or air
conditioning at home. Residents can
view the laundry room, connect to
community services or schedule a drycleaning pickup, pizza delivery or home
repair. These applications also help
owners control energy use.
Mobility is easier to accommodate
with a robust fiber-to-the-home
network. Using the backhaul afforded
by FTTH, providers can offer Wi-Fi
connections to residents in indoor
and outdoor public spaces without
overloading the network. Residents can
bring their laptops or tablets to a pool
area, check email from a laundry room
or listen to Internet radio in a gym.
ADD NEW REVENUE
STREAMS
Because fiber-to-the-home networks
have virtually unlimited capacity,
unparalleled reliability and remote
service monitoring, fiber providers have
a wide choice of applications for resale.
The smart electric grid is
expected to radically improve the
business case for fiber to the home.
Connecting electric meters to fiber
enables automated meter reading.
This is usually the first smart-grid
application that utilities deploy
because it is relatively straightforward
to implement and has an immediate
payback. Though most FTTH
deployers that have installed smart
meters are public or cooperative electric
utilities, a few telcos install and read
smart meters for utilities.
Beyond automated meter reading,
such smart-grid applications as
demand-response programs, SCADA
and outage detection greatly reduce
electric utilities’ operating costs. Smartgrid applications are major reasons that
electric utilities across the country have
long been building fiber infrastructures.
Mobile backhaul is another
enormous revenue opportunity for fiber
deployers. The exploding demands
for mobile bandwidth are prompting
wireless providers to upgrade the
connections from their cell sites to the
Internet (traditional connections are
usually copper T1 lines with 1.5 Mbps
bandwidth).
Close to half of cell sites are
now served by fiber, and more are
added every day. In addition, the next
generation of wireless architecture will
move all baseband processing from cell
sites to the cloud; cell sites will have to
be connected via fiber to hubs where
processing takes place.
Broadband providers offer many
other applications through Web
portals or set-top boxes, often at lower
prices than customers could obtain
by purchasing these services directly.
In addition to creating new revenue
streams, these applications reduce
customer churn, and they lower expenses
by keeping more traffic in-network.
Online storage allows users
Reducing Health
Care Costs Through
Telehealth
F
iber is the technology
of choice for in-hospital
networks and for
consultations with off-site
specialists. Until recently, however,
regulatory requirements limited the
opportunities for using broadband
to substitute live-at-home options for
costly nursing home care.
A study in Philadelphia suggests
that these savings are too large to
ignore.
NewCourtland, a senior services
provider in Philadelphia, operates
the LIFE program, modeled on the
Medicare/ Medicaid Program of AllInclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE)
initiative. PACE serves individuals
age 55 or older who are certified to
need nursing home care, are able to
live safely in the community and
reside in a PACE service area.
Ninety-five providers in 31 states
received Medicare and Medicaid
waivers to operate PACE programs.
Although all PACE participants
are certified to need nursing home
care, the program keeps 93 percent
of participants living safely in the
community. PACE providers deliver
all needed medical and supportive
services, including adult day care,
medical care, drugs, social services,
medical specialists, and hospital
and nursing home care when they
become necessary. By employing
remote monitoring technology,
NewCourtland enabled 33 residents
to move from traditional nursing
home care, realizing an annual
savings of more than $1.8 million.
Essentially, the technology helped
substitute a $125 per month
technology cost per person for $225
per day in nursing home costs,
starting in 2008.
Seven of the patients were in a
group home, and 26 lived separately.
Instead of staffing the patients’ homes
with live-in help, NewCourtland
installed a Healthsense eNeighbor
system that included sensors placed
around the home, biometric devices,
medication dispensing and a
check-in button in each home. Any
unwarranted change brings a call
from the monitoring center and, if
necessary, a response from nearby
staff. In a group home, there is one
caregiver, supplemented with regular
extra support mornings and evenings.
“Keeping even one person out of
the hospital can pay for all systems
for a PACE program for a year,” said
Jim Reilly, Director of Courtland
Health Technology. “And more
important, the individuals we helped
were motivated to leave a nursing
home and move into the community,
making the extra effort to participate
in rehab.”
Inside each patient’s living
unit, all equipment is connected
by Wi-Fi to a network gateway.
Fiber providers, whose networks
rarely suffer outages that require
on-premises gateway resets, have a
huge advantage over DSL or cable
providers in supporting programs
like this one.
The NewCourtland program
could be copied by many local
network providers under current
regulations. Some continuing-care
providers are now using similar
approaches, backed by fiber-to-theunit networks, to keep residents from
escalating to higher levels of care.
29
Services
TESTING TIP
Paying for the right tests
today will help ensure more
revenue in the future.
to store data files on the Internet,
access them from anywhere and
share them with others. The cloud
computing revolution has moved
storage, applications and computing
capacity from the desktop to the Web.
Service providers now supply managed
services to business customers that
until recently were provided only by
corporate IT departments.
Home security, like many other
technologies, is migrating from analog
to digital. Digitally based home
security allows residents to control
settings, receive alerts and view their
homes via PC or cellphone. Digital
security systems also support a wider
range of sensors – not only traditional
motion detectors but also cameras,
water detectors, smoke detectors and
many others. Because digital security
uses wiring already installed for
broadband, it is inexpensive to install
and makes economic sense for renters
as well as homeowners.
Over-the-top video (delivered on
the data service, not the video service)
may be offered as either an adjunct
to or a substitute for traditional pay
TV, and it may be delivered through
either a Web portal or a set-top box.
The business models, technologies and
legal status of provider-delivered OTT
video are evolving rapidly – a fact that
demonstrates the enormous amount
of interest in this application. If OTT
video eventually displaces traditional
pay TV, fiber-to-the-home providers
are well-positioned to benefit because
they can guarantee the quality of user
experience.
Videoconferencing or video
chat is universally available through
free or low-cost Web-based services,
but the quality of low-end services
Rural telco BEK brings local sports events to its video customers; this is the mobile studio.
is often poor. Fiber to the home,
with its high upstream bandwidth,
presents opportunities for providers to
make high-quality videoconferencing
available through TV screens.
Targeted advertising represents
an important potential revenue stream.
IPTV ads can be sent to households
or specific TVs based on demographic
criteria or viewing patterns. Another
potential source of advertising dollars
is T-commerce, in which television
viewers click on ads – or even product
placements in television shows – to see
more information about products or
order them.
MANAGE ASSETS MORE
EFFICIENTLY
Broadband enables property owners
to manage their assets efficiently. The
addition of broadband – especially
the high-capacity, high-reliability
broadband that fiber enables – turns
“smart” buildings into “genius”
buildings. Internet-enabled sensors
and applications automate work that
was once done by maintenance crews
TESTING TIP
Most technicians can be
taught to use modern
FTTH test equipment in a
few days, but total mastery
does take longer.
– and get it done it more quickly and
accurately. Broadband applications also
help owners communicate with tenants
and employees.
Guarding buildings and
construction sites can be managed
inexpensively and intelligently
through IP-based video surveillance.
Videoconferencing allows construction
managers to make virtual site
inspections more frequently than they
can make physical inspections. Online
work order scheduling helps property
managers be more responsive to their
residents while reducing operating
expenses. Residents can request repairs
at any time – not just when the office is
open or they can find the superintendent
– and management personnel can deal
with problems that require personal
attention rather than routine requests.
Residents can be automatically notified
when work is completed.
Proprietary building management
networks, such as fire protection
systems, can be replaced by standardsbased systems that are less expensive.
Energy management and water
management can be broadband-enabled.
Motion sensors, intelligent
thermostats and automated ventilation
equipment can keep public spaces
and unoccupied units at appropriate
temperatures; applications that
monitor and analyze usage help
property managers and residents find
opportunities to shift loads to nonpeak
times and reduce their overall usage. v
Printed FTTH primers are helping thousands in communities
get on the same page about the benefits of fiber networks.
Fiber broa
dban
What
Can do For
Noblis Center
for Applied
High Performan
ce Computing
Danville, Va.
d
Your Com
munitY
Fiber broa
dband
What
Can do For
Your Com
munit
Y
Besides the primer, mailing packets include brochures, questionnaires and
schedules of public meetings about
fiber networks.
the Fiber-en
abled Futur
e:
always-o
n teleconfer
bandwidth •
encing
relia bility • ec
onomic deve
sustainability •
lop
affordability •
ment • future
-proofing
symmetry • sta
ndards-based •
security
8th Edition •
Fall 2012
A Fiber-To-TheHome Primer
from the Edi
tors of
bandwidth •
relia bility • ec
onomic deve
sustainability •
lopment • fut
affordability •
ure-proofing
symmetry • sta
ndards-based •
security
9th Edition •
Fall 2013
A Fiber-To-TheHome Primer
from the Edi
tors of
FTTH marketing campaigns use volunteers, both adults and children, to
reach every household and business
in a project area.
campaigns to send FTTH primers to every household and business.
“The primer is an EXCELLENT WAY
to not only EDUCATE people about the
basics of FTTH but also INFORM them
of its MANY BENEFITS.”
—mark erickson
City administrator and economic development director - winthrop, minn.
Get more information or place your request for a bulk shipment
of printed primers for your community at:
www.FTTHPrimer.com
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Continued from page 46
SEASONAL RESIDENTS DRIVE
David Lois, executive director of WiscNet, referenced the following
information from Wisconsin’s Playbook for Broadband Progress, issued by
the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin:
In the five-county Grow North Regional Economic Development
Corporation area in the Northwoods, communities surveyed seasonal
homeowners to assess gaps in coverage and the economic benefits of
expanded coverage. Results from this survey concluded that, on average,
seasonal residents would stay in the Northwoods an additional four to six
weeks per year if broadband were available. Six percent indicated they
would permanently relocate there. This would mean more people in local
stores, stronger property values and greater incentives for entrepreneurs
to start new businesses in or migrate existing ones to the Northwoods.
Each success bred more successes. After
18 months, the network has a 43 percent
take rate and is returning 30 percent of
its revenues to a community foundation
to meet local needs.
Diane Kruse, NEO Fiber: When
I worked with Urbana-Champaign
Big Broadband, we set up segmented
meetings – for example, with the
medical sector, with education,
transportation, government and
nonprofits. We talked with people in
each sector to see if they knew of seed
money sources and to find out how they
were using broadband and what they
would do with more. We found that
people were aware of grant opportunities
for their own sectors. And they all
needed more broadband, even those
who already had their own networks.
The biggest risk a network can take
on is too much debt. The financial
model works when you get to a 30 to
40 percent take rate.
Remember that the cellular
industry is growing and needs fiber
infrastructure for backhaul. In Boulder,
Colo., where Zayo is building fiber for
backhaul, the city was able to negotiate
access to extra conduit and fiber by
piggybacking on the Zayo build.
Heather Gold, Fiber to the Home
Council: Put together a clear picture
of the demand for broadband in the
community and the possible assets
that a network could use. Get people
fired up, and aggregate the demand
in each area as Google did. Find out
whether anchor institutions are already
committed to long-term contracts
for broadband. And any time you
open a street, take advantage of that
opportunity to lay conduit or fiber. v
KEEPING RURAL COMMUNITIES VIABLE
Tim Berelsman, Com Net: In addition to the direct economic impact
of broadband networks on construction jobs and indirect gains such as
call center employees working from home, these networks keep rural
communities from collapsing. We’ve been able to avoid a school shutdown
and a health care shutdown. We’ve kept a hatchery from closing because it
was able to use remote monitoring and temperature control. You have to
look at retention as well as attraction of new jobs.
here!
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
A Gigabit Garden Begins to Grow
A status report on the network projects created under the Gig.U umbrella, together
with lessons learned for communities that want to launch similar efforts
By Blair Levin and Ellen Satterwhite / Gig.U
L
et’s start with a question: Is the wireline
network that serves your community
good enough to meet your needs 10 years
from now?
If the answer is “yes,” you’re in luck because
we can guarantee you will be able to have that
network.
If the answer is “no,” what are you going to
do about it? If current trends continue, what
your community has today might well be what
it has a decade hence.
The question should be answered now.
Upgrading or deploying a new network is
not a next-day event. Planning, permitting,
constructing and all the other phases take years.
Several years ago, some communities
answered that question with a “no” and decided
to do something about it. Those early plantings
are beginning to sprout.
GENESIS OF THE GIGABIT GARDEN
The roots of the current effort to upgrade
wireline broadband networks lie in an analysis
done as part of the 2010 National Broadband
Plan. A review of the publicly announced
broadband investments revealed that, for the
first time since the beginning of the commercial
Internet, there was no national wireline provider
with a plan to build a better network than
the currently best available network. Further
analysis suggested that as cable’s DOCSIS 3.0
architecture provided cable with both a faster
network (excepting Verizon FiOS territories,
which cover about 15 percent of the country)
and a cheaper upgrade path, the current
investment math was unlikely to lead to the
deployment of world-leading networks in the
United States.
In the short term, lack of such networks
may not be significant. But in the long term,
the analysis suggested, it was important that
the United States had the human capital that
knows how to design, build, operate and
innovate on top of not just good networks but
the best networks in the world. Only with that
kind of human capital would the United States
retain the innovation leadership that will find
ways to improve business services, health care,
education and many other sectors.
At the same time, communities across the
country that wish to lead in the development of
the bandwidth-delivered economy were coming
to understand that they needed demand-leading
networks – networks that supply the kind of
bandwidth beyond that generally needed by
most consumers today, networks that remove
bandwidth as a constraint to innovation.
Though the plan did not lay out an effective
strategy for deploying such networks, the goal
of a critical mass of communities with worldleading networks was embraced by Google and
led to the Google Fiber project. More than
1,100 communities applied for the Google Fiber
network, demonstrating a deep understanding
of the benefit of a world-leading network for
community economic and social development.
A subset of those applicants – communities with
major research universities – decided to organize
the Gig.U project to determine whether, by
working together, they could accelerate the
deployment of such networks.
PIONEER COMMUNITIES
In the last two years, there have been
several efforts to create gigabit networks
in the United States, including efforts
by Gig.U communities, Google Fiber,
individual communities and, more
recently, incumbent providers.
Gig.U formed with a question:
Could research university communities
– which have attractive characteristics
of demand, density, demographics and
innovative cultures – change the math
for world-leading network deployments?
Working collectively where appropriate
and tailoring their answer to local
circumstances, 18 communities believe
the answer is “yes” and have announced
plans to move forward.
1. Cleveland, Ohio: Case
Western Reserve University and
OneCommunity, a nonprofit that
owns and operates a high-speed, allfiber network in Northeast Ohio,
built on the success of the Case
Connection Zone, a gigabit beta
block, by using gigabit connectivity
to test how big bandwidth can
be used to improve community
wellness. Further, this September,
the city of Shaker Heights (part
of the Cleveland metro area) and
OneCommunity announced
a partnership to bring gigabit
broadband to a neighborhood,
creating the first fiberhood in
Northeast Ohio.
2. Orono and Old Town, Maine:
A local ISP, GWI, is building
mixed-use gigabit networks in
a staged buildout around the
University of Maine. In July, the
two municipalities jointly filed a
grant application to the Northern
Border Regional Commission for
seed money to create a municipally
owned, open-access FTTH network.
A jointly owned entity will lease
last-mile fiber to ISPs, such as GWI,
so they may provide retail services
at gigabit speeds rather than at the
slower speeds supported by the
currently leased copper local loops.
3. Gainesville, Fla.: Gainesville
Regional Utilities is building an
Innovation Square surrounding the
Eighteen Gig.U communities have announced
plans to move forward in providing themselves
with world-leading networks. Some of these
networks are already being built.
University of Florida with a gigabit
service offering embedded in the
development.
4. East Lansing, Mich.: Real estate
owners and other public and
private entities in the communities
surrounding Michigan State
University are bringing gigabit
networks to apartments – already
serving more than 12,000
subscribers – and taking a multitude
of steps to improve the economic
environment for the deployment of
a regional gigabit network.
5. Champaign-Urbana, Ill.:
The University of Illinois and
the cities of Champaign and
Urbana collaborated to support
the Urbana-Champaign Big
Broadband (UC2B) project, initially
supported by federal Broadband
Technology Opportunity Program
funds. Building off a successful
deployment, UC2B released a
request for information seeking
applications to extend the $29.4
million network to homes and
businesses beyond the already
funded project area. The coalition
is reviewing responses.
In addition, the project has
developed an aggressive community
engagement strategy, signing up and
precommitting residents to ultrahigh-speed service to demonstrate
demand. It is in the midst of
converting the intergovernmental
consortium to a 501(c)(4)
organization.
6. Chicago, Ill.: In October 2012,
the University of Chicago, in
partnership with the state of Illinois
and the city, announced a project
to bring gigabit-speed fiber to more
than 4,825 residents, businesses,
schools and health care institutions
in Chicago’s Mid-South Side
neighborhoods. As the project,
Gigabit Chicago, advances, based
on neighborhood participation and
adoption, next-generation broadband
access will potentially be available
to as many as 210,000 residents in
79,000 households as well as to the
10,000 businesses in the area.
Announcing the partnership,
Illinois Governor Quinn noted,
“Smart communities will foster the
job engines of the future. To win in
the information economy, we need
information infrastructure that is
second to none.” In addition, the
city of Chicago released an RFI
with its first goal being to “create an
open-access gigabit fiber network in
targeted commercial and industrial
corridors to foster innovation, drive
job creation and drive economic
growth.”
7. Seattle, Wash.: In December 2012,
the city of Seattle, in partnership
with the University of Washington,
announced the Gigabit Seattle
project. A key component of the
project is the city’s ability to lease the
excess capacity from the city’s own
extensive fiber network to private
parties willing and able to provide
the final element of connectivity.
The project includes three pieces:
• Fiber to the home and business
• Dedicated gigabit wireless to
multifamily housing and offices
• Next-generation mobile wireless
Internet.
Though Seattle had a strongly
contested mayoral race this fall, with
the local cable provider, Comcast,
contributing to the challenger, both
Both candidates in the recent Seattle mayoral
election supported Gigabit Seattle, indicating
a broad base of public support for this and
similar projects.
the incumbent and the challenger –
who won the election – supported
the Gigabit Seattle effort, indicating
that such projects have a broad base
of public support.
