americasnetwork.com
THE BLAIR DITCH PROJECT : NEBRASKA CARRIER IS ONE OF SEVERAL INDEPENDENT TELCOS FUTURE-PROOFING THEIR NETWORKS BY FORGING FIBER TO THE HOME. FOR THESE VASTLY DIFFERENT APPLICATIONS, IT'S FIBER, FIBER EVERYWHERE.
America's Network, Jan 1, 2000 v104 i1 p26
By LINDSTROM, ANNIE
The first month of the millennium seems the perfect time to consider the future. Today, the future comes faster than ever before, which is one of the reasons that fiber to the home (FTTH) architectures are having a sort of rebirth.
The regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) are consumed with digital subscriber line (DSL) rollout strategies and realities -- with the exception of BellSouth, which is conducting an FTTH trial involving homes in suburban Atlanta (see "Lighting up the last mile," July 1, 1999). While the RBOCs are smitten with DSL, smaller Independent carriers in the U.S. and Canada are commercially deploying fiber to the home.
Each of the three companies we interviewed is fulfilling its FTTH vision using a product called FiberPath. These carriers credit the "ready for prime time" FTTH passive optical network (PON), manufactured by Optical Solutions (www.opticalsolutions.com), as a catalyst for their FTTH plans.
CABLE MODEM-TYPE ARCHITECTURE
Four-year-old, privately held Optical Solutions installed its first FTTH system in 1996. The company is led by president and CEO Asim Saber, who began his 19-year career at Southwestern Bell Co., where he held engineering, sales and marketing posts.
FiberPath uses a proprietary cable modem-type architecture that delivers up to six telephone lines per subscriber line, up to 135 National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) cable channels and support for digital TV, and provides high-speed data in 64 kbps increments per home. The vendor does not sell an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) PON. That's because the all-digital system would not be able to deliver existing analog cable TV (CATV) programming -- which is what's generally available today -- without using an expensive set-top box on the customer premises, according to Joe Dooley, director of product management at Optical Solutions.
"We can deliver the services that people are using today using our technique," Dooley says. "We transmit multiple RF channels in a similar fashion to [the way that] hybrid fiber coax networks distribute cable TV channels -- with the difference being that we deliver the signal right to the home."
High-speed data are brought across the network using a frequency-shift keying technique similar to that used by CATV companies to transmit cable modem data. The Optical Solutions system reportedly offers greater security than the typical cable modem network because it uses a two-fiber 'drop' to separate upstream and downstream transmissions between the home and the splitter, which can be located up to five miles from the customer premises (Figure 1).
The Minneapolis-based vendor has snagged 12 service providers to date, four of which have gone on record with deployment plans. Three of those four are rolling out FTTH networks and one is deploying a fiber-near-the-home (FNTH) network. The four service providers include:
* The Blair Telephone Co. (www.huntelsystems.com);
* All West Communications (www.allwest.com);
* Rye Telephone Co. (www.fone.net/soco/guide/colocity/rtc/home.html); and
* Canadian multiple services provider Futureway Communications Inc. (www.futureway.com).
Each is using FiberPath to deliver services to residential customers.
Three of the small carriers say they've taken the lead on FTTH because, despite their size, they see themselves on the cutting edge of technology. They also say the economics are improving for new-builds and rebuilds.
FIBER TO THE RANCH
Rye Telephone Co. serves 2,300 lines about 140 miles south of Denver. Its customers are scattered about a 125-square-mile area encompassing the cities of Rye, San Isabel, Colorado City and Kim. In addition, a local developer has purchased a 30,000-acre parcel, once known as the Hatchet Ranch, between Pueblo and Colorado City, according to Jeff Starcer, plant manager at Rye Telephone. The developer has divided the ranch into approximately 650 40- to 200-acre lots.
When the developer approached Starcer about providing telephone service to the new development, Starcer suggested that fiber -- not copper -- be used to connect the new homes to the local distribution point 8.5 miles from the serving central office (CO).