8–13. North Carolina Research
Triangle/Winston-Salem:
In February 2013, a regional
partnership, NC Next Generation
Network (NCNGN) composed
of Cary, Chapel Hill, Carrboro,
Durham, Raleigh and WinstonSalem, with the support of Gig.U
university partners Duke University,
NC State University, UNC Chapel
Hill and Wake Forest University/
Wake Forest Baptist Medical
Center, along with their associated
chambers of commerce, issued the
nation’s first regional request for
proposals for a next-generation
network deployment. Learning from
and building upon the approaches
taken by Chicago and Seattle, the
RFP provides potential service
providers with a clear statement of
what the communities hope will
be built as well as commitments by
the communities to improve the
conditions for investment in the
desired deployments. NCNGN
received responses from eight
entities and is currently reviewing
the proposals.
14.Connecticut and the University
of Connecticut system: Through
existing channels and new efforts,
several interested policymakers
have worked to make Connecticut’s
statutory and regulatory profile
one that creates an open and
competitive market based on easy
and rapid access, and the statewide
regulator is engaged in reducing
entry barriers. Their actions include
• Relying on the state’s 2007
video-provider statute, which
simplifies the process of
becoming a video service
provider
• Offering access to the state’s
Nutmeg Network, which
provides multiple fiber lines into
each of the state’s 169 towns
and which is maintained by the
state IT department from a data
center in East Hartford.
• Creating a Single Pole
Administrator, anticipated to
be implemented this year, that
will use a statewide database
of all pole attachments to
provide all attachers with
scheduling support for work.
The two electric companies
have proposed performing the
administrator role to begin
managing access to the poles
with standardized attachment
agreements.
• Revising the Municipal Gain
Statute, which allows towns
and other entities access to
dedicated space at the top of
the telecommunications stack
without licensing fees, by
expanding its scope to include
municipal use “for any purpose”
– though municipalities are
responsible for make-ready costs.
15.Blacksburg, Va.: In September
2013, Blacksburg, working with
a local tech entrepreneur and
Virginia Tech, announced a new
broadband service in the downtown
area, consisting of a Wi-Fi offering
connected to a gigabit network.
The Wi-Fi is open to the public and
free of charge. The service currently
supports a local business incubator
and adjacent restaurants, but
plans are to expand to other hightraffic areas, such as the library,
schools and additional downtown
restaurants, as well as other
strategic locations in Blacksburg.
The community successfully used
crowdfunding to raise funds for
equipment and labor. The project
has already enabled the development
of next-generation applications,
such as a gigabit-enabled fitness
application.
16.College Station, Texas: In
October 2013, the Research Valley
Technology Council, an economic
development organization for Bryan
and College Station, Texas, released
an RFI, inviting network operators
to build a gigabit residential
network and to offer 100 gigabit
connections to local businesses. The
council recently held an information
session, which was attended by a
number of potential providers.
17.Louisville, Ky.: In November
2013, the city of Louisville, Ky.,
released an RFI similar to the
College Station RFI. The request
has three goals:
• Creating a world-leading,
gigabit-capable network
across the city or in targeted
commercial corridors, as well
as in residential areas with
demonstrated demand, to foster
innovation, drive job creation
and stimulate economic growth
• Providing free or heavily
discounted 100 Mbps
(minimum) Internet service over
a wired or wireless network to
underserved and disadvantaged
residents across Louisville
• Delivering gigabit Internet
service at prices comparable to
other gigabit fiber communities
across the nation.
In addition, some rural
communities are using currently
unused spectrum to accelerate a step
function increase in bandwidth.
These include
18.Morgantown, W. Va.: The nation’s
first campus Super Wi-Fi network
launched in July 2013 at West
Virginia University. West Virginia
University partnered with AIR.U,
the Advanced Internet Regions
consortium (a project that has
its own roots in the Gig.U effort
and in which Gig.U is a founding
member), to transform the TV
white space frequencies left empty
when television stations moved to
digital broadcasting into muchneeded connectivity for students
and the surrounding community.
The initial phase of the network
provides free public Wi-Fi access
for students and faculty at the
platforms for Public Rapid Transit,
a 73-car tram system that transports
more than 15,000 riders daily.
The University of New
Hampshire is also working on
a similar white spaces test bed
project. On November 14, the team
coordinating the AIR.U project
announced a “Quick Start” program
to enable all AIR.U participating
institutions to run projects similar
to the West Virginia project.
GOOGLE FIBER
AND OTHER NEW ENTRANTS
Google has announced gigabit network
projects in Kansas City, Austin and
Provo. Though we have no knowledge
of Google’s plans for expanding beyond
those three communities, Google has
suggested that it has found a way that
such projects can be “money makers.”
Google is not the only nonincumbent service provider to offer
world-leading networks. Sonic.net
offers services to several communities
in Northern California and just
announced it would be offering gigabit
service in Santa Rosa. Mississippi-based
C Spire recently announced the finalists
in its contest to build a gigabit network.
A number of communities have
charted their own paths to network
upgrades. In contrast with the Gig.U
and Google Fiber projects, several
of these projects are premised on
municipally owned operations.
Chattanooga has a gigabit
service offered by the municipally
owned electric utility. Lafayette,
La.; Longmont, Colo.; and Wilson,
N.C., involve municipal operations.
In addition, a number of small
communities have been able to build
fiber-to-the-home networks. Some of
these projects, because they are in highcost areas, are supported by federal
Universal Service funds. The Institute
for Local Self-Reliance, which provides
the most extensive resources about such
efforts, has a map that identifies more
than 40 communities in 13 states
that have publicly owned networks
offering gigabit services, and the Fiber
to the Home Council has compiled a
list of 22 known gigabit fiber-to-thehome providers.
Recently, other communities have
looked to build out gigabit networks
by focusing on high-demand areas,
generally involving universities,
such as the St. Louis effort adjacent
to Washington University. Other
communities, including Missoula,
Mont., and Baltimore, have hired
consultants to lay out options for
obtaining next-generation networks.
The city of Los Angeles just announced
a request for proposals to bring the
city both a gigabit network and free
Wi-Fi service.
INCUMBENT PROVIDERS
Initially, incumbent ISPs responded
to efforts to build gigabit networks by
suggesting that there was no demand
for such networks. Recently, however,
incumbents have looked more favorably
on such networks. CenturyLink
announced projects in sections of
Omaha and Las Vegas, with indications
that it is considering upgrading
other networks. Time Warner Cable
announced its intention to respond
to the RFP in North Carolina and
is improving its offerings in Kansas
City and Austin in response to Google
Fiber’s offerings. Comcast has similarly
responded to Google’s efforts in Provo.
AT&T announced a plan to
offer a gigabit service in Austin and
suggested it would offer the service in
other communities as well. Randall
Stephenson, AT&T’s CEO, recently
noted two reasons the company is
looking more seriously at fiber-to-
the-premises upgrades. First, he
said, “Cities and municipalities are
beginning to hold up their hands and
say we would like you come in and
invest. And they’re actually beginning
to accommodate and tailor terms and
conditions that make it feasible and
attractive for us to invest. That being
the case, you will see us do more and
more cities around the country. I
fully expect that to happen.” Second,
“The cost dynamics for deploying
fiber have radically changed. And it’s
just the interfaces at the homes, the
wiring requirements, how you get it
dropped to a pole and splice it. It’s just
totally changed the cost dynamics of
deploying fiber.”
INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS
Other countries have been leading
the charge with gigabit-to-the-home
networks. Prior to the recent round
of deployments in the United States,
gigabit fiber networks were deployed
in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and
Sweden. More recently, projects
have been announced in Taiwan; in
Vancouver, Canada; in Israel – where
gigabit connectivity will be provided
to the entire country – and in New
Zealand, where 50 towns registered to
compete in a contest for gigabit service.
The British fiber provider CityFibre
announced the first partnership, with
the city of Peterborough, as an initial
step in its “vision of creating gigabit
cities throughout the U.K.”
KEY STRATEGIES
The experiences of gigabit
communities, especially Gig.U
communities, highlight three strategies
that all communities could, and in
our view should, develop to stimulate
investments in better networks.
Asset use and improvement.
Assets – including rights-of-way, access
to ducts and conduit, building access
and the location of existing fiber assets
– and the availability to potential
providers of information about assets
affect deployment costs. Every city
has assets that, if used more efficiently
or improved, could lower the cost of
deploying next-generation networks.
Bringing together major beneficiaries of
abundant bandwidth to support a gigabit
network project gives providers the confidence
to invest in better networks.
Gig.U has developed an inventory to
help communities determine their
asset profiles.
As a next step, cities should consider
policies that make rights-of-way and
poles available to providers on a clear
and reasonable basis though a rapid
approval process. Cities should also
ensure that make-ready work for pole
attachments is done expeditiously,
coordinate with providers to save costs
and allow those providers to perform
the work through approved contractors.
Cities can also – with minimal
cost – upgrade assets to substantially
reduce the cost of new networks. For
example, cities can install ubiquitous
fiber conduit or even dark fiber that can
be leased in exchange for agreements
to provide certain services. By
implementing a “dig once” policy that
requires conduit or fiber installation
anywhere there is road construction,
cities can reduce deployment costs
along roadways by 90 percent while
adding less than 1 percent to the
cost of construction and minimizing
disruption to neighborhoods. Indeed,
Seattle’s long history of doing so put
that city in the lead among Gig.U
communities in building out worldleading networks.
Regulatory flexibility to
accommodate new business
models. Private capital–driven
projects such as Google Fiber and some
Gig.U efforts have found success by
using a model in which neighborhoods
determine where services will be built
out first by precommitting to buy
service. Even if a provider offers service
over a broad area, it is obligated to
build only in neighborhoods where a
minimum number of buyers precommit
to purchase the service.
Though it is too early to draw any
hard conclusions, in the most advanced
case, Google’s Kansas City project,
90 percent of eligible neighborhoods
qualified, resulting in nearly universal
coverage of the community. By adopting
a policy allowing this business strategy,
a community can dramatically reduce
capital expenditures by both lowering
the investment risk and facilitating
a more efficient neighborhood-byneighborhood build rather than a costly
house-by-house build.
Cities that have attracted nextgeneration networks have also been
flexible in expediting permitting and
inspections. In construction, time is
not just money; it’s a lot of money.
Speeding these processes lowers costs.
Demand identification. A
third principal strategy is demand
identification. The precommitment
tactic noted above serves to identify
demand. Google and Gig.U
communities have also experienced
some success by creating websites that
serve as one-stop shops for gathering
those precommitments.
New York City offers another
approach, relying on greater
transparency and competition in
targeted areas to bring together demand
for higher bandwidth, thus improving
the economics of deployment for those
areas. The city is assisting small and
medium-sized businesses in unwired or
underwired buildings by offering them
free, fast-track wiring.
Whatever its choice of tactics, a
city should approach the opportunity
as if it were going after any important
economic development project. When
that happens, city agencies, anchor
institutions such as universities and
health care facilities, major business
interests and other community
institutions come together to pitch in
and make the economics work for the
project. In a gigabit network project,
bringing together major beneficiaries
of abundant bandwidth helps providers
have the confidence to invest in better
networks.
LESSONS LEARNED
The experiences of the last several
years have also provided many lessons
for all communities that wish to have
improved bandwidth for their businesses
and residents. These lessons include
Organizing community resources
and stakeholders is essential for making
gigabit projects economically viable.
Communities that have moved
forward are similar only in that they
have decided to make improvement of
available broadband a high priority.
Any community has the ability to
organize its resources to lower capital
expenditures, operating expenditures
and risk and to raise revenues – the key
to making gigabit projects economically
viable.
Start with a clear understanding
of how your city’s rules and assets affect
deployment costs. An organizing effort
starts with a detailed understanding
of how a community’s policies and
assets affect the economics of network
deployments. Gig.U, the Fiber to
the Home Council and others have
developed tools for this exercise, and
the public documents from the Google
Fiber project also provide a road map
for how cities should think about the
impact of their rules and assets on
network economics.
As planning and deploying a network
takes a long time – and it always takes
longer than you think – today is the
right time to start thinking about how
to improve the economics. Every day,
cities make decisions that can affect
the cost of deployment. Every time
a street is dug up, every time an area
is developed or redeveloped, there is
an opportunity to lower the cost of a
future deployment.
Though success depends upon
broad support, it also depends on
quick decision-making. One reason
Google chose Kansas City, Kan., as
its initial project was that the unified
government structure gave Google
the confidence that it would get quick
decisions on a variety of issues as the
project proceeded. Other projects have
not gone as quickly as hoped because
multiple decision-makers were involved.
For a project to be successful, a broad
coalition of interests must support it,
and that coalition must have enough
confidence in local leadership to enable
that leadership to act quickly on behalf
of all. Otherwise, there will be delays
that ultimately raise project costs and
injure the project’s long-term prospects.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution;
there are multiple solutions to different
community needs and multiple trade-offs.
However, all efforts improve the situation
relative to the status quo. As one can see
from the multiple ways in which Gig.U
communities have approached the
opportunity, there are many different
ways to accelerate the deployment of
a next-generation network. Each has
advantages and disadvantages relative
to alternative approaches.
What is common to all, however, is
that the cost to the community of such
efforts is negligible and the benefits are
significant. There is no cost to asking
questions; indeed, simply asking the
right questions causes incumbent
providers to become more interested
in how the city is thinking and more
responsive to future needs. Competition
– even the threat of competition – tends
to improve performance.
Scale matters. As these projects are
not cookie-cutters, there is a significant
startup cost. In that light, scale is an
advantage; the larger the ultimate
addressable market, the more a provider
is willing to risk that startup cost. It
is unlikely, for example, that each of
the eight respondents to the NCNGN
project would have been willing to
respond to six different RFPs.
Though the regional approach
appears to be working for NCNGN,
it is important to remember the prior
rule that quick decision-making also
matters. Larger efforts must ensure that
the desire for scale does not result in
complicated, lengthy decision-making.
Experiments don’t always work the
first time. That’s why they are called
experiments. Make sure community
leadership understands this, and build
a path to learn from experiments and
improve performance in successive
iterations. Pioneers don’t have the
advantage of a clear and certain map.
In each of the efforts to date, mistakes
have been made. The key is not to let a
mistake determine the fate of a project
but rather to figure out how to correct
the error and continue to move forward.
Local leadership is the single most
important ingredient for success. If
local leaders put this at the top of
their agenda, it can happen. If not, it
won’t. Gig.U can be proud of what it
has done over the past several years.
It has provided a national platform
for communities to help each other
chart a path whereby every member
community benefits from the efforts of
others. However, the single most critical
variable for success is local leadership.
In every community where an effort has
moved forward, strong local leadership
has made it a priority for local political,
business and civic leadership.
THINKING AHEAD TO THE
BANDWIDTH-DELIVERED
ECONOMY
In looking back over the last several
years of Gig.U activities, we see two big
changes. First, more cities recognize
the importance of upgraded broadband
networks for economic development
purposes. This is different from having
a phone network, which was a binary;
either one had dial tone or one didn’t.
It is different from cable, which in
its early decades was fundamentally
about entertainment. Broadband
networks are diverse and have a wide
spectrum of capabilities, but in an
information-driven economy, the better
the network, the better the economic
development prospects.
Second, more cities recognize their
roles in the economics of investing
in networks. Both within the Gig.U
membership and in many other
communities we have talked with,
city leadership recognizes that it has
to adopt new strategies to make the
math for upgrades work. Not all cities
have adopted this view, but Randall
Stephenson’s comment about cities
becoming more interested in improving
the investment climate is no small thing.
In approaching this opportunity,
no two cities are identical. But just as a
century ago, when all cities had to start
thinking differently about common
infrastructure – land for an airport,
roads that could handle cars and trucks,
access to water and inputs for electricity
for manufacturing and growth – so
today, all cities have to be prepared for
an economy that will increasingly be
delivered over bandwidth.
This will mean different strategies
for different cities, but the bottom line
for all is this: In 10 years, whether a city
has faster, cheaper, better broadband
networks will affect everything it does.
Today, many things a city does affects
what kind of broadband networks it
will have in 10 years.
In this light, every city can be a
gigabit-ready city. A few years ago, that
seemed like a distant vision. Thanks
to the efforts of local leadership in
communities all around the country,
that vision is now within view, no
longer beyond the horizon.
This is not the moment to pop
champagne corks. The tipping
point at which gigabit networks will
inevitably become commonplace has
not occurred; indeed, it is very early in
the process. Some current efforts will
no doubt face setbacks. But enough
progress has been made over the last
two years to justify optimism that early
seeds will sprout and point the way
for all communities that wish to have
faster, better, cheaper broadband to
take action to make it so. v
Blair Levin, the architect of the National
Broadband Plan and a fellow at the
Aspen Institute, is executive director of
the Gig.U project, and Ellen Satterwhite
is program director for Gig.U. This article
is adapted from a report issued by Gig.U
in November 2013.
here!
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
Broadband Adoption
And Economic Opportunity
Lessons from an NTIA-supported broadband program in Minnesota show that adoption
is as important as access in ensuring the benefits of broadband to communities.
By Bernadine Joselyn / Blandin Foundation
Editor’s Note: The following is excerpted from the testimony of Bernadine Joselyn, Director, Public Policy
& Engagement, Blandin Foundation, before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and
Transportation’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet on October 29, 2013.
Blandin Foundation, based in Grand Rapids, Minn., works with rural communities in Minnesota;
supporting rural broadband is one of its missions.
Lake Band of Ojibwe. Janice Gale, director of
the Leech Lake Band’s Temporary Employment
Program, had long seen the digital challenges
that her neighbors and workers faced in seeking
even temporary employment. She quickly put
to work the resources and relationships available
through our network of partners to teach online
job search and work skills and to expand the
availability of computers on the reservation. A
computer lab at the Boys and Girls Club, for
example, attracts 250 students each month.
Photo: Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
W
hen we met Kristin Fake, a sole
proprietor in tourism-dependent
Akeley, Minn., it was a leap of faith
for her to come to the workshop hosted by the
University of Minnesota Extension Service, one
of our partners in our broadband work. Like
so many, she couldn’t imagine how technology
might benefit her home staging business. At
the workshop, she quickly discovered that
her clients were being misdirected by Google
Maps, how keywords drive inquiries and how
she might use a smartphone to dramatically
improve her customer service.
Her annual sales now are much higher than
before she took the class, and products she
advertises on Facebook often are purchased
before she even gets them displayed in her shop.
Kristin is poised to take her business to a new
level as Akeley continues to recover from a very
tough economic patch. Kristin went from not
being able to imagine how technology might
be helpful to her business to creating demand
for products and services that the marketplace
hadn’t yet imagined.
Empowering people through technology also
was the focus of our partnership with the Leech
A student at the Leech Lake Band’s Temporary
Employment Program learns digital skills.
Refurbished computers, training
and subscriptions for kids and families
were distributed through Head Start.
Temporary workers who participate in
the digital literacy program upgrade
their skills and qualify for higher pay.
Temporary Employment Program
student workers help learners in the
computer labs, which is a great benefit
to both trainers and learners. Janice, in
her quietly passionate way, grins when
she tells how many participants have
been inspired to pursue their GED
[certificates of high school equivalency].
Multiply Kristin Fake and Janice
Gale times hundreds. The stories
continue to roll in from communities
all across rural Minnesota, where
adoption is not just a policy imperative
but also a community imperative.
From [Blandin Foundation’s]
experience, realizing the promise of the
Internet is as much about investing in
human capacity as it about investing in
technological capacity – maybe more.
After a career in the Foreign
Service, I became Blandin Foundation’s
first-ever public policy director in
2003. When I looked out over the
rural landscape, one issue stood out
as having great potential to help rural
communities thrive into the new
century: access to high-speed Internet
and the capability to take advantage of
its many social and economic benefits.
Today, the digital divide remains far
too real for rural America, especially for
those who face other types of barriers –
poverty, language, isolation. The work
of bringing the promise of the lnternet
to all Americans clearly is not done.
We believed in 2003, and still do
today, that
1. Broadband is the indispensable
infrastructure of the 21st century.
2. Rural communities need broadband
access, and the ability to use it, in
order to thrive – and even survive –
in an ever more globalized world.
To this end, Blandin Foundation has
invested in a body of work focused on
strengthening community broadband
leadership and adoption. One of these
projects, the Minnesota Intelligent
Rural Communities Initiative (MIRC),
Participants in the MIRC digital literacy program
upgrade their skills and qualify for higher pay.
Many have been inspired to pursue certificates
of high school equivalency.
had the support of the American people
through the American Reinvestment
and Recovery Act, which connected our
work to national goals.
Blandin Foundation administered
MIRC on behalf of a coalition of
19 statewide partners – regional
development commissions, state
workforce and educational institutions,
etc. – and 11 rural demonstration
communities. Our work was partially
funded through the federal Broadband
Technology Opportunity Program
(BTOP), one of 44 sustainable
adoption grants awarded nationwide.
MIRC began in 2010 and was
largely completed by the end of 2012,
putting to work $4.8 million of federal
grant dollars, $1.8 million in matching
funds and countless hours of work by
community leaders to create a network
of resources and support to rural
Minnesota communities, business
owners, students, health care facilities,
local governments, the poor and the
un- and underemployed.
We sought to
• Support and encourage vibrant
rural economies through broadband
adoption as a strategy for job
growth and wealth creation.
• Increase “culture of use” of
broadband services.
• Improve efficiency and effectiveness
of digital literacy training service
delivery.
• Accelerate broadband adoption
by 2 percent over its statistically
anticipated growth (increasing
broadband subscribers by 38,556
more than could otherwise be
expected).
In sum, helping rural communities
keep up globally was our real task.
Thanks to the federal funding we
received, we were able to take on an
ambitious, comprehensive, multisector
effort that wove together work at the
local community level all the way up to
statewide engagement.
MIRC set measurable goals. All
were accomplished or exceeded.
OUTCOME
GOAL
New households subscribed to
broadband
38,556 (2 percent
above statistically
anticipated growth)
40,496
0
60
Number of people who
participated in at least 16 hours of
training/education
3,640
9,000
Refitted and licensed computers
distributed to first-time computer
owners
1,000
2,067
Number of people reached
through outreach and awareness
160,000
250,000
Number of public-access
computer sites
ACCOMPLISHED
“I’ve gone back to school. Now I don’t have to
go to the library and find a sitter to do research.
I can stay home with my kids.”
Overall, broadband adoption in
participating communities grew close
to 15 percent faster than in the rest of
rural Minnesota, and communities
that reported the highest rates of
participation in MIRC activities
also experienced the highest rates of
broadband subscription growth.
Dr. Jack Geller of the EDA Center
at the University of Minnesota,
Crookston and lead researcher
for MIRC concluded in his final
evaluation, “It’s hard not to connect
the MIRC project ... as a contributor to
Minnesota’s leading position in rural
broadband adoption.”
Persuaded by the effectiveness and
impact of these efforts, and mindful of
the critical role that broadband access
and adoption play in the economic
and social life of rural places, Blandin
Foundation’s board of trustees has
committed an additional $1.5 million
to continue to support broadband
adoption efforts in rural Minnesota in
2013 and 2014.
THE CHALLENGE
OF BROADBAND ADOPTION
Blandin Foundation’s strategies include
• Offering individuals training in
computer literacy and knowledgeworker career development
strategies.
• Providing technical assistance
and customized training to small
businesses and entrepreneurs.
• Distributing refurbished computers
to low-income, rural Minnesota
residents.
• Partnering with Internet service
providers to offer subsidized
subscriptions to connect those
computers to the Internet.
• Helping communities identify
their unique goals and providing
the technical assistance and grant
funding needed to turn those goals
into accomplishments.
At the heart of our approach is
high-touch, multisector, sustained
community engagement. This includes
communitywide visioning and goal
setting and a community-driven
grant proposal solicitation process to
generate project ideas and community
commitment upfront.
To help drive home the recognition
that broadband is a necessary but
not sufficient element of economic
development and community vitality,
MIRC used indicators developed
by the New York-based Intelligent
Community Forum (ICF) to help
communities baseline and measure
their competitiveness in the broadband
economy. These indicators include
ensuring broadband infrastructure,
developing a ”knowledge workforce,”
supporting innovation, redressing the
digital divide and effectively using
marketing and advocacy to tell a
community’s technology story.
Community leaders used the
ICF indicators to identify and select
community projects that best fit local
needs and focus their efforts on shortterm, achievable goals that would have
meaningful impact over the long term.
More than 100 community-identified
community projects have been funded
so far. Here are a few examples.
ENSURING THE AVAILABILITY
AND USE OF BROADBAND
INFRASTRUCTURE
Thief River Falls launched Computers
for Our Community, a collaboration
between local broadband providers and
MIRC partner PCs for People. Over
18 months, the project delivered 126
refurbished computers, 91 reducedrate broadband subscriptions and nine
multiweek digital literacy courses for
low-income families. Most recipients
(84 percent) continued their broadband
subscriptions even after subsidies ended.
Lac qui Parle County created
a mobile computer lab that brings
broadband access to one of Minnesota’s
most sparsely populated regions. A
local partner testified, “The Computer
Commuter connects patrons to people
and places they had no idea they could
connect to!”
FOSTERING INNOVATION
An immigrant resource center in
Winona launched digital literacy
training in Hmong and Spanish for
more than 60 recent immigrants.
The project “built bridges among
cultures and organizations” and led to
the realization that a “connected city
helps everyone.”
A consortium of nine school
districts in Stevens County developed
a broadband-based system to provide
specialized distance learning services
for students with disabilities. Their
takeaways: “[Realization] that the
world is able to communicate and
work cooperatively using technology
and that the world is not limited to
Stevens County.”
Benton County added new
computers in libraries, schools and
senior housing and created 13 new
Wi-Fi access points in a variety of
businesses and community sites,
including an elder care facility.
According to the county’s economic
director, “Our elected officials now
see the importance of broadband
for economic development and
community vitality.”
DELETING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
The nonprofit MIRC partner PCs for
People, in addition to surpassing its
goal to refurbish 1,000 computers and
redistribute them to low-income rural
households, opened affiliate storefronts
in four rural Minnesota communities
in each corner of the state. Said one
computer recipient: “I’ve gone back to
school; I have two kids, and now I don’t
have to go to the library and find a
sitter to do research. ... I can stay home
with my kids.” When expressing her
appreciation for receiving a computer
Photo: Blandin Foundation
Schoolchildren in Stevens County, Minn.,
participate in a distance learning program.
and Internet connection, another
recipient explained that the computer
was going to be a Christmas present
for her child; receiving it meant that
she wouldn’t have to choose between
buying gifts or feeding her kids over the
Christmas break.
BUILDING A KNOWLEDGE
WORKFORCE
Cook County opened a computer lab
as part of a higher-education, distance
learning partnership. During the
project’s 18 months, the site provided
21 training sessions attended by 185
people in this remote community
with a population of 1,351. The
lab continues to be available to all
community residents and is used as a
public Internet access site and distance
learning resource. The partnership
offers credit courses from more than 25
institutions of higher learning.
MARKETING AND ADVOCACY
A local-access television station in Itasca
County upgraded its software, hardware
and website interface to live stream
and archive public meetings online.
The move has improved access to these
meetings for permanent and seasonal
residents. Several other communities
enhanced their government and
business online presences, including
Windom in far southwest Minnesota,
which planned, launched and maintains
the Finding Windom community
portal Web presence.
Here is a sampling of some the voices
of rural Minnesotans who participated
in MIRC reflecting on the impact of
these broadband adoption efforts on
their overall community vitality:
“These technology classes have
encouraged our Hispanic and
Somali immigrants to interact,
really for the first time.”
–Fatima Said,
Project FINE, Winona, Minn.
“We’ve turned a corner and
become a community that’s
actually growing and thriving,
instead of stagnant and dying,
with what we’ve learned from
the MIRC program.”
–Kristin Fake, owner,
Just a Stage/Second Stage
home staging, Akeley, Minn.
“MIRC efforts have really
contributed to creating a ‘culture
of use’ amongst tribal members.
Overall, MIRC has helped the
Leech Lake Reservation increase
the economic vitality of our
community. Tribal community
members are more familiar with
the tools of broadband and the
economic opportunities that
are available.”
–Mike Jones, Chief of Staff to
Tribal Chair, Leech Lake Band
of Ojibwe, Walker, Minn.
“This project has permanently
changed the way we think and
the way we work together.”
–Della Schmidt, Winona
Area Chamber of Commerce,
Winona, Minn.
“This effort has helped us
develop wonderful community
connections. We have reached
out to our whole community.”
–Keri Bergeston,
Principal, Dawson/Boyd
(Minn.) High School
“This framework brings people
together that have not always
Federal investment in broadband access and
adoption made a difference to communities’
ability to be globally competitive.
worked together – technology
advocates, workforce, social
service agencies and economic
development professionals.”
–Danna MacKenzie, IT
Director, Cook County, Minn.
“The families in our community
will see benefits for many years
to come as a result of everyone’s
hard work and dedication on
this project.”
–Kristen Lee, Independent
School District #381,
Two Harbors, Minn.
LESSONS LEARNED:
KEY ELEMENTS OF
SUCCESSFUL ADOPTION
EFFORTS
1. Communities know best.
Involve citizens directly in
articulating their community’s
broadband adoption and utilization
goals to catalyze long-term
engagement needed to increase
adoption.
2. Local leadership matters.
Help local broadband champions
get and use skills to frame issues,
build and sustain relationships
and mobilize people to build a
community’s capacity to achieve its
broadband goals.
3. Broadband is not an end in itself.
It is a means to the higher ends of
increased economic vitality and
improved quality of life. Framing it
this way helps.
4. High-touch outreach works.
Effective recruitment strategies
are intracommunity, hyperlocal
and personalized. Change follows
relationship lines.
5. Peers make great teachers.
Peer-based learning formats are
popular, low-cost and easily
sustainable tools to build a
community’s technological savvy.
6. Cross-community communication
is key.
Signage, local media support
and aligned social media are
effective, low-cost ways to spur and
sustain energy and excitement for
community projects.
7. Engage tomorrow’s leaders today.
Recognize and authentically
engage the talents of young people.
This generation of leaders brings
energy and sustainability to any
community initiative.
8. Connect the economic dots.
Framing increased sustainable
broadband use as a necessary but
not sufficient ingredient in a wholesystems approach to strengthen
community vitality can help
communities see and leverage the
connection between the technology
and benefits to community life.
9. Have patience.
This work takes time. Look for and
celebrate early and easy wins, but
think long term and build capacity
and energy for the long haul.
Money and other resources follow
vision and commitment.
CONCLUSIONS AND
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
• Broadband access alone is not
enough. Without concerted,
community-based efforts to ensure
that all citizens are able to take
advantage of the Internet, the
digital divide will continue to
grow and to undermine America’s
promise as a democracy where equal
opportunity is available to all.
• Community-based broadband
literacy and market development
efforts can and do help ensure that
all Americans can participate fully
in [the] nation’s economy and civic
and cultural life.
• Eliminating the digital divide is
an urgent challenge that must be
part of [the] national agenda. States
and communities need the federal
government and its resources as a
partner in this work.
• Federal investment in broadband
access and adoption made available
to Minnesota through the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act
[has] made a significant positive
difference to rural Minnesota
communities’ ability to be globally
competitive and ensure a high
quality of life for their residents.
NTIA has been a very helpful
partner in our efforts to bring to rural
Minnesota communities the full
benefits of the broadband-enabled
economy. NTIA’s Broadband Adoption
Toolkit, released in May of this year,
is an especially powerful tool for
shining a light on best practices and
making them available to community
champions across the country.
In sum, access to broadband is key:
Evidence abounds that high-speed
Internet access has economic benefits
(positive impact on median household
income, employment and business
growth). But so is adoption. According
to the report “Broadband’s Contribution
to Economic Health in Rural Areas:
A Causal Analysis,” by B. Whitacre,
S. Strover and R. Gallardo (March
26, 2013), “Non-metro counties with
high levels of broadband adoption in
2010 had significantly higher growth
in median household income between
2001 and 2010 compared to counties
that had similar characteristics in the
1990s but were not as successful at
adopting broadband.”
This point was eloquently echoed in
a recent edition of ”The Daily Yonder,”
published on the Web by the Center
for Rural Strategies, a nonprofit media
organization based in Whitesburg, Ky.,
and Knoxville, Tenn.: “While most
government broadband policies have
traditionally focused exclusively on
providing infrastructure, there is a case
to be made for focusing on demand.
Investments in people, education
and training are essential to achieve
meaningful use of the lnternet.” v
Did you 2013
The Battle for Digital Inclusion
Internet access can be a powerful tool to improve individuals’ economic prospects.
To succeed, broadband adoption programs must meet people on their own terms.
By Michael Liimatta / Connecting for Good
Editor’s Note: Based in Kansas City, Mo., Connecting for Good operates a variety of programs to overcome
the digital divide. In addition to delivering free or low-cost wireless broadband to about 500 families, it
refurbishes PCs, sells them at low cost to low-income individuals and trains the recipients to use them. It also
helps low-income neighborhoods in Kansas City qualify as Google “fiberhoods,” promotes the construction
of public-access computing centers (virtual libraries) and encourages the strategic placement of wireless hot
spots. “We try to help people connect in the most logical and economical way possible,” says Michael Liimatta,
president and co-founder of Connecting for Good. In 2013, more than 1,000 people were trained in its free
basic digital life skills class. Following is Liimatta’s reflection on the organization’s first year of operation.
I
n August, Connecting for Good marked
its first year as a recognized nonprofit
organization. Recently, Jim Lynch of
TechSoup spoke at the luncheon where the
Kansas City Digital Inclusion Fund was
announced. He made one statement that
particularly stood out: “The digital divide is a
tough nut to crack, and I’m not sure anyone has
figured out how to do that yet.”
There’s a lot of truth in his statement. After
fighting a year’s worth of battles on the front
lines of digital inclusion, we’ve learned a few
things that can help us make real progress in
closing the digital divide.
1. Low-income and under-resourced
people want to get online! Some surveys
suggest that most people who aren’t online
simply don’t see the value of being online.
Our experience since we set up shop in one
of Kansas City’s toughest neighborhoods
does not seem to bear this out. To the
contrary, we have experienced a flood of
people wanting to learn how to use the
Internet. Honestly, we don’t have enough
staff and volunteers to keep up with the
demand, though we are conducting as many
as eight basic introductory classes a week.
Think about it: Where does a low-income,
50-year-old black male go to learn how to
use the Internet? He may know perfectly
well that he should “go digital,” but where
can he find such help? Free, neighborhoodbased training is the only solution.
2. No one can close the digital divide
digitally. No matter how much money
is spent trying to close the digital divide
online, in the end that may prove to be the
most expensive and least productive way to
go about it. Google Fiber found that out
last year when a big chunk of Kansas City’s
urban core nearly missed qualifying for
installation of its gigabit fiber service. This
company is among the most elite in online
advertising and promotions. But in the
end, in order to avoid leaving out the most
needy neighborhoods, it had to send out foot
soldiers to recruit subscribers in person.
3. The digital divide is not going to be
closed through a high-level marketing
campaign. The reason is simple: All the
Connecting for Good conducts a training session at the Blue Hill Community Services facility in Kansas City, Mo.
It’s important to know the cultures of the
people we hope to reach. We can’t go into
an underserved neighborhood and say,
“Here we are with the answer to your need!”
things that have excluded people
from the digital revolution are the
same cultural, economic and racial
barriers that have kept them in
isolation and poverty for generations.
However, we sincerely believe that
we possess tools in the Internet
that can tear these barriers down,
unite communities and overcome
prejudice and injustice. Through
basic connectivity, people are enabled
to communicate with one another
and access resources that were never
before available. Digital citizenship
is real, and we have in our hands
the tools to get people empowered
and engaged to bring about positive
change in their communities.
4. It needs to be “up close and
personal.” To bridge the digital
divide, we can’t help people we
don’t understand. It’s important to
know the cultures of the people we
hope to reach. We can’t go into an
underserved neighborhood and say,
“Here we are with the answer to
your need!”
The message we share at
Connecting for Good is one of
empowerment; more Internet access
and knowledge of technology means
people can take their futures into
their own hands. We provide them
with the resources to make better
lives for themselves. The digital
divide will be closed when we can
take a handful of eager learners into
the digital age one step at a time.
For our digital life skills
introductory classes, we limit the
class size to 10 and try to get other
volunteers to help whenever we
can. Though the waiting list for
these classes is nearly 100, we know
we can’t give participants a decent learning experience
with more people. At a recent training session, one of our
trainers could be heard saying, “Keyboard? That’s the big
thing in front of you with all the buttons!”
5. The cost factor must be overcome. The entry points to
becoming a productive user of the Internet are simply too
expensive for low-income people. The cost of connecting
includes having an Internet service provider, the necessary
hardware and the education to really benefit from being
online. We thought long and hard about a price point for
our refurbished computers. We know that people value
something more if they have some personal investment
in it. Plus, we don’t want to see our devices ending up in
a pawn shop in a week. Our basic price is $100 for our
refurbished PCs, but we give a $50 voucher to qualified
low-income people who complete our basic introduction
to the Internet classes. Some people are now paying $5 a
month on a layaway plan.