"I didn't see going in there and feeding a digital loop carrier [DLC] and then distributing copper to each of the homes," Starcer says. "Using FTTH will cost us about an additional $600 per subscriber -- but unlike copper, we won't have to replace it within seven years."
Adding to the fiber business case, the large lots would require long drops, causing customers with copper-based broadband services to suffer from loop-length problems. "The average drop runs about 2,200 ft. from the road to the house," Starcer says. "Add that to the distance between the pedestals to the DLC and CO, and you are way beyond DSL's 18 kft. reach."
The developer paid for everything to the "lot pen" along the road. Rye Telephone foots the deployment costs from the road to the customer premises. Because FiberPath is a PON system, it can be architected to rely on local power at the customer premises. The Universal Demarcation Point (UDP), which mounts on the outside wall of a customer's home, contains a trickle charged battery that provides the end user with emergency power for up to eight hours. Rye Telephone is deploying UDP network interface devices (NIDs) as people move into their new homes.
Rye Telephone so far is delivering basic telephony to 18 new homes at the ranch development. The telco wants to build a headend to deliver cable television (CATV) service this year, and is checking into programming options, Starcer adds. Rye Telephone also operates as an Internet service provider (ISP) to 800 subscribers; it plans to use the FTTH network to deliver high-speed data access to its new customers at the ranch.
Although Rye Telephone began testing the FiberPath system in 1996, it was the ranch development where the system finally made sense, Starcer says. It costs Rye Telephone about $3,200 per subscriber to install. In addition to being able to provide high-speed data and CATV services to boost revenue, the telco is talking to the local electric company, San Isabel Electric, about using Rye Telephone's network to monitor the ranch residents' electricity meters. FiberPath's sophisticated monitoring and provisioning capabilities will greatly decrease the need for the telco to roll trucks of its own to the neighborhoods, Starcer says.
"We can monitor everything at the CO, including battery power," Starcer notes.
FIBER TO THE BURBS
"We were looking for the right infrastructure for now and for the future for a new development here in Blair, Nebraska," says Rick Plugge, president of HunTel Engineering, parent company of The Blair Telephone Co. "We thought it would be advantageous to try some new technology where we didn't have plant in place."
Blair is using FiberPath in an FNTH architecture, says Lee Suhr, engineer for HunTel. As more homes are built and residents move in, Blair Telephone will order and deploy electronics for 200 homes in the Deerfield Addition subdivision and migrate the network to an FTTH configuration. Blair Telephone expects to turn up service to the development within the next few months.
"One thing that drove our decision was that we didn't have enough copper out in that end of town. However, we did have a bundle of 72 fibers waiting for a digital loop carrier for future deployment," Suhr says.
As principal owners of TelePartners Inc., the CATV company that serves the residents of Blair, HunTel was interested in FiberPath's ability to deliver telephony and CATV over the same network, more economically than could be done by building out two separate networks, Suhr says. HunTel also operates as an engineering group that works with other communications companies, including 150 Independent telcos, competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) and CATV service providers. The company wanted to try out FTTH technology to see if it would be suitable for its other clients, Plugge says.
"It's still green, but we are recommending it, and we include FTTH in network architecture cost comparisons we offer to clients," Plugge adds. Although the Optical Solutions system was "rough" at first, the vendor has made improvements that enhance its value, he notes.
At press time, two of HunTel's clients were cost-comparing FiberPath and Nortel Networks' (www.nortel.com) Cornerstone hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) system, according to Plugge.
In addition to using FTTH/FNTH for new builds, HunTel will seriously consider using it for rebuilds, especially in areas where the service provider offers both telephony and CATV service, Plugge adds.
HunTel likes the FTTH/FNTH solution because of its ease of provisioning and installation. "You just click on a box to give a customer cable or to disconnect them if they don't pay their bills," Suhr says.