On the connectivity side, even $10 a month can be
too much for families that have incomes of less than
$25,000 a year, so we are promoting Google Fiber’s $300
for seven years of 5 Mbps of Internet plan. For those for
whom even that is out of reach, we are working to find
other extremely affordable ways to help the poorest of
the poor get online. Wireless networks have emerged as
the most cost-effective approach, especially in complexes
where multiple families live.
Education is the No. 1 thing that
lifts people from poverty. In a
digital society, it is impossible
to pursue a quality education
without access to the Internet.
UPDATE: Connecting for Good just opened its first
community technology center in a needy neighborhood
of Kansas City and established a relationship with nearby
Donnelly College to involve its students in helping to
operate the center. v
Michael Liimatta has 30 years’ experience in nonprofit
management and online higher education. He is the president
and co-founder of Connecting for Good, an organization
dedicated to bridging the digital divide. This article was adapted
from his recent blog post at www.connectingforgood.org. You can
reach him at michael@connectingforgood.org.
6. If we had a million dollars to spend … we would create
an organization similar to AmeriCorps dedicated to digital
inclusion. We would train an army of fired-up young
people, provide them support for a year and set them up
in the neighborhoods with low Internet adoption. There,
they would work on setting up Wi-Fi hotspots and publicaccess computer centers where they could build one-onone, face-to-face relationships with the neighborhood.
By building trust and compassionate handholding, they
would lead residents into the digital mainstream. It’s going
to take “getting up close and personal” to bring the people
who need the Internet most into a place where they can
take advantage of all the benefits they can find online.
At Connecting for Good, we are driven every day in
the pursuit of this work because of our three core values:
• Internet connectivity equals opportunity. It is an
absolute necessity to fully participate as a productive
citizen in a digital society.
• Education is the No. 1 thing that lifts people from
poverty. In a digital society, it is impossible to pursue a
quality education without access to the Internet.
• In-home Internet access must be viewed as an essential
modern utility, like phone service, electricity and
running water.
Using our three-pronged strategy of connectivity,
hardware and digital literacy, we are closing the digital
divide every day in a lasting, significant way.
here!
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
Broadband for Gazelles
Community infrastructure investments should help young, fast-moving companies
grow, thrive and return wealth to the community.
By Ken Demlow and Tom Chapman / Beehive Industries
W
hen communities spend
significant amounts of money on
infrastructure for high-capacity,
high-speed broadband, economic development
is often very high on the list of things they are
trying to improve – and it will certainly remain
a top priority.
However, not all communities are
clear about what they mean by economic
development. Before making decisions about
infrastructure, they should clarify their
economic development goals.
Though most communities believe economic
development is about jobs and investment, many
thoughtful communities are moving to a slightly
different view. For them, economic development
is really about wealth creation within a
community. Jobs and investment may have
differing impacts, but wealth remains steadfast.
When companies create local wealth, most
community leaders are pleased and proud.
Economic development projects that create
local wealth don’t produce the hangover effects
that may arise from “good projects” that do not
create high-paying or numerous jobs. Many
communities can point to projects that were
supposed to be great but did not live up to their
advance billing.
A good example of a company that
consistently creates local wealth is Nucor
Steel, which operates in many locations
around the United States. This company has
excellent profitability and work practices, and
it pays its local employees and managers well.
It contributes to local charities. Numerous
companies do not have this same track record for
successful community and wealth development
– even when they create a lot of jobs or have
significant investment. From a community
perspective, it makes sense to ask why.
This is a metrics problem. Most communities
translate their metrics into goals rather than
understanding that the underlying goal is very
difficult to measure. How do you measure
wealth creation? You really can’t. Instead,
communities try to use jobs and investment
as proxy measures for this underlying goal,
and as with many substitute metrics, jobs and
investments are imperfect ways to predict
economic development success. More important,
these metrics also lead to behaviors that are not
always in the best interest of a local community
– seeking out jobs at all costs rather than wealth.
This approach yields a community strategy
that focuses on attraction, often to the detriment
of retention and organic growth. These three
components (attraction, retention and organic
growth) are critical elements of any good
strategy and should be balanced against one
another. Each is important in its own right, and
all are part of growing wealth in a community.
However, according to the Kauffman
Foundation, job creation occurs overwhelmingly
within the organic growth part of this triad.
According to the foundation, “nearly all net job
creation since 1980 has occurred in firms less
than five years old.” This means that economic
developers should be paying attention to their
local entrepreneurs and young companies.
To do this, communities must reevaluate
how they become aware of and provide services
to their potential gazelle employers (small,
agile, fast-moving companies). Many
communities lack knowledge of the
gazelles lurking within their city
limits and focus on attraction targets
in other geographies. For this reason,
the first step is almost always getting
an inventory. This inventory probably
involves two parts: an inventory of the
companies themselves and an inventory
of the regional companies in key
clusters. Once communities complete
their inventories, they can move on to
other strategies and programming.
In two small communities we
are aware of, economic development
focused on entrepreneurship and
clusters. Both communities found
natural strengths overlooked by earlier
economic development efforts. One
unusual cluster involved popcorn and
popcorn-related tools. Another unusual
cluster related to water management
tools for a variety of end users. Both
clusters created significant wealth, jobs
and investment.
All these communities had to
do was to look at what was already
happening in their entrepreneurial
ecosystems. They both discovered that,
by finding the unique talent sets in
their communities (and often nowhere
else in the U.S.) and finding ways to
creatively grow their potential bases,
they were able to add good, highpaying, sustainable jobs.
Moreover, this strategy allowed
one of the two communities to actively
attract companies complementary to its
existing cluster. In short, the blend of
knowledge of local strengths, a focus on
wealth creation rather than simply on
job counts and a willingness to be great
at something relatively obscure left these
small communities ahead of the game.
THE ROLE OF FIBER
Although broadband by itself – because
it is now nearly universal – may no
longer be a competitive advantage,
access that is particularly inexpensive
or high-speed still can be critical for
communities with the right mix of
companies. Knowing the needs of local
companies is a prerequisite to knowing
the type of broadband or expansion
capabilities that would be best for a
community. In other words, in many
A strategy for prioritizing wealth creation
in economic development is to invest in
incubators and accelerators.
communities, broadband won’t create
the entrepreneurs or the local gazelles,
but it might unleash their success more
rapidly if built in a way that is driven by
local users, not just by available dollars.
Broadband is often a critical catalyst
for multiple components of ecosystem
construction. First, broadband can
be an important part of community
identity. Being proud and willing
to invest is a critical component of
economic expansion – not just in the
public sector but for small businesses
and entrepreneurs, too.
Thus, community identity can
be spurred by broadband access. We
can’t all replicate Chattanooga, but
we should keep the Gig City identity
in mind. Chattanooga is not Silicon
Valley, but it has a vision of itself that
goes far beyond what an outsider
might think of the city. Another good
example is Kansas City, in which
Google’s decision to locate fiber helped
reawaken an entrepreneurial spirit.
Second, broadband as a physical
tool can be a critical component of a
burgeoning ecosystem. Thus, ensuring
SERVICE
early access in key geographies within
a city is very important. Addressing
the needs of big employers is important
– but so is addressing the desires of
gazelles. To ensure earlier access,
communities should be aware of where
the gazelles are physically located.
Omaha executed this strategy well
in the gigabit expansion that started
with an entrepreneurial haven called
Mastercraft. Community leaders
prioritized early adoption and gazelle
use as a retention tool and a means of
helping empower early-stage companies.
INCUBATORS AND
ACCELERATORS
An example of prioritizing wealth
creation in economic development is
the strategy of using incubators and
accelerators. This couples a traditional
economic development strategy –
providing land, buildings and other
services needed by an economic sector
– with the newer goal of building and
retaining gazelle jobs. A good example
of a city that has a strong incubator and
vision is Fishers, Ind., whose incubator
MEAN RANK
(1 TO 5)
PERCENT
OFFERED
Broadband/High-Speed Internet
4.4
97.6
Business Plan Development
4.3
100.0
Marketing Assistance
3.8
98.9
Specialized Equipment
3.7
84.7
Links to Higher Education
3.7
96.5
Accounting and Financial Management
3.6
98.8
Comprehensive Business Training
3.5
96.5
Shadow Boards
3.5
91.8
Access to Venture Capitalists
3.5
91.8
Access to Noncommercial Loan Fund
3.5
96.5
Table 1: Importance of Incubator Services to Client Success
Source: U.S. Economic Development Administration
is called Launch Fishers. The National
Business Incubation Association
has more than 1,900 members from
60 countries.
One key aspect of physical
infrastructure that attracts incubator
tenants is high-speed Internet.
Having a physical location to call
home is often secondary to having a
strong Internet backbone. Responses
to a U.S. Economic Development
Administration survey of incubator
tenants (Table 1) illustrate this.
Of all the services an incubator
needs to provide for client success,
broadband or high-speed Internet
is No. 1. That is staggering because
providing Internet access is not the
traditional justification for building
or servicing an incubator. In fact,
by asking users what they want, a
community may discover many other
broadband needs and services that are
valuable to gazelle companies.
In closing, what does economic
development mean in your community?
Is it time to revision? If so, how highcapacity, high-speed broadband fits in
that discussion could be very important.
Listen to your users – gazelle employers
in particular, not just the vocal Chamber
of Commerce members – and see how
and what type of capacity they desire. v
Ken Demlow is a sales representative for
Beehive Industries, and Tom Chapman
is vice president of Beehive. Beehive
Industries provides asset, infrastructure
and event management software
that offers flexible tools for economic
development and utilities, including fiber
and telecom. Reach Ken at kdemlow@
beehiveindustries.com.
RESOURCES
• The Kauffman Foundation, “Where Will the Jobs Come From?”
(see especially p. 4): www.kauffman.org/what-we-do/research/
firm-formation-and-growth-series/where-will-the-jobs-come-from
• The Edward Lowe Foundation, Economic Gardening Program:
http://edwardlowe.org/tools-programs/economic-gardening
• Center for Strategic Change: www.centerforstrategicchange.com
• Launch Fishers: http://launchfishers.com
• National Business Incubation Association: www.nbia.org
Did you 2013
Asset Mapping Catalyzes
Broadband Development
Communities can jump start broadband investment with a sophisticated understanding
of the assets they can offer to Internet service providers.
By Brian Mefford / Connected Nation Exchange
P
rivate investment in broadband
networks is at an all-time high. In
addition, the federal Connect America
Fund has allocated $4.5 billion annually,
through 2018, to the promotion of broadband
access, and Congress has created a nationwide
first responder network, FirstNet, built on
broadband. Finally, smartphone and tablet
penetration are rapidly increasing the demand
for broadband for personal use, business,
education, health care and more.
Communities that act proactively will
attract investment from Internet service
providers. Those that do not will quickly be left
behind. One necessary step for communities
to position themselves for this shift is
technological asset mapping.
Asset mapping is the process of identifying,
measuring and evaluating a community’s
resources. Before community leaders can plan,
they must fully comprehend their current
situation. Used properly, asset maps can
encourage investment, facilitate partnerships
and help recruit companies.
Sophisticated asset maps take into
consideration the most recent advances in
technology – and invariably identify resources
that communities have not considered, in large
part because technological innovation can
transform resources and leverage new market
conditions. Yesterday’s unused resources are
today’s untapped assets.
KANSAS AND KENTUCKY BENEFIT
FROM ASSET MAPPING
When AT&T sought to expand its 4G LTE
wireless service in Palo Alto in 2011, it ran
into considerable investment hurdles. Fighting
to maintain the aesthetic integrity of their
town, community members first staunchly
opposed towers, then resisted a distributed
antenna system. For more than two years,
AT&T was forced to repeatedly reassess and
redesign its expansion strategy. At last, after
agreeing to a multitude of conditions and
receiving endorsements from the city’s utilities
department, an arborist and a third-party
consultant, AT&T was able to move forward on
a plan that used dozens of less-intrusive smallcell wireless Internet cells.
The delay and repeated disruption of the
approval process represents a significant – and
often prohibitive – barrier to investment.
Internet service providers can often be
dissuaded by these hurdles and decide not to
invest in a community. However, communities
have another option: altering this costbenefit equation by mapping their assets and
eliminating investment hurdles.
This was effectively demonstrated recently
in both Kansas and Kentucky. When Google
announced it would launch a mega-speed
Internet project, many cities applied. Kansas
City won because it not only presented a
sophisticated understanding of its assets but also
Asset maps play a central role – they
simultaneously cut costs, demonstrate benefits
and expedite access to Internet service
providers.
was able to use that understanding to
coalesce a united front. Now the city
enjoys the highest Internet capacity
in the nation. Its economy – and the
start-up ecosystem in particular – has
experienced a vibrant renaissance.
Asset maps draw investment and
attract high-speed Internet access to
new places. Until recently, citizens in
Warren County, Ky., were handicapped
by a lack of access to high-speed
Internet. Though technically “served”
according to the state’s broadband map,
students often had to visit one another’s
homes in the hope of finding Internet
service fast enough to finish their
homework. Their education was stifled,
and teachers had difficulty teaching
students the skills needed in today’s
economy.
Warren County decided to act.
It first hired a technology consulting
firm, Connected Nation Exchange
(CNX), to perform a holistic study of
the community’s infrastructure and
Exhibit 1: Asset Map Example
Source: Connected Nation Exchange
capabilities. CNX analyzed reports,
measured throughput and interviewed
stakeholders. It created a GIS map that
integrated the county’s infrastructure
with census data and household
coverage. It then compiled this technical
data alongside market data, ultimately
creating an asset map that Warren
County used to recruit investment.
The initiative was a success. Within
a few months, a locally owned wireless
broadband company, FastNet, had
negotiated countywide leases with public
agencies for access to such things as
water towers, roof access and dark fiber.
As a result, the company is now able to
offer high-capacity broadband services
to homes and businesses throughout
the entire county and even surrounding
counties. This distinction separates
Warren County from competing
communities in recruiting businesses
and meeting the needs of the education
community. In addition, the Warren
County asset maps supported the public
safety community in its upgrade of its
own communications network, pointing
to existing tower assets that could be
used instead of newly built towers as
originally proposed.
As these cases demonstrate,
communities that enlist proactive
strategies are better able to draw
investment. Kansas City and Warren
County demonstrate that asset maps
play a central role by simultaneously
cutting costs, demonstrating benefits
and expediting access to Internet
service providers.
WHAT IS ASSET MAPPING?
Communities have long recognized the
benefits of mapping their resources,
often using maps to revamp their
economic development strategies.
Asset mapping can require taking
full stock of all asset types. These
include human capital, research and
development institutions, financial
capital, the industrial base, connective
organizations, the legal and regulatory
environment, physical infrastructure
and quality of life. Once a community
obtains a clear picture of its current
situation, it can use its asset map as a
catalyst for public-private partnerships,
plans, benchmarking and performance
measurement.
Creating an accurate, useful asset
map is no easy task. Researchers,
analysts and professionals typically
survey economic reports and profiles,
scan available information from
the Internet and other sources and
extensively interview local leaders and
pertinent experts. A community’s
assets must be understood within
the context of its region, including
the larger networks that connect the
community to regional, national and
global economies. Only by examining
a community’s assets within a larger
context of opportunity can mappers
ascertain the value of assets.
Technological assets are some of
the most complex to map. Experts
must model broadband availability
and usage, which requires identifying
physical infrastructure such as towers,
antennas and fiber cables and surveying
residential, commercial and public users
to measure demand and throughput.
The topological and physical attributes
of a community must be mapped in
great detail, as actual throughput varies
depending on a number of potential
barriers. Compiling all this information
in a user-friendly format yields an
integrated assessment of a community’s
broadband usage, resources and needs.
SMALL-CELL TECHNOLOGY
Small-cell wireless technology
illustrates how asset mapping can
attract investment and help monetize
previously unused resources. The speed
and capacity of broadband directly
depend on access to the nationwide
broadband network, which is
transmitted along two major pathways:
fiber cable and wireless broadcasting.
Cable provides a physical connection
to the network, and wireless connects
via broadcasting hubs, called cells.
Traditionally, these cells have been
located on high-rise towers, which
are scattered throughout a region.
A community’s broadband capacity,
therefore, has depended on the number
and quality of cables and towers a
community can access.
As demand for broadband services
has increased, so has the demand for
broadband infrastructure. The need
for towers, in particular, has gone up
dramatically. This phenomenon, known
as “densification,” requires more and
more towers to be built in the same area.
Increasing the number of large,
unsightly, obstructive towers in
populated areas is often an unwanted
development. Technology companies
have adapted by inventing smaller and
smaller cells. Today, these cells do not
require large, obstructive towers; they
can be placed on rooftops, steeples
and other smaller-profile towers. Some
microcells can even be installed within
an office and serve an entire floor.
This represents a dramatic shift
for broadband development in both
cost and availability. As densification
pressures mount, the frequency of small
cells will need to increase exponentially
in concentrated areas of broadband
usage to meet the demand for speed
and service.
Exhibit 2: Industry Forecasts of Mobile Data Traffic
Source: National Broadband Plan, www.broadband.gov
A second driver in the demand for
small cells relates to fiber cable. Though
Internet service providers have invested
significantly in fiber cables, the cost
of last-mile fiber is often prohibitive.
Installing underground cables is very
expensive, especially in the final leg to
the end user. At that point, the number
of users does not always justify the
capital expenditure. Small-cell wireless
has created a new option by providing
an affordable link between fiber cables
and end users.
Because of densification and lower
costs, the usage of small cells is growing
rapidly. From 2010 to 2011, small-cell
usage increased by 23 percent. From
2012 to 2016, revenue from small cells
is expected to climb from $100 million
to $1 billion.
Small-cell usage has the potential
to catch up to and keep pace with the
steep climb in broadband demand. This
bodes well for both large and small
communities seeking to upgrade their
broadband infrastructure. Densely
populated metro centers can meet
the rising demand of broadband with
affordable, nonintrusive cells. Small
communities can extend broadband
to their populations by linking
inexpensive mobile platforms to the
national grid. However, the degree
to which a community can harness
this trend depends on how well it can
prepare for this technology.
ASSET MAPPING DRIVES
NEW VALUATION
Communities should immediately
consider mapping their assets in light
of new technology. Doing so will surely
increase their ability to attract the
widespread investment occurring in
broadband. However, simply creating
a list of assets is not enough. Assets
must be evaluated within the context of
market demand and supply.
Asset value depends on a host of
factors. The first is an asset’s ability to
access the larger broadband network.
Cell sites, for example, must be installed
in areas with the necessary backhaul to
support data throughput. This backhaul
includes fiber line capacity and density
of existing cell towers.
Perhaps the most important factor in
valuing an asset is its proximity to end
users – the demand side of the equation.
Business, health care, education and
residential clusters represent significant
but varying levels of demand for
broadband usage. This demand, in
turn, determines the volume and data
rates required to support the area. In
the case of small-cell technology, a
public library or church steeple adjacent
to a commercial district may generate
greater investment interest than a rural
water tower. Calculating these dynamics
in conjunction with specific locations
on an asset map can powerfully
A public library adjacent to a commercial
district may generate greater investment
interest than a rural water tower.
demonstrate the economic viability of
particular broadband areas.
Other relevant assets extend
beyond technology. Rights of way
and zoning permits, for example,
are substantial assets. The more a
community can eliminate hurdles,
the more robust its technological
assets become. Moreover, expediting
procedures powerfully demonstrates
a community’s willingness to engage
in broadband investment. Failing
to do so demonstrates the opposite
and therefore leads to underserved
communities. A slow-moving approval
process can significantly escalate costs,
discouraging broadband providers from
doing business in the community.
OPPORTUNITY FOR
INVESTMENT
The value of new assets ultimately
depends on how likely these assets are
to be integrated into the nationwide
network and how well they can
be integrated into that network.
Fortunately, there is tremendous
momentum for both communities
and companies to invest in broadband
technologies. The benefits are
increasingly clear, and the federal
government is currently investing
substantial resources to ensure that
the quality of the nation’s technology
infrastructure is second to none.
The marketplace has organic
momentum as well. As of 2012,
smartphone usage reached 80 million
customers and is growing at 25
percent per year. As video streaming
and interactive content have become
commonplace, the demand for more
data transmitted at faster speeds has
grown rapidly. Indeed, the demand
for broadband is expected to rise to as
much as 25 to 35 times its current usage
by 2016. This unprecedented expected
increase in demand signals an everpressing need to invest in the necessary
infrastructure. Although there are
more than 250,000 cell towers in the
United States today, the current rate
of infrastructure expansion is expected
to cover only a portion of the demand.
Small cells will ultimately be the ideal
method to meet this unmet demand.
Internet service providers have
grown eager to harness this shift.
AT&T, for example, is investing heavily
in small-cell infrastructure as part
of its Project VIP. The company has
laid out an aggressive investment plan
that includes an expanding reliance
on small-cell sites and in-building
distributed systems. Indeed, AT&T
plans to build 40,000 new small-cell
sites versus 10,000 new towers over the
next two years.
Other companies have sprung
up to harness new opportunities.
Republic Wireless, a young but
growing company, utilizes Wi-Fi
networks to provide mobile telephone
service at much cheaper rates. There
is momentum in all levels of the
broadband economy.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
By using asset maps, communities
and broadband providers can pinpoint
opportunity, facilitate partnerships,
anticipate hurdles and streamline
processes. Such an initiative would be
tremendously attractive for Internet
service providers, who often need to be
convinced of the value of investing in
a particular community. A community
that has measured, analyzed and
assessed potential assets and also
garnered support for the development
will undoubtedly stand out among
possible development locations for
national carriers.
Communities that successfully
position themselves for broadband
investment see extraordinary results.
Put simply, high-speed broadband
has become an integral and necessary
condition for any community in the
21st century. This includes enhanced
quality of life and improved health
care, education and public safety.
Most clearly, broadband access
creates jobs. This can be seen on both
extremes of the broadband-capacity
spectrum. As discussed above, Kansas
City is rapidly becoming a hub for
business growth and innovation
because of the Google Fiber program.
On the opposite end of the spectrum,
communities without broadband are
simply passed by in an increasingly
competitive, mobile and transitory
economy. Companies without
broadband access cannot compete with
those that have it; thus, communities
without broadband are unable to
recruit or keep quality companies.
When a community receives
broadband, it is quite literally placed
on the map. Communities that were
once quickly overlooked are now viable
candidates for possible locations of new
enterprise. As a small example, many
companies have started “reshoring”
their operations to the United States.
Previously outsourced operations, such
as call centers, are now being placed
in rural communities that have gained
access to broadband. Within this fastpaced, interconnected economy, only
communities with broadband capacity
could even be considered.
Though broadband infrastructure as
a whole certainly benefits communities,
monetizing previously unused assets
has the most immediate effect on a
community’s bottom line. A municipal
building can lease cell-site locations
for $18,000 to $24,000 a year. If
this estimate held true in the Palo
Alto example of 40 AT&T sites, that
community might have generated
revenues of $720,000 to $960,000
a year. Given the recent budget
constraints afflicting communities
across the nation, such an annual
inflow of cash could represent a
tremendous immediate benefit.
CONCLUSION
Across the country, communities are
looking to attract substantial investment
in high-speed Internet infrastructure.
Communities that leverage their assets
and find ways to encourage broadband
growth will have better functioning
education, health care and public safety
systems and will be able to attract and
retain quality businesses.
Asset mapping can be used to
identify the most efficient method of
developing and encouraging Internet
service provider investment in a
community. Providers will then lease
the most efficient locations to install
their broadcasting technology, and the
owner (public or private) will receive
a negotiated rent. Existing assets
with potential that was previously
overlooked can now bring in thousands
of dollars annually while providing
valuable services to the community.
Because the planning and
installation of these broadband
Advanced Engineering for Today’s Networks
Existing assets with overlooked potential can
bring in thousands of dollars annually while
providing valuable services.
networks will require a significant
investment by Internet service providers
(and these resources are limited),
communities will compete to receive
this investment. Those communities
that take the proper measures to
proactively assess their existing assets
and needs will be in the best position to
attract this investment.
By identifying locations, evaluating
demand and expediting regulatory
procedures through the use of asset
mapping, economic development
leaders can maximize their chances
of improving broadband internet
access in their community. Doing so
is a necessary step to positioning
their communities for economic
prosperity. v
Brian Mefford is CEO of Connected
Nation Exchange, which aims to
transform the way public and private
assets are used to extend and accelerate
broadband communications services. He
was the founder of Connected Nation,
which has worked globally to create
successful public-private broadband
partnerships over the last decade. Reach
Brian at brm@cnx.io.
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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
How Broadband Boosts Household
Income
A new study sponsored by Ericsson confirms that broadband access positively affects
household income – but only if the broadband exceeds a minimum speed threshold.
B
oth broadband access and broadband
speed positively affect household
incomes, according to a new analysis
by network equipment vendor Ericsson. The
study, conducted with Chalmers University
of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, and
consultant Arthur D. Little, continues earlier
work by these three partners on the impact
of broadband. The earlier research concerned
broadband’s effects on the gross domestic
product of entire countries; the new study,
“Socioeconomic Effects of Broadband Speed:
a Microeconomic Investigation,” examines the
effects on individual households.
Interestingly, household benefits don’t
increase smoothly along with broadband speed.
Instead, they rise in steps, and a minimum
speed level is required to make any difference
at all. This minimum level is itself likely to rise
over time, the researchers found.
• In Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) countries – the
most developed economies – the threshold
level for broadband to have an impact is 2
Mbps; gaining 4 Mbps of broadband increases
household income by $2,100 per year.
• In the less developed economies of Brazil,
India and China, the threshold level is 0.5
Mbps, which increases household income by
$800 per year.
THE IMPACT OF BROADBAND
ON INCOME
By comparing certain countries with varying
economic characteristics, the new study asks
whether having access to broadband is enough
to make an impact or whether faster broadband
is the way to significantly increase income.
The study analyzed data from eight OECD
countries (U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
Sweden, Japan and the U.S.) as well as from
Brazil, India and China (BIC), investigating
the similarities and differences between them.
It measured the impact of broadband speed
on household income by analyzing whether
leveraging the benefits of faster broadband can
improve competitiveness in the labor market.
Survey data from Ericsson ConsumerLab
was the most important source for the study.
The Web-based survey conducted in 2010
had 22,000 respondents. The researchers used
statistical regression analysis to investigate
the impact of broadband speed on household
income. They also accounted for other
relevant factors that might affect household
income levels, such as education, skills and
socioeconomic variables.
Figure 1 shows the countries studied
in relation to their household income and
broadband speed. The U.S., Japan, the U.K. and
Sweden all have high levels of household income
and high broadband speeds. Brazil, India and
China, together with Mexico and South Africa,
are at the bottom left of the figure, indicating
lower broadband speeds and lower income levels.
This observation suggests that higher
broadband speeds contribute to higher income
levels – but it could equally well indicate
that countries with higher income levels can
afford better broadband, so the researchers had
to conduct further analysis to rule out that
possibility.
This study supports previous research that
found the most advanced countries gain the
greatest total benefit from broadband and that
they can quickly move toward highly innovative
markets and improve labor productivity. The
ability of the most advanced countries to
leverage higher broadband speeds is enabled
10
Broadband speed (Mbps)
8
UK
Germany
France
Italy Spain
6
US
Sweden
South Africa
Brazil
Mexico
China (urban)
4
India
2
00
20,000
40,000
60,000
Figure 1: Higher broadband speeds are associated with higher household incomes.
OECD
BIC
Difference in household income (USD PPP)
WHY BROADBAND SPEED
INCREASES INCOME
Households benefit from increased
broadband speed in several ways.
Access to advanced services, such as
videoconferencing, boosts personal
productivity and allows more flexible
work arrangements through teleworking
and telecommuting. In addition, as
previous studies have shown, broadband
helps people become more informed,
better educated and enriched – which
may also add to their incomes.
As overall broadband penetration
increases, households without
broadband or with slow broadband
at home will find staying competitive
in the labor market more difficult. In
effect, they need faster broadband just
to maintain their place in the economy.
This labor market competition
effect could explain why broadband
thresholds seem to be progressing to
ever higher levels.
The researchers say that further
investigation into the relationship
between broadband speed and services
used is needed. Simply having a very
high-speed connection is not enough;
the key to gaining any benefit may be
how a household uses its connection. v
Japan
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
00
512 KB
2 MB
4 MB
Figure 2: Estimated gains in income based on access to broadband, per speed
OECD countries
BIC countries
(sample average speed 2010
= approx 4 mbps)
Household income (USD PPP)
by a richer service offering related to
both work and private life and a higher
level of technology maturity among
enterprises and public institutions.
As shown in Figure 2, the researchers
found that the minimum effective speed
is at least 2 Mbps for OECD countries,
and the greatest expected increase in
income occurs when households go
from having no broadband to 4 Mbps,
gaining around $2,100 per household
per year, or $182 per month.
For the non-OECD countries,
the threshold level seems to be at or
below 0.5 Mbps. An additional annual
household income of around $800, or
$70 per month, is expected to be gained
by introducing a 0.5 Mbps broadband
connection in these countries.
The income levels have been
adjusted by comparing sample income
with actual pretax income. The
adjustment factor for OECD is 0.78
and 0.58 for BIC.
(sample average speed 2010
= approx 2 mbps)
120
10
320
46
0.5-4
4-8
8-12
8-24
0.5-4
4-8
8 to 12-24
Figure 3: Estimated monthly increases in household incomes due to broadband speed upgrades
here!
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER
Economic Development in Brief
A summary of new research findings, case studies and innovations relating to
broadband’s effects on economic growth and development.
GE: Broadband-Enabled Productivity
Gains Have Barely Begun
I
n its brief existence, the Internet has
created digital products and services
that never existed before. It has
made markets more efficient by slashing
information costs. It has reduced the need
for travel and shipping. It has lowered the
cost for workers to upgrade their skills.
But, to quote the great Al Jolson, you
ain’t seen nothing yet.
Today, ultra-broadband is converging
with cloud computing, arrays of lowcost sensors and controllers, and tools
for analyzing big data. This convergence
makes possible what GE calls the
“industrial Internet” – a set of platforms
and applications that will allow companies
to control equipment remotely and aim for
zero unplanned equipment outages.
Airlines, railroads, hospitals, utilities
and manufacturers will be able to manage
and operate machines such as jet engines,
CT scanners and gas turbines in the cloud,
moving from a reactive to a predictive
industrial operating model. GE forecasts
that this will ultimately allow companies
to solve problems in new ways and yield
such results as highly accurate health care
treatments and extreme levels of energy
efficiency.
One recent analysis estimates that the
industrial Internet will create $1.3 trillion
in annual value by 2020, with a 149
percent return on investment for industrial
Internet applications. Another says this
new wave of innovation could boost global GDP by
as much as $10 to 15 trillion over the next 20 years
through accelerated productivity growth.
The Industrial Internet is transforming
the way people service and maintain
industrial equipment, medical devices
and other machines.
2
1
The data that is
received and recorded
enables the discovery
of opportunities to
lower maintenance
and operating costs
Self-monitoring
turbines transmit
sensor data
4
The technician is
equipped with the
right knowledge and
tools to quickly and
efficiently complete
the task at hand
3
Data analysis reveals
a need for preventive
maintenance
5
Data is sent back
to the Industrial
Internet, enabling
remote collaboration
and future use
Intelligent
Machines
Transmitting
Valuable Data
Optimizing
Operations
Empowering
Technicians
Through self-monitoring
and transmission of sensor
data, intelligent machines
enable preventative
maintenance and move
closer to the goal of “no
unplanned downtime.”
Real-time information on
the condition of individual
assets reduces the need
for higher-cost scheduled
maintenance.
Operations centers engage
in data segmentation and
filtering for customized
“fleet” views, historical
analysis, real-time analysis
and forecasting.
The Industrial Internet
provides workers with
information and resources
in real-time, improving
productivity and driving
more efficient work
practices.
Source: “The Industrial Internet@Work,”
by Marco Annunziata and Peter5C. Evans, GE
Broadband Drives Innovation
By Dr. Bruno Lanvin / Executive Director ECI, INSEAD
(Excerpted from “The State of
Broadband 2013: Universalizing
Broadband,” a report by the
UNESCO Broadband Commission.)
Successful innovation is based on a
complex ecosystem in which investments
in R&D take place against a background
of efficient infrastructure, talent and a
socioeconomic environment rewarding
creativity and risk as paramount.
Where such an ecosystem is lacking,
investments in R&D do not generate
their full returns. Indeed, the “middleincome trap” risks becoming a “middle
innovation ranking trap”: Many
emerging economies that had made
spectacular progress in innovation
rankings over the last few years have
proved unable to maintain their rates
of progress, despite continuing or
accelerating investments in R&D.
Ecosystems of innovation do not
happen overnight. Efficient financial,
educational, legal and regulatory
frameworks are needed, which typically
take more than a generation to build.
Broadband could generate “innovation-as-aservice” in ideas across emerging economies
via telepresence, crowdsourcing and remote
collaboration. Innovators can also reach
venture capitalists in other regions more easily.
Innovation is a four-faceted mindset,
involving people, ideas, finance and
market. Yet history often provides
accelerators that have proven beneficial
to innovation.
Broadband is one such accelerator,
driving rapid change across these
four pillars of innovation. Broadband
deployment can accelerate innovation
by promoting academia-business
alliances, leadership across borders,
metrics and local dynamics. For people,
ubiquitous broadband will benefit
first and foremost the education sector
by contributing to the detection,
stimulation and blossoming of talent.
Combined with cloud computing,
broadband could generate
“innovation-as-a-service” in ideas
across emerging economies via
telepresence, crowdsourcing and remote
collaboration. Broadband also improves
financing by allowing innovators to
reach venture capitalists in other regions
more easily. Broadband enables firms
and individuals to “move beyond mere
Web presence” and reach consumers
worldwide through secure platforms,
interactive virtual shop windows, and
local and targeted advertising.
In Rural Areas, Broadband Adoption Is Key
Adoption is the most important –
and possibly the only – variable that
relates broadband to rural economic
growth in the United States, according
to a new study, “Broadband’s
Contribution to Economic Health in
Rural Areas,” by Brian Whitacre of
Oklahoma State University, Roberto
Gallardo of Mississippi State University
and Sharon Strover of the University
of Texas.
Using FCC broadband adoption
data, National Broadband Map
infrastructure data and various
measures of economic outcomes, the
authors compared rural counties with
counties that were similar in other ways
except for broadband availability or
adoption. They found the following:
• In counties with levels of broadband
adoption above 60 percent, median
household income grew faster and
unemployment was lower compared
with similar counties below this
threshold. Where broadband
adoption was below 40 percent,
the number of firms and employees
grew 3 percentage points less than
in similar counties.
• In counties with broadband
availability above 85 percent,
income for nonfarm proprietors
grew 5 percent less than in similar
counties. This suggests that
consumers may use e-commerce
sooner than local businesses do
and that the first effect of rural
broadband is to give consumers
nonlocal options for shopping.
Rural residents benefit, but
local businesses may be at least
temporarily disadvantaged.
• Download speeds greater than
10 Mbps appear to increase the
percentage of creative-class workers
and reduce the poverty level.
However, average download speeds
less than 3 Mbps are associated with
marginally higher growth rates in
median household income.
• Finally, increasing the number of
broadband providers in an area
does not by itself appear to affect
economic health.
The authors recommend shifting the
focus of rural broadband policy toward
encouraging adoption in areas where
broadband is now available.
Cornwall Businesses Grow With Broadband
BT’s new fiber network in Cornwall –
a combination of fiber to the node and
fiber to the home – has now passed
206,000 homes and businesses, or 82
per cent of the area, making Cornwall
one of the best-connected areas in
Britain and the best-connected rural
region in Europe. New research by
SERIO at Plymouth University and
Buckman Associates shows the network
is already providing a major economic
boost to small and mid-sized businesses
in the region.
After 12 months, 83 per cent of
SMBs were saving time and money
because of the faster speeds and
innovative services that fiber broadband
enables. Nearly six of 10 SMBs
surveyed said their businesses were
growing because of the new technology,
and more than a quarter either created
or retained jobs as a direct result.
More than one-third of businesses
completing the survey reported that
superfast broadband had helped their
business generate new sales, with a
quarter of that group pointing to new
trade overseas.
Adrian Dawson, head of projects and
partnerships at Plymouth University,
said, “What’s important is not just
having the infrastructure but knowing
how to get the most from it, and we
work with a lot of Cornish companies
harnessing the power of broadband to
drive growth and create jobs.”
One of those companies is the
media and arts business Genius Loci,
whose owner, Sue Aston, said, “Now
I run teaching classes over Skype with
students from around the globe. I have
students in America, Japan [and] Italy
and even a lady who lives on a boat in
the Mediterranean. It is just as effective
as a face-to-face teaching session, and
it has opened up the whole world as
a potential market. I can continue to
develop the business internationally
without any additional costs involved.”