HunTel is also enamored of FiberPath's ability to support cable modems or network interface card-based services in home computers. A module in the UDP provides customers with direct connections to the Internet and provides security for each connection, he adds.
FIBER TO THE NEW URBANITES
Eighteen-month-old Futureway Communications (www.futureway.com) serves customers in the 905 area code outside of Toronto, Ont. One of the privately owned company's major investors is a developer/builder that has embraced a new construction concept called "new urbanism," according to Apollo Guy, vice president of business development at Futureway.
New urbanism refers to developments that have a cleaner streetscape, a better planned community, less clutter and smaller lots that measure about 35 to 40 ft. across and accommodate taller, rather than wider, homes. New urbanism also seeks to decrease the presence of what Guy calls "street furniture," such as pedestals and transformers.
"We decided on a PON architecture, because it has no street furniture," Guy says. "Everything is below grade. In addition to improved aesthetics, we are also working hand in hand to add value to newly developed communities from a technical perspective."
Futureway, one of Canada's eight certified CLECs, is planning to serve up to 20,000 premises with FiberPath. The first 5,000 single-family units will be completed during the first three months of this year. The company's plans are tied into the construction projects in its territory; the carrier is working with more than one builder. "We are putting equipment in as fast as they build houses," Guy says.
Futureway wants to offer switched voice, NTSC video and high-speed data at quality levels customers expect from incumbent telcos and CATV providers -- all on the same network. "There isn't a platform besides fiber that can deliver all those services on the same pipe," Guy notes.
Futureway also didn't want to be encumbered by distance-sensitive technologies such as DSL or cable modems, which require customers to share bandwidth, Guy adds.
"The big issue is driving content, which will continue to push the envelope on data capacity requirements. You are going to need fatter pipes to deliver HDTV, so you need an architecture that is future-proof. Scalability is the key word in the network," Guy says.
"Do the math," Guy continues. "In my office, we have several people who listen to the radio on their computers at about 28.8 kbps. Multiply that by several more and you start to chew up a lot of bandwidth. Real audio and push services are going to keep driving bandwidth demand."
BUT IS IT JUST A NICHE?
"The majority of U.S.-based companies haven't made up their minds as to whether or not they want to invest in FTTH/fiber to the curb [FTTC] networks," says Claude Romans, director for access networks at Ryan Hankin Kent (RHK; www.rhk.com).
Although several North American incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) are placing fiber deeper into their networks, they are spanning the last 3 kft. to 9 kft. to the home with copper, Romans notes. Shorter loops enabled by these deep-fiber deployments will allow asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) to operate smoothly and will open the door for eventual deployment of very-high-rate DSL (VDSL), which, according to Romans, provides:
* Up to 52 Mbps of bandwidth downstream on copper loops measuring 1,000 feet or less;
* Up to 26 Mbps on loops of up to 3 kft. or less; or
* Up to 13 Mbps on 4.5-kft. copper loops.
In fact, the use of FTTH will be so "niche-y" in the foreseeable future that researchers at RHK have not been able to forecast for it.
"The bottom line is that about five years ago, when switched digital video went away as a business case, the FTTH market dried up and DSL took its place for Internet access," Romans says. "FTTH costs more and there are no services that require it. I wouldn't rule it out entirely, but I don't think there's going to be an FTTH revolution."
Optical Solutions maintains there are several compelling market drivers (see Table, page 28) that will create a healthy market for FTTH in North America over the next three to five years. The company has commitments from customers to deploy the FTTH solution to approximately 34,000 homes in the U.S. and Canada. When those homes have their installations, service providers will reap more than $100 million from their FTTH-enabled customers, Saber asserts.
RELATED ARTICLE: FTTH market drivers
Worldwide phone deregulation Consumer demand for greater speed, performance and increased number of applications Bundling of telecommunications service, including voice, video and data to meet demand Copper/coaxial networks rapidly wearing out; replacement alternatives sought Developed and developing countries around the globe going directly to fiber optic cable for new infrastructures
Source: Optical Solutions |