Sweden Puts the Fiber in Innovation
By Karin Ahl / President, FTTH Council Europe
When it comes to innovation, Sweden
punches above its weight. Sweden
was ranked as the most innovative
country in Europe in September 2013,
using a new benchmark created by the
European Commission. The “indicator
of innovation output” measures the
extent to which innovative ideas from
several key industry segments – such as
the environment, energy, ICT, health
and high-technology industries – are
able to reach the market.
In keeping with its reputation
for being innovative, Sweden was
one of the first countries to deploy
FTTH networks. Today, more than
22 percent of households in the
country have direct connections to
fiber networks (Lithuania is the only
European country with greater FTTH
penetration). An early start in digital
communications combined with a wide
Fiber-wired
Sweden punches
above its weight.
range of open-access models – where
an infrastructure provider grants access
to all service providers on equal terms
– laid the foundations for a vibrant and
competitive broadband market.
In Sweden, we find plenty of
concrete examples of FTTH-enabled
innovation developed either in
Stockholm or in other regions where
FTTH is available. Commercial
streaming music service Spotify started
at KTH Royal Institute of Technology
in Stockholm and today has more
than 6 million active users. Magine,
the streaming TV service that is often
described as Spotify for TV, gained well
over 500,000 subscribers in Sweden
in under a year since its launch in
November 2012. The founder of Giraff
Technologies, who created a telepresence
robot to help the elderly in their homes,
packed his bags and moved his company
to the Swedish city of Västerås in 2009.
Both Stockholm and Västerås built
citywide fiber networks in the early
2000s and have since connected the
majority of households directly to fiber.
It’s not just about communications
networks, of course. Giraff also wanted
to be close to its target market – a
country with a well-established social
care system where looking after the
elderly was a priority. The startup culture
in science parks is also an important
catalyst for innovation. Science parks
are not unique to Sweden, but they are
a strong feature of many universities.
Incubators provide premises, mentoring
and access to funding, making it easier
to start a business. Science parks quite
literally “suck in” startups from nearby
regions, even from other countries, and
the pull is especially strong in areas
with good communications, such as
Stockholm, Linköping and Malmö.
Perhaps the best-known Swedish
startup is Skype, the Internet telephony
service that was sold to eBay for $2.6
billion in 2005, then to Microsoft
for $8.1 billion in 2011. Swedish
entrepreneur Niklas Zennström cofounded the company with Danish
colleague Janus Friis and a small team
of computer developers from Estonia.
The company’s story is about bringing
together talented people with the
resources they need – and for a startup
whose product doesn’t exist without
broadband, good communications are
a given. v
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2013
Leaders in Enabling Economic
Growth With Fiber Networks
Comcast
800-XFINITY
www.wfinity.com/multifamilies
AFL
866-433-0333
www.aflglobal.com
Time Warner Cable
703-713-9310
www.TWC.com
Sumitomo Electric Lightwave
800-358-7378
www.sumitomoelectric.com
Calix
707-766-3000
www.calix.com
877-588-1649
www.bbcmag.com
Clearfield
800-422-2537
www.clearfieldconnection.com
Fujitsu
888-FNC-PROD
www.fujitsu.com/us/services/telecom
Multicom
800-423-2594
www.multicominc.com
R
Anritsu
800-ANRITSU
www.goanritsu.com/BC9083
Spot On Networks
203-523-5210
www.spotonnetworks.com
Power & Tel
901-866-3252
www.ptsupply.com
Great Lakes Data Systems
800-882-7950
www.glds.com
FTTH Council
202-524-9550, ext. 3
www.ftthcouncil.org
Millennium
262-249-8705
www.mymillennium.us
ViewTEQ
954-397-7082
www.viewteq.com
Finley Engineering
952-582-2912
www.fecinc.om
RVA, LLC
918-592-3100
www.rvallc.com
2014 BUYERS GUIDE
Buying for Ultra-Broadband
Builds and Services
The best places to buy equipment, software and services for delivering voice, video,
data and more
H
ere’s what you need to differentiate
a multifamily property, deliver the
benefits of broadband to unserved or
underserved communities, upgrade obsolete
networks with state-of-the-art equipment,
increase revenues with advanced services, meet
customers’ insatiable demand for bandwidth or
attract new businesses to your community. The
new products and services described in these
pages continue to make deploying networks and
services faster, easier and less expensive than
ever before. These vendors can help you plan
and execute your project.
The 2014 Buyers Guide is for
• Property owners and developers
• Telecommunications service providers of all
kinds
• Municipal officials and advisors
• Contractors, consultants, integrators and
installers
• Banks and other capital sources.
Advanced Media Technologies
3150 SW 15th Street
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442
P: 954-427-5711
F: 954-427-9688
W: www.amt.com
Contact: Rob Narzisi
E: rnarzisi@amt.com
products from the world’s most
recognized manufacturers, AMT
targets emerging technology
applications in broadband with
a complete line of products for
CATV, IPTV and FTTH.
AMT’s product offerings also include many
of the industry’s leading manufacturers, such
as Arris, Amino, Blonder Tongue, Pacific
Broadband Networks, EGT, RGB Networks,
Adtec, Drake, Olson Technology and Emcore.
AMT specializes in prebuilt headends,
CMTS turnkey deployments and fiber optic
distribution systems. In addition, AMT’s
engineering and professional services deliver
your complete broadband end-to-end solution.
Customers: MDU/PCO, Telcos, Cable TV,
Hospitality, Municipalities
Products/Services: Outside Plant, Inside
Plant, Test Equipment, Active Electronics,
Headends, Customer-Premises Equipment
Advanced Media Technologies Inc. (AMT)
is the performance leader among CATV and
broadband electronic equipment providers.
As a value-added reseller of high-performance
In the index table, featured suppliers are in
boldface.
Staff members participating in the production of
this section included Irene Prescott and Dennise
Argil.
AFL
Anritsu Company
AT&T Connected Communities
ATX Networks
Cablesys
Calix
Charles Industries Ltd.
Clearfield
Comcast
Com Net Inc. (CNI) / Independents Fiber Network
COS Systems
DrayTek Corp.
Finley Engineering
Fujitsu Network Communications Inc.
GLDS
Graybar
ICC
Millennium
Multicom
OFS
Pace International
Power & Tel
Preformed Line Products
Primex Manufacturing Ltd.
Spot On Networks
Time Warner Cable
TVC Communications,
A Division of WESCO Distribution, Inc.
ValuePoint Networks
Verizon Enhanced Communities
ViewTEQ
AFL
170 Ridgeview Center Drive
Duncan, SC 29334
P: 864-433-0333
F: 864-486-7310
W: www.aflglobal.com
Contact: Mike Hess
E: sales@aflglobal.com
Customer-Premises Equipment
Training
Headends
Design/Construction
Software
Active Electronics
Test Equipment
Structured Wiring
Wireless
Inside Plant
Outside Plant
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Voice/Video/Internet Services
Municipalities
Hospitality
Cable TV
Telcos
COMPANY
MDU/PCO
BUYERS
GUIDE
CUSTOMERS
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Customers: MDU/PCO, Telcos, Cable TV, Hospitality,
Municipalities
Products/Services: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Wireless,
Structured Wiring, Test Equipment, Active Electronics,
Software, Design/Construction, Headends, Training,
AFL provides industry-leading products and services to the
communications, broadband, electric utility, enterprise,
2014 BUYERS GUIDE
mining, nuclear, wireless, renewable and intelligent grid
industries, among others. AFL’s diverse product portfolio
includes fiber optic cable, such as aerial, loose tube and
premises; outside-plant equipment, including closures,
NIDs and cabinets; connectors and assemblies; fusion
splicers and test equipment; education and training. AFL’s
service portfolio includes market-leading positions with the
foremost telecommunications companies supporting both the
inside- and outside-plant areas. AFL provides engineering/
program management services, materials acquisition and
manufacturing integration, installation services, test, turn-up
and maintenance.
Whether you are building, upgrading or expanding a
network, AFL provides the most technologically advanced
solutions for your networking needs. At AFL, we connect.
Anritsu Company
1155 E. Collins Blvd.
Richardson, TX 75081
P: 800-267-4878
F: 972-671-1877
W: www.anritsu.com
Contact: Rob Robinson
E: rob.robinson@anritsu.com
Municipalities, Transportation
Products/Services: Test Equipment, Software
Anritsu Company is the American subsidiary of Anritsu
Corporation, a global provider of innovative communications
test and measurement solutions for more than 110 years.
Anritsu provides solutions for existing and next-generation
wired and wireless communication systems and operators.
Anritsu products include wireless, optical, microwave/RF and
digital instruments as well as operations support systems for
R&D, manufacturing, installation and maintenance. Anritsu
also provides precision microwave/RF components, optical
devices and high-speed electrical devices for communications
products and systems. With offices throughout the world,
Anritsu sells in more than 90 countries and has approximately
4,000 employees.
2180 Lake Blvd.
Atlanta, GA
P: 404-754-3335
F: 404-829-8818
W: www.att.com/communities
Contact: Thuy Woodall
E: tw5598@att.com
Customers: MDU/PCO
Products/Services: Voice/Video/Internet Services, Wireless
AT&T Connected Communities is a specialized division
of AT&T dedicated to creating alliances with apartment
ownership and management groups, single-family builders,
developers and real estate investment trusts within our
22-state service area. As a leading global provider of highspeed Internet, digital TV, home phone service, and wireless
communication services, our mission is to develop reliable
technology solutions bringing AT&T’s complete offering of
the latest communications and entertainment services to your
community and residents. Aligning with AT&T Connected
Communities, which is backed by a single point of contact,
ensures a rewarding marketing partnership and seamless
technology deployment while increasing the value of your
community.
ATX Networks
1-501 Clements Rd. W
Ajax, ON L1S 7H4
P: 814-502-5409
F: 905-427-1964
W: www.atxnetworks.com
Contact: Tim Buck
E: tbuck@atxnetworks.com
Municipalities
Products/Services: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Active
Electronics, Headends, Customer-Premises Equipment
ATX Networks is a global manufacturer of digital video
products, including encoding and transcoding, EPG/stored/
live content streaming, bulk content transition, multichannel
encoding, RF and optical transmission, RF filters, transmitters/
receivers, headend and MDU amplifiers, node segmentation,
node/amp upgrades, monitor/control equipment, pads/EQs,
drop amps, digital voice switches and connectors.
Cablesys
2100 East Valencia Drive, Unit D
Fullerton, CA 92831
P: 800-555-7176
F: 562-356-3200
W: www.cablesys.com
E: cs@cablesys.com
Customers: MDU/PCO, Telcos, Hospitality, Municipalities,
Data Centers, Enterprises, Military and Government
Buildings, Educational Institutions, Medical Facilities
Products/Services: Inside Plant, Structured Wiring
Founded in 1997, Cablesys is a registered ISO 9001:2008
manufacturer for cable and connectivity solutions. We pride
ourselves on quality and exceptional customer service. From
inception, Cablesys engineers have always worked alongside
our customers to explore all possible solutions. This paves
the way so that we can always provide the most cutting-edge
products in the data communications industry. Since then, we
have been able to deliver unsurpassed technical service and
products for a great value. Our friendly, diligent professionals
are available to provide you with support and assistance for all
your connectivity needs.
Cablesys also offers a broad selection of product categories
with a large inventory available at your fingertips. Along
with our vast inventory, we are able to provide you with all
of your custom cabling and labeling needs. As we grow, we
will continue to expand our product portfolio with the latest
innovations to stay in front of the technology curve. This way,
the most progressive products are always easily and quickly
accessible by you.
Calix
1035 N McDowell Blvd.
Petaluma, CA 94954
P: 707-766-3000
F: 707-283-3100
W: www.calix.com
Contact: Dave Russell
E: dave.russell@calix.com
Customers: Telcos, Cable TV, Municipalities
Products/Services: Active Electronics, Software, CustomerPremises Equipment
Calix is a global leader in access innovation. Its Unified
Access portfolio of broadband access systems and
software enables network and business transformation for
communications service providers worldwide, allowing them
to become the broadband service providers of choice to their
subscribers. Visit www.calix.com for more information.
Charles Industries Ltd.
5600 Apollo Dr.
Rolling Meadows, IL 60008
P: 847-806-6300
F: 847-806-6231
W: www.charlesindustries.com
Contact: Brad Wackerlin
E: mktserv@charlesindustries.com
Customers: MDU/PCO, Telcos, Cable TV, Municipalities
Charles Industries has provided the telecommunications,
broadband and utilities markets with nonmetallic distribution
pedestals since 1968, and began offering fiber optic solutions in
2001 with the introduction of the industry’s first nonmetallic
fiber distribution pedestal. Today, Charles’ outside-plant
product lines include passive optical enclosures, including
nonmetallic buried distribution pedestals and housings, belowgrade and grade-level enclosures and a multitude of cabinet
enclosure solutions to accommodate virtually every fiber type
(ribbon, loose buffer tube or central core tube), distribution
method (mechanical splice, fusion splice or preconnectorized)
and FTTx deployment architecture. In addition, Charles offers
an expansive line of active electronic enclosures for wireless
backhaul, site support, small cell, base transceiver station
and DAS applications. Charles was named to Broadband
Communities’ “FTTH Top 100 Companies” and “Top 100
MDU Technology Providers” lists in 2013.
Clearfield Inc.
5480 Nathan Lane
Plymouth, MN 55442
P: 763-476-6866
F: 763-475-8457
W: www.clearfieldconnection.com
Contact: Johnny Hill
E: sales@clfd.net
Customers: MDU/PCO, Telcos, Cable TV, Municipalities,
Military-Government
No matter whether you’re delivering fiber to the home,
business or cell site, Clearfield will lower your cost
of broadband deployment. With its FieldSmart fiber
management platform, CraftSmart OSP fiber enclosures and
FieldShield microduct and pushable fiber system, Clearfield
sets the standard for fiber performance and lowers the cost
of broadband deployment. FieldSmart is the industry’s only
fiber management platform to be designed around a single
architecture, the Clearview Cassette and xPAK. It supports a
wide range of panel and cabinet configurations and pushable
fiber technologies that integrate with Clearfield’s Clearview
Cassette and xPAK. Passive optical components are integrated
within the FieldSmart architecture for user-defined split
ratios and optimal resolution of fiber exhaust. CraftSmart is
the industry’s only field enclosure system optimized for fiber
deployment. Clearfield’s FiberDeep fiber patch cords guarantee
performance at .2dB insertion loss. NASDAQ: CLFD
Comcast
1701 John F. Kennedy Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19103
P: 215-866-8171
W: www.comcast.com/xfinity
Contact: Mike Slovin
E: Michael_Slovin@cable.comcast.com
Customers: MDU/PCO
Products/Services: Voice/Video/Internet Services
XFINITY from Comcast provides residents with TV, Internet
and voice services that work together so they can access and
enjoy everything they love anytime, anywhere and any way
they want. With Comcast’s digital platform and continued
innovation, properties are ready for advanced services now
and in the future – making them more appealing to techsavvy residents.
An interactive TV experience that gives residents instant
access to all of their entertainment is the X1 Platform from
XFINITY. It delivers integrated search results across live TV,
2014 BUYERS GUIDE
XFINITY On Demand and DVR, in addition to personalized
recommendations and apps such as Facebook and Pandora.
The X1 Platform, which is currently rolling out across the
Comcast footprint, incorporates IP technology using cloud
servers on Comcast’s network that allow Comcast to integrate
interactive, customized apps and social media features with
traditional video services.
Com Net Inc. (CNI) / Independents Fiber Network
13888 County Rd. 25A
Wapakoneta, OH 45895
P: 855-226-6638
F: 419-739-3154
W: www.cniteam.com; www.ifnetwork.biz
Contact: Tim Berelsman
E: sales@cniteam.om
Customers: Telcos, Municipalities, B2B Market, Multisite
Businesses
Products/Services: Voice/Video/Internet Services, Transport,
Network Management
CNI was established in 1993 through a collaboration of
15 independent local exchange companies (ILECs) across
Ohio. Currently, CNI has an ownership base of 21 ILECs
and one electrical cooperative. CNI was established to
help local service providers deliver quality voice, video and
data services to their subscriber bases. Independents Fiber
Network, a wholly owned subsidiary of CNI, was established
in 2003 to provide Ethernet-over-fiber transport solutions to
our customers and businesses for powering next-generation
voice, video and data services. Both entities are Ohio-based
companies and give our customers peace of mind knowing
the services they receive are monitored by our 24/7/365
network operation center and supported by our 24/7/365
call center. Today, our services extend well beyond our local
partners to serve customers and businesses through our
national and international reach.
COS Systems
16 Coddington Wharf #2
Newport, RI 02840
P: 617-274-8171
F: 401-849-3870
W: www.cossystems.com
Contact: Ron Corriveau
E: ron.corriveau@cossystems.com
Municipalities, Real Estate Developers
Products/Services: Software, Design/Construction, Training
From planning to managing, COS captures fiber ROI.
COS enables profitable fiber networks and boosts economic
development, quality of life and access to the global economy
for all communities.
Until now, fiber deployments were constricted by besteffort estimates and assumptions. Now COS delivers tools for
optimal ROI and real-time customer demand and supports
planning, design and service professionals.
Eliminate any doubts. Drive profitable fiber network
deployments with real revenue data. COS enables gigabit
growth in your community with tools to
• Discover demand for fiber.
• Design networks for optimal ROI.
• Deploy with subscriber backing.
Prepare for 50+ years of economic growth. Give
generations of your citizens the cutting-edge fiber
infrastructure advantage.
Eradicate assumptions and speculation. See for yourself
how COS delivers the key to gigabit growth. Learn more at
www.COSsystems.com
DrayTek Corp.
No. 26, Fushing Rd., Hukou
Hsinchu Industrial Park
Hsinchu, Taiwan 303
P: 886-3-5972727 Ext 622
F: 886-3-5972121
W: www.draytek.com
Contact: Julia Su
E: jsu@draytek.com
Customers: Telcos, Cable TV, Hospitality, Small and
Medium Business
Products/Services: Wireless, Customer-Premises Equipment
DrayTek, established in 1997 by a group of talented engineers,
is now a world-leading supplier of state-of-the-art networking
solutions. We have migrated from the leading provider
of remote access solutions to the customized networking
solutions for diverse local markets around the world. At
present, DrayTek’s solutions range from enterprise-level
firewalls, mission-critical VPN/VoIP facilities for SOHO
businesses, various xDSL/broadband CPE, to prospective
telecommunications products and TR-069 central management
solutions (e.g. VigorACS SI) that can meet the market trend
and go above and beyond customers’ expectations.
Our success comes from the way we build our brand. For
us, DrayTek is not only a brand name but also a commitment
to quality and service.
Finley Engineering
5353 Wayzata Blvd. #202
Minneapolis, MN 55416
P: 952-582-2912
W: www.fecinc.com
Contact: Barb Ostrander
E: b.ostrander@fecinc.com
Customers: Telcos, Municipalities
Products/Services: Design/Construction
At Finley Engineering, we are acutely aware of the demand for
fiber networks and the opportunity these networks bring to
communities of all sizes. Our goal is to work with organizations
that have the passion for providing their end users with fiber
connections to improve their quality of life and economic
opportunities. We specialize in end-to-end engineering
consulting for telecommunications, broadband, wireless, cable
television and electric power transmission and distribution
networks, as well as project management, five-year strategic
planning, right-of-way and land services. Finley develops
specific design criteria for clients’ projects and follows through
with detailed designs, construction documents, contracts,
contract administration and materials lists. Once a project is
underway, Finley can provide construction observation and
project management. Finley has completed nearly 20,000 miles
of FTTH projects and 100,000 homes with fiber. Founded
in 1953, Finley Engineering Company is one of the largest
telecom network design companies in the United States.
Fujitsu Network Communications Inc.
2801 Telecom Parkway
Richardson, TX 75082
P: 888-FNC-PROD
F: 972-479-6941
W: www.fujitsu.com/us/services/telecom/
Contact: Aubree Lambright
E: fncinsidesales@fnc.fujitsu.com
Customers: Telcos, Cable TV, Hospitality, Municipalities,
Research and Education, Health Care Providers,
Transportation, Utilities, State Governments
Active Electronics, Software, Design/Construction,
Headends, Training, Customer-Premises Equipment
Fujitsu Network Communications Inc., headquartered in
Richardson, Texas, has built communications networks for
more than 30 years. We bring the power of information and
communications technology (ICT) to communities, state and
federal governments, utilities, large enterprises and major global
service providers. Our expertise touches the lives of millions
and enhances the technological vitality of communities.
Customers have long relied on Fujitsu as a trusted partner
as they expand, modernize or build new fiber networks. We
are experts in sourcing best-of-breed equipment, managing
complex multivendor deployments and providing a complete
suite of network integration services. We take a consultative
approach to establish a communications baseline and then
to analyze, create and implement a custom solution for your
unique requirements. Then we collaborate with you to design,
implement and manage your communications network so
that you achieve the necessary communications infrastructure
to help your community grow economically now and for years
to come.
GLDS
5954 Priestly Dr.
Carlsbad, CA 92008
P: 760-602-1900
F: 760-602-1928
W: www.glds.com
Contact: Sandi Kruger
E: sandi@glds.com
Products/Services: Software
A Broadband Communities FTTH Top 100 company,
GLDS sets a new standard for cable billing and subscriber
management software. WinCable’s client/server architecture,
attractive Windows design and robust SQL database provide
optimal features, benefits and value.
FTTH, IPTV, digital and analog set-top boxes,
conditional access satellite receivers, cable modems, VoD
and VoIP can all be managed directly from the WinCable
billing system. GLDS also offers a mobile app for field-based
workforce management as well as telephone and Web-based
customer self-care.
WinCable
• Is designed for the requirements of private, franchised and
municipal broadband.
• Has exclusive address-based features.
• Offers full support for interdiction, FTTH, digital, IPTV,
VoIP and more.
• Provides landlord/tenant billing options.
• Is available as a low-cost stand-alone or cloud-based
solution.
Serving small and mid-sized operators, GLDS has
implemented its solutions for more than 400 broadband
systems in 49 states and 44 countries. For more information,
contact GLDS Sales at 800-882-7950 or visit www.glds.com.
Graybar
34 N. Meramel Ave.
Saint Louis, MO 63105
P: 704-398-6211
F: 704-392-4528
W: www.graybar.com
Contact: Heather Delz
E: heather.delz@graybar.com
Graybar, a Fortune 500 company, specializes in supplychain management services and is a leading North American
distributor of components, equipment and materials for the
electrical, communications, data networking, industrial and
utility industries. With net sales of $5.4 billion in 2012,
Graybar employs approximately 7,400 people at more than
2014 BUYERS GUIDE
240 distribution centers throughout the U.S., Canada and
Puerto Rico. It is one of North America’s largest and oldest
employee-owned companies.
Graybar distributes a wide array of broadband and
utility components, equipment and materials that service
independent telephone companies, IOUs and municipalities,
RUS plow contractors, wireless backhaul providers, CO
contractors, CLECs, MSOs and CATV companies. FTTx
solutions and architectures, as well as related solutions
and services, represent a significant portion of Graybar’s
broadband utility business.
Graybar stocks and sells nearly 1 million items from
thousands of manufacturers. Through its distribution
network and value-added services, including kitting and
integrated solutions, Graybar is helping its customers power,
network and secure their facilities with speed, intelligence and
efficiency. Contact: heather.delz@graybar.com for additional
information.
ICC
2100 East Valencia Drive, Unit D
Fullerton, CA 92831
P: 888-275-4422
F: 562-356-3100
W: www.icc.com
Contact: Don Lagrave
E: csr@icc.com
Customers: MDU/PCO, Telcos, Hospitality, Municipalities,
Enterprises, Military and Government Buildings,
Educational Institutions, Medical Facilities
Products/Services: Inside Plant, Structured Wiring, Training
Since 1984, ICC has been manufacturing end-to-end
structured cabling solutions for data, voice, audio, video and
fiber optic connectivity. ICC products have been installed in
commercial enterprises, educational institutions, residences,
hospitals and government facilities across the nation. We offer
thousands of product SKUs, including modular connectors,
faceplates, patch panels, patch cords, premises cable, cable
management racks, fiber optic systems, raceways, residential
enclosures and more. Our elite installers prefer ICC products
for their ease of use, proven performance and 40 percent
savings over the big brands. Elite installers can offer a 15-year
system performance warranty without certification; certified
elite installers can verify a site and offer a lifetime warranty.
Go online to icc.com/Elite and join Elite, or call us at
888-ASK-4ICC.
Millennium
700 Veterans Parkway, Suite 204
Lake Geneva, WI 53147
P: 262-249-8705
W: www.mymillennium.us
Contact: Kyle Kulow
E: kyle@mtpllc.us
Municipalities, Contractors, ITS DOT
Structured Wiring, Test Equipment, Training
Founded in 2006,
Lake Geneva, Wis.based Millennium
Communication
and Electrical
Products has already
become one of the
fastest-growing
companies of its kind across the nation. According to CEO
James Kyle, this success can be attributed to a simple strategy
adopted by the company: Pay close attention to what the
customer needs and deliver unmatched service. Millennium
has distribution warehouses in Lake Geneva, Wis.; Green Bay,
Wis.; Chicago; Detroit; Indianapolis; Tampa Bay, Fla.; and
Salt Lake City, Utah.
Multicom
1076 Florida Central Parkway
Longwood, FL 32750
P: 407-331-7779
F: 407-339-0204
W: www.multicominc.com
Contact: Matt Conrad
E: matt@multicominc.com
Municipalities
Products/Services: Voice/Video/Internet Services, Outside
Plant, Inside Plant, Wireless, Structured Wiring, Test
Equipment, Active Electronics, Design/Construction,
Headends, Training, Customer-Premises Equipment
Headquartered in Orlando, Fla., since 1982, Multicom is a
world-class developer, manufacturer and stocking distributor
of products used for video, data and voice solutions over
fiber, copper and Wi-Fi for the U.S., Latin America and
worldwide. Stocking 13,000 products from more than 270 of
the world’s major manufacturers, Multicom provides costefficient solutions and expertise to implement even the most
sophisticated projects.
Multicom is proud to announce its new, affordable,
GPON “Everything Included” video-data-voice-Wi-Fi
solution and fiber optic product line – making it easy and
affordable to deploy future-proof GPON networks in any
location. Multicom’s value-added services include designing
distribution systems and providing a complete-priced bill of
materials, then racking, balancing and crating your headend
for a complete plug-and-play solution.
Multicom Invents: The Multicom TotalGUARDIAN
MTG-EL24 is the most innovative remote headend server
available on the market, allowing you to service and control
headend equipment that has never had this capability
R
before, all remotely via a smartphone, tablet, laptop or
desktop computer.
Multicom maintains sales offices, rep agencies and
subdistributors throughout the Americas. For competitively
priced products and services, call us at 800-423-2594, email
multicom@multicominc.com or visit our premier Internet
resource website at www.multicominc.com.
Power & Tel
2673 Yale Ave.
Memphis, TN 38112
P: 901-866-3252
F: 901-320-3486
W: www.ptsupply.com
Contact: Keith Cress
E: keith.cress@ptsupply.com
OFS
200 N.E. Expressway
Norcross, GA 30071
P: 888-342-3743
F: 770-798-3872
W: www.ofsoptics.com
Contact: OFS Sales
E: ofs@ofsoptics.com
Municipalities
$)XUXNDZD&RPSDQ\
OFS can help to “Fiber-connect your Community” with
high-performance, end-to-end solutions that deliver fiber
directly to homes, businesses, MDUs and cellular/DAS sites.
OFS’s innovative portfolio includes ultra bend-insensitive
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Solution for MDU and in-home wiring applications, AllWave
ZWP single-mode fiber, Fortex and AccuRibbon outsideplant cables, FITEL fusion splicers and DirectConnect
optical splitters.
OFS’s corporate lineage dates back to 1876 and includes
technology powerhouses such as AT&T and Lucent
Technologies. Today, OFS is owned by Furukawa Electric, a
multibillion-dollar global leader in optical communications.
Headquartered in Norcross (near Atlanta), Ga., OFS is a
global provider with facilities in China, Denmark, Germany,
Russia, and the United States. For more information, please
visit www.ofsoptics.com.
Pace International
3582 Technology Dr. NW
Rochester, MN 55901
P: 507-424-4900
F: 507-424-4981
W: www.paceintl.com
Contact: Sam Schell
E: sam@paceintl.com
Customers: MDU/PCO, Telcos, Cable TV, Hospitality
Products/Services: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, Test
Equipment, Active Electronics, Design/Construction,
Headends, Training
Pace International is a DISH authorized distributor for private
cable operator hardware and content and offers solutions to
help operators offer voice, video and data services.
Power & Tel specializes in the procurement, sales and
materials management of communications products. Our
extensive distribution network provides groups such as service
providers and contractors a critical link between their network
needs and the manufacturers’ solutions for them. Power &
Tel’s portfolio includes products and solutions for broadband
access, CATV, cellular backhaul, FTTx, home networking,
IPTV, MDUs, optical networks, outside plant, testing and
much more. Utilizing our supply-chain experience and
technologies allows you to focus on serving your customer
instead of managing the costs of handling inventory.
660 Beta Dr.
Mayfield Village, OH 44143
P: 440-461-5200
W: www.preformed.com
Contact: Bill Upton
E: bupton@preformed.com
Products/Services: Outside Plant, Inside Plant, CustomerPremises Equipment
Preformed Line Products has offered solutions for the
communications and energy industries for almost 70
years. PLP’s COYOTE fiber optic products are designed
to offer the greatest flexibility when addressing the multitude
of connection options required to support home and
office networks.
COYOTE Axcess Solutions Cabinets (wall and rack
mount), designed for indoor use, offer durable, protected,
secure fiber splicing and connectivity. They can be ordered
with adapter modules or preterminated to exact specs.
COYOTE Fiber Wall Plates and the patented COYOTE
ACE (Adaptable Connection Enclosures) are compact fiber
organizers used inside homes, offices or apartments. They
consolidate multiple connection types within the same
assembly and mount to a standard junction box or wall.
2014 BUYERS GUIDE
Visit PLP’s website at www.preformed.com, email us at
inquiries@preformed.com or call 440-461-5200 for additional
information on these and other industry solutions.
Primex Manufacturing Ltd.
20160 92A Avenue
Langley, BC, V1m 3A4
Canada
P: 877-881-7875
F: 604-881-7835
W: www.primexfits.com
Contact: Mahmud Harji
E: info@primexfits.com
Customers: MDU/PCO, Telcos, Cable TV
Products/Services: Outside Plant, Inside Plant,
Structured Wiring
Primex has been providing premium custom industrial plastic
enclosures to leading telcos for years. We’re the partner of
choice for OSP and install-and-repair teams across North
America. Our ability to design and deliver a top-quality,
North American–manufactured product in collaboration
with our customers, to meet every one of their enclosure
needs, is what sets us apart. Primex enclosures perform like
no others. Each is built specifically to answer the needs of
today’s broadband installers. They help telcos manage the
transition to broadband with less cost and greater flexibility
and adaptability for future technologies.
Spot On Networks
55 Church Street
New Haven, CT
P: 203-523-5210
F: 203-773-1947
W: www.spotonnetworks.com
Contact: Jessica DaSilva
E: jdasilva@spotonnetworks.com
Customers: MDU/PCO, Hospitality, Municipalities, Retail,
Restaurant, Commercial
Products/Services: Voice/Video/Internet Services; Wireless
Spot On Networks (“SON”)
is a wireless Internet service
provider (WISP) providing
managed UserSafe Wi-Fi
networks to multitenant
properties, hotels and
commercial spaces. SON
is the leading provider of
managed Wi-Fi networks to
the U.S. multitenant housing
market and a trusted leader
in hotel Wi-Fi since 2004.
SON develops Wi-Fi-backed
solutions to solve the most
pressing problems today’s
building owners face.
The CellBOOST family of services provides cost-effective
cellular signal solutions for properties that are experiencing
poor indoor cellular coverage. In addition, CellBOOST
enhances indoor radio signals, allowing first responders to
have adequate indoor radio coverage.
WiFiPlus+ provides buildings with wireless energy
management, building automation and security monitoring
solutions to help properties save money on utilities, earn
LEED credits, reduce their carbon footprints and build techsavvy buildings of the future.
Spot On Networks is the only Wi-Fi provider with
UserSafe technology. UserSafe guards network users from
hacking and identity theft.
78 T.W. Alexander Dr.
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
P: 800-358-7378
W: www.sumitomoelectric.com, www.futureflex.com
Contact: Customer Service
E: info@sumitomoelectric.com
Municipalities, Enterprise and Data Center Networks
Structured Wiring, Test Equipment, Design/
Construction, Headends, Training, Customer-Premises
Equipment, Fusion Splicers, Field Installation Connectors
Sumitomo Electric Lightwave (SEL) is a major industry
leader in the development, innovation and manufacturing of
optical fiber and connectivity solutions to tailor fiber optic
communication, wireless, residential broadband, FTTx, data
center and enterprise networks.
By offering the industry’s highest-quality and most reliable
optical fiber, fiber optic cable, fusion splicing equipment and
accessories, field-installable connectors, passive components,
FTTx solutions, EPON equipment and FutureFLEX AirBlown Fiber and Air-Blown Cable, SEL is the trusted
solutions provider for many of today’s major optical fiber
network deployments.
Dedicated
to continuous
innovation, SEL
introduces industryfirst solutions that
advance information
and communications
networks serving
North, South and
Central America.
Backed by outstanding
customer, engineering,
technical and training services, we partner with customers to
achieve their network visions.
Established in 1984, Sumitomo Electric Lightwave is
a wholly owned company of Sumitomo Electric Industries
Ltd., the global leader in information and communications
technology with over $20 billion in revenue and 200,000
employees worldwide.
Time Warner Cable
2551 Dulles View Dr.
Herndon, VA 20171
P: 703-713-9310
W: www.TWC.com
Contact: Dave Schwehm
E: dave.schwehm@twcable.com
Customers: MDU/PCO
Products/Services: Voice/Video/Inernet Services
When you choose Time Warner Cable, you’re partnering
with an industry leader who is dedicated to helping property
owners and managers exceed their goals. We’re all about
connecting people and businesses with information,
entertainment and each other. That’s why we bring you the
latest innovations for your home and office – hundreds of
high-definition channels, enhanced TV features, super-fast
Internet and easy-to-use home phone features. All this and
more, thanks to Time Warner Cable’s investment in a robust,
fiber-rich network. If you want apps, we have those, too. The
TWC TV App makes any room a TV room. Download apps
to manage your My TWC account or locate the nearest TWC
Wi-Fi hotspot. Never miss your favorite show or sporting
event with HBO GO, WatchESPN, Fox News and countless
others, all available from Time Warner Cable. Time Warner
Cable – Enjoy Better. www.twc.com.
Contact Joanne Luger at joanne.luger@twcable.com or
703-345-2749 today.
TVC Communications
800 Airport Rd.
Annville, PA 17003
P: 888-644-6075
F: 717-944-7446
W: www.tvcinc.com
Contact: Stephanie Beck
E: sbeck@tvcinc.com
Customers: Telcos, Cable TV, Hospitality, Municipalities
Products/Services: Outside Plant, Inside Plant,
The Leading Conference on Broadband Technologies and Services
Congratulates
Magazine
the newest sponsors and exhibitors joining the 2014 Broadband Communities Summit.
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Time Warner Cable
For other inquiries:
877-588-1649 | www.bbcmag.com
2014 BUYERS GUIDE
Wireless, Structured Wiring, Test Equipment, Active
Electronics, Design/Construction, Headends, Training,
TVC Communications, a division of WESCO Distribution
Inc., is the leading value-added distribution and supplychain solutions provider specializing in communication and
security solutions. Serving a diverse customer portfolio in the
broadband, broadcast and government end market segments
while providing the broadest product offering in the industry,
TVC is committed to finding new ways to help our customers
optimize their network deliverables for subscribers while
minimizing their operational expenses.
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consolidated reporting
Supply-chain optimization, including VMI and integrated
supply
Spend management and savings programs
Strategically located operating and distribution footprint.
Visit www.tvcinc.com for more information.
ValuePoint Networks
350 Townsend St., Suite 314
San Francisco, CA 94107
P: 415-979-0600
F: 415-358-4664
W: www.valuepointnet.com
Contact: David Grissom
E: info@valuepointnet.com
Customers: MDU/PCO, Hospitality, Municipalities,
Education, Industrial
Products/Services: Active Electronics, Wireless, CustomerPremises Equipment
ValuePoint (VP) Networks makes products for authenticated
Internet access of mobile devices and high-performance,
seamless broadband connectivity. Our products are especially
designed for guest networks, such as hotels, MTU/MDU,
guest access within the enterprise, schools, hospitals,
government and hot spots. These networks need affordable
and higher bandwidth more than ever before. Our gateway
controllers, link aggregators and Wi-Fi access products help
you maximize and control your bandwidth so you get the most
out of your available ISP connections. We have been helping
thousands of solution providers implement efficient network
systems since 2003. Choose VP Networks to minimize your
capital requirements and improve your return on investment.
13100 Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904
P: 855-885-5200
W: www.verizon.com/communities
Contact: Tom Nugent
E: tom.nugent@verizon.com
Customers: MDU/PCO
Products/Services: Voice/Video/Internet Services, Wireless,
Verizon Enhanced Communities is Verizon’s business unit
dedicated to serving single- and multifamily residential
communities with Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
services as well as cutting-edge applications that add value to
your community, including Verizon Concierge, all delivered
over the award-winning Verizon FiOS all-fiber-optic network.
Verizon offers a wide variety of programs that benefit
property owners and unique services to enhance any
community, differentiating it from a property without FiOS
services. Verizon makes it easy, providing custom installation
with dedicated management and engineering teams as well
as ongoing customer service. Contact us and learn how your
property can get an upgrade and benefit from the value
of having an all-fiber-optic network at www.verizon.com/
communities.
ViewTEQ Corp.
1020 NW 6th St., Ste. A
Deerfield Beach, FL 33442
P: 954-351-1121
F: 954-351-6977
W: www.viewteq.com
Contact: Carl Klein
E: carlk@viewteq.com
Customers: MDU/PCO, Telcos, Cable TV, Hospitality
Products/Services: Test Equipment, Active Electronics,
The new IPTV line available from ViewTEQ offers our
customers the opportunity to provide the latest technology
in a custom-fit package. The ViewTEQ headend product
line offers operators a variety of solutions for their signal
management needs. The ViewTEQ test equipment line
provides your field personnel with the tools they need to
verify optical and RF transmission, signal levels, clarity and
targeted subscriber service. The ViewTEQ drop security line
and our other drop products provide the required network
protection from unwarranted intrusion, theft of service and
introduction of signal interference. v
Did you like
2013
BROADBAND APPS
Seeing Double:
Multiscreen Video Trends
New technologies help operators improve the multiscreen experience, lower costs and
tap new revenue streams.
By Masha Zager / Broadband Communities
T
o compete with over-the-top video providers and retain subscribers, many pay-TV operators
now make their video services available via the Internet on PCs and mobile devices.
Subscribers have welcomed these services. ABI Research estimates that nearly one-third of
U.S. telco TV households access multiscreen services, often called TV Everywhere; the percentage of
cable users is nearly as high.
TV Everywhere started up slowly because of technology hurdles and because operators have had
to wait for their long-term rights contracts with content providers to come up for renewal. However,
the technology is becoming more sophisticated, and, according to ABI analyst Michael Inouye, “in
many respects the technology is in place to increasingly offer wider-reaching TVE services.” He
adds, “Securing the rights to broader content distribution is the primary remaining hurdle.” Still, the
amount of multiscreen content continues to grow. Some offerings now include live TV (the holy grail
of Internet video) and outside-the-home viewing rights.
With the rapid evolution of technology, consumer behavior and content rights, the TV
Everywhere landscape is constantly shifting. Earlier this year, Broadband Communities surveyed
three technology vendors about their perspectives on new developments.
MobiTV: Identifying Individual Viewers
MobiTV’s managed TV Everywhere services
deliver live and on-demand television,
downloadable video and related media content
to mobile devices, tablets and personal
computers. The company launched a decade
ago with a consumer subscription service for
video downloaded to mobile phones, then
shifted its emphasis to serving operators rather
than consumers.
Cedric Fernandes, the chief technology
officer, says MobiTV foresaw the eventual
merging of wired and wireless TV and began
developing a TV Everywhere offering as early as
2006. It has already completed the first phase of
the rollout of Deutsche Telekom’s Entertain2Go
streaming service and is now working on
another large multiscreen IPTV implementation.
Tablet computers are driving the demand for
multiscreen services, Fernandes says, because
consumers especially enjoy watching video on
tablets. In addition, wireless networks – both
Wi-Fi and cellular – have improved to the
point where watching video on a mobile device
can be a comfortable experience. At the same
time, over-the-top video has changed users’
perceptions of acceptable video quality in the
same way that cellphones’ convenience changed
users’ notions of acceptable voice quality.
BROADBAND APPS
“Tablets aren’t replacing the big
screen, but they’re powerful as second
screens,” Fernandes explains. “People
use tablets paired with a TV for content
discovery and for interactive features.
Tablets have played a significant role in
changing usage habits.”
He adds, “Broadband providers
should be monetizing their networks
more than they are today. IPTV
operators with dedicated networks are
trying to do multiscreen, but effectively
they’re bolting it onto existing legacy
applications.”
Multiscreen services that are
cumbersome drive viewers to overthe-top services such as Netflix, Hulu
and Amazon, which are difficult for
network operators to monetize. When
operators use systems designed for
multiscreen from the ground up, they
can deliver user-friendly, high-quality
video content over the Internet and
retain their customers. These systems
take advantage of advanced codecs,
HTTP, adaptive bit-rate streaming and
content delivery networks. MobiTV
encourages operators to monetize their
networks by delivering premium video
services via the Internet. “Content is
still king,” Fernandes points out, and
pay-TV providers, who spend billions of
dollars each year on content, still have
by far the most content to offer – and
will have for the foreseeable future.
This year, MobiTV announced
personalized recommendation services
and integrated advertising that
enables contextual and second-screen
interactions in multiuser environments.
“Those are just examples of what
the underlying technology can do,”
Fernandes explains. The traditional
set-top box experience, he says, is “a
very generic experience and a one-way
street” – a viewer selects a channel,
but the service provider does not know
who is making the selection. Because
MobiTV identifies users independent
of devices, through traditional logins
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or other means, a service provider
can tailor an entire experience to a
particular user’s likes and dislikes.
Says Fernandes, “We believe this
experience will be social, interactive
and integrated with services beyond
video. … This reasoning is based on
general industry trends, on what we’re
seeing of the usage of our systems, on
focus groups and on other research. …
Clearly, people are spending more time
on social networks and engaging with
other people through them, and that
extends to the TV experience.”
WHY SO MANY WEBSITES?
Typically, in a TV Everywhere
experience today, a user must visit
a content provider’s website and
authenticate himself or herself as a
subscriber of a particular pay-TV
service. MobiTV hopes to change
that. “Why should I have to go to all
these websites?” Fernandes asks. “It
should be an integrated experience. The
authentication should all happen in the
back end. That means content providers
would have to [agree] – but we think
that will change over time because
content providers want better audience
measurements from multiscreen. …
What we’re doing to overcome the
challenge is to create an interactive
experience on the second-screen device
so the user will not just look at the ads
but also interact with them.” When
they can identify users and serve
contextualized ads, advertisers should
be willing to pay much higher prices
than they pay for generic ads, Fernandes
says. (MobiTV has partnerships with
online advertising agencies but does not
buy or sell advertising.)
Online video advertising can
involve more than just traditional ad
spots, Fernandes says. For example, an
advertiser can creat hot spots on screens
that drive users to its brand’s Facebook
page or make other use of social media.
Product placement also works well in
online content. “Imagine putting a
box around a Coke logo and an icon
on a tablet saying ‘Click here to learn
more,’” Fernandes says. “It’s a really
powerful mechanism.”
SeaWell Networks: Serving Local Content
SeaWell Networks, another TV
Everywhere leader, focuses on session
control for local video – what Duncan
Potter, the chief marketing officer,
refers to as “worrying about what
the bits look like when they actually
arrive.” The company’s flagship
product, Spectrum, provides a video
delivery control layer that runs on
top of an operator’s existing network
infrastructure. This gives operators
the same level of control over Internetdelivered video that they’re accustomed
to having with television.
As Potter explains it, each session
delivery controller sits at the network
edge, providing a range of services
to devices that request video from its
area of the network. Potter says, “We
believe the whole concept of managing
individual sessions for individual
devices is crucial to monetizing
the network and ensuring delivery
and security.”
The most important local video
service, at least in U.S. markets, is
targeted ad insertion. SeaWell isn’t
involved with the ad selection process
but rather with managing insertions on
an individual session basis. Spectrum
dynamically repackages the advertising
– that is, it reformats each ad on the
fly to deliver it in a format appropriate
for the user device and the available
network speed. It then adds deviceappropriate encryption (which is
required for operators to obtain content
at a reasonable cost) and optimizes the
buffer strategy. As Potter explains, “If
it’s coming in on a mobile network,
you want eight- to 10-second fragments
to prevent having to make constant
adjustments. If you have a 60-inch TV
on Google Fiber, you want fragments as
short as possible.”
Reformatting content for different
devices is technically challenging,
Potter says, even though “people believe
you can put information in and a
device will play it.” Caching a different
version of each piece of content for each
possible protocol and each possible
bit rate is feasible but klugy; a more
efficient approach, which SeaWell
The traditional content model is now up for
grabs: Soon, operators may curate their own
over-the-top channels instead of relying on
cable networks to do it.
uses, is to track individual sessions
and reformat content dynamically. In
addition, Potter says, “We do session
management and quality of experience
monitoring – and that makes it
possible for operators to run a smooth,
professional service, as if they were
delivering to their own set-top boxes.”
Potter explains that the original
technical model for targeted video
advertising – namely, that each client
device would identify itself to the ad
decision server (“This is Duncan; give
me an ad for him”) – did not scale well.
When millions of people watch the
same show and an ad comes on, each
device must communicate with the ad
server at the same time. “The access
network would melt, the backbone
would melt, there would be massive
buffering, and … the next day everyone
would be saying, ‘I want my money
back.’” SeaWell’s server, which keeps
track of each session, doesn’t require
client devices to identify themselves
each time an ad is sent.
POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS AND
HIGH-SCHOOL FOOTBALL
One major opportunity for using
targeted ads is in political campaigns.
Currently, because advertising is
poorly targeted, candidates waste
huge amounts of money advertising
to people who can’t or won’t vote for
them. With microtargeting, campaigns
can be more effective, broadcasters can
increase their ad revenues and viewers
can see more relevant ads.
Delivering local content such as
high-school sports is another reason
an operator might use a session
controller. This is especially important
for Tier 2 and Tier 3 operators; local
video is a major differentiator for
these companies, but typically they
don’t have the scale to build their
own systems from the ground up. In
fact, SeaWell recently announced an
implementation of Spectrum with
Nemont Telephone Cooperative, a rural
provider based in Montana.
According to Potter, some small
operators now deliver local video
to subscribers outside their pay-TV
footprints – usually pay-TV subscribers
who are traveling and want to see a
local game, but potentially residents
who have moved away and still follow
their high-school teams. “It’s not
turning the world upside down,”
Potter admits, but with Amazon Cloud
Services and a Spectrum controller,
any operator can provide this service at
low cost, keep customers satisfied and
generate extra revenues.
In the longer term, Potter says,
improved delivery of multiscreen
video may revolutionize the entire
content model. Niche channels may
be delivered only via the Internet – or
may no longer exist as channels at
all. Today, channels are collections of
content curated by broadcast or cable
networks, but over-the-top video allows
for new curation options. Operators
may be able to create channels that
would appeal to specific groups of their
subscribers. Targeting the audience in
this way could increase their advertising
revenues substantially.
Improved multiscreen delivery offers
yet another opportunity – providing
services differentiated by quality.
Operators can use high video quality
to generate additional revenues or to
reduce churn, Potter says. In addition,
operators will know what video quality
BROADBAND APPS
their customers are getting. Today,
when a customer asks for a refund
because a video feed failed in the
middle of a football game, an operator
can’t say, ‘No, that isn’t true.’ With
session tracking, the operator will have
a record of the customer’s experience.
“We can tell the operations folks, ‘Now
you’re back in control,’” says Potter.
Edgeware: Cooperation With Over-the-Top Providers
Edgeware began deploying TV
Everywhere systems several years
ago. Today, in addition to helping
operators deliver their own pay-TV
services to second screens, it helps
them offer content delivery network
services to third-party providers. “That
puts operators in a somewhat better
mood,” says Joachim Roos, Edgeware’s
founder and CEO. “They don’t have to
see over-the-top providers only as the
enemy. Operators still have to pay for
scaling up their infrastructure, as well
as for peering or transit – and that’s
not a pretty picture – but on the other
hand, they have the ability to attract
some services and make some money.”
For example, some Edgeware customers
now offer foreign TV channels via the
Internet that are not included in their
pay-TV services.
Some other Edgeware customers
begin their multiscreen services at the
small-screen end. For example, a telco
may be interested in providing video
services but may hesitate to invest
in building out video infrastructure
without proving the business case.
If it finds that demand exists, it can
expand to offer more traditional pay-TV
services. Roos explains, “They can decide
what the mix is as they go along and
The Leading Conference on
Broadband Technologies and Services
“This was my first Broadband Communities Summit,
and I am so happy that I attended. The Summit program
was full of interesting, relevant content and allowed
for great networking with others. It was fantastic
timing with Google Fiber coming to Austin.”
– Rondella Hawkins, Telecommunications
& Regulatory Affairs, City of Austin
provision the infrastructure to do more
multiscreen or more traditional delivery.”
According to Roos, operators
purchase Edgeware’s products
so they can provide online video
with high quality of service. Some
early multiscreen efforts had poor
service quality, and customers were
unimpressed. To be viable, a service
offering must guarantee a level of
quality that consumers find acceptable.
Consumers expect that over-the-top
content, if it comes from a pay-TV
provider, will look like pay TV. “It needs
to be good quality, or the subscriber will
go somewhere else,” Roos says. “That’s so
much easier to do in the OTT world.”
Small operators, in particular, are in
a bind when it comes to operating video
services. They don’t have the economies
of scale to spread their infrastructure
costs over huge subscriber bases, and
their content acquisition costs are
extremely high; competing against
global content providers such as Netflix
is next to impossible. In this situation,
an operator may be best off distributing
content from third-party providers:
It can provide more diverse content
to subscribers and at the same time
charge content providers to reach its
subscribers with high-quality video.
Operators need an integrated
solution that supports multiple services
without replicating infrastructure,
according to Roos; in addition, he says,
they need sophisticated analytic and
reporting capabilities so they can charge
broadcasters and over-the-top providers
for delivering video at agreed-upon
quality levels to targeted audiences.
“Analytics are the way to differentiate
the product,” Roos concludes. v
Masha Zager is the editor of Broadband
Communities. You can reach her at
masha@bbcmag.com.
Did you like
2013
BROADBAND COMMUNITIES MARKETPLACE
To reserve space in this section and LEVERAGE the power of your advertising via print, digital, and multimedia exposure in
the global market, contact Irene G. Prescott at 505-867-3299 or email irene@bbcmag.com.
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bulkiness of
flat drop
cables with
the ease of
use & cost
reductions
associated
with pushable
fiber
Top-rated broadband service in America.
Period.
Find out if FiOS is available for your multifamily community.
Contact Verizon Enhanced Communities
866.638.6066
www.verizon.com/communities
www.ClearfieldConnection.com
800-422-2537
Verizon FiOS services not available in all areas. ©2009 Verizon.
Registration Now Open
®
ADVERTISER INDEX / CALENDAR
ADVERTISER
AFL
Anritsu
AT&T
PAGEWEBSITE
108
www.amt.com
107, 109
www.aflglobal.com
48, 78, 107, 110, 123, www.anritsu.com/bC9083
Outside Back Cover
123www.att.com/communities
Broadband Communities Summit Inside Cover Flap – 13, 40,
55, 96, 107, 117, 120, 122, 123 www.bbcmag.com
Calix
41, 69, 77, 96, 107
www.bbcmag.com
107, 111
www.calix.com
Clearfield
15, 107, 111, 123
www.clearfield
connection.com
Comcast
19, 107, 111
www.xfinity.com/
multifamilies
Com Net, Inc
112
www.cniteam.com
COS Systems
23, 112
www.cossystems.com
Design Nine
96
www.designnine.com
DrayTek Corp
79, 112
www.draytek.com
17, 107, 112
www.fecinc.com
107
www.ftthcouncil.org
Finley Engineering
FTTH Council
Fujitsu
107, 113
www.fujitsu.com/us/
services/telecom
Great Lakes Data Systems
Millennium Communications
Multicom, Inc.
OFC 2014
OFS
Power & Tel
93, 107, 113
www.glds.com
107, 114
www.mymillennium.us
107, 114, 123, Inside Back Cover
www.multicominc.com
29
www.ofcconference.com
115www.ofsoptics.com
107, 115
www.ptsupply.com
115
www.preformed.com
RVA, LLC
107
www.rvallc.com
107, 116
www.spotonnetworks.com
21
www.sngroup.com
Spot On Networks
Strategic Networks Group
107, 116
www.sumitomo
electric.com
Time Warner Cable
TVC Communications
107, 117
www.TWC.com
117
www.tvcinc.com
123
www.verizon.com/
communities
ViewTEQ
101, 107, 118
FEBRUARY 2014
2–6
BICSI Winter Conference &
Exhibition
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, FL
813-979-1991
www.bicsi.org
MARCH 2014
3–5
NAA Student Housing
Conference & Expo
ARIA Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV
703-518-6141
www.naahq.org
5–6
FTTH Council Regional Conference
Following the Gigabit Highway
Lafayette, LA
202-367-1173
www.ftthcouncil.org
9 – 13
OFC 2014
Moscone Center
San Francisco, CA
202-416-1907
www.ofcconference.org
APRIL 2014
8 – 10
Broadband Communities Summit
Renaissance Hotel
Austin, TX
877-588-1649
www.bbcmag.com
www.viewteq.com
Broadband Communities (ISSN 0745-8711) (USPS 679-050) (Publication Mail Agreement #1271091) is published 7 times a
year at a rate of $24 per year by Broadband Properties LLC, 1909 Avenue G, Rosenberg, TX 77471. Periodical postage paid at
Rosenberg, TX, and additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Broadband Communities, PO Box 303, Congers, NY 10920-9852.
CANADA POST: Publications Mail Agreement #40612608. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International,
PO Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2.
Copyright © 2013 Broadband Properties LLC. All rights reserved.
JUNE 2014
23 – 25
FTTH Conference & Expo
Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention
Center
Fort Lauderdale, FL
202-367-1173
www.ftthcouncil.org

REGISTRATION - Broadband Communities Magazine

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