Broadband Communities

WEBSITE …

2016 BBC SUMMIT …

Give residents all they’re looking for with AT&T U-verse® from AT&T Connected Communities. When they have digital TV, high-speed Internet and Wi-Fi service, more people will be coming to your property. And more will be staying. Learn how you can attract more residents and earn more revenue today at att.com/livedigitally. All-in-one digital TV • High-speed Internet • Total Home DVR® • Wi-Fi access • Additional income for you

AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet service requires AT&T Wi-Fi gateway. Credit restrictions apply. Up to $99 installation charge applies. Geographic and service restrictions apply to AT&T U-verse services. Call or go to att.com/u-verse to see if you qualify. AT&T U-verse: Residential customers only. Credit restrictions may apply. Pricing, programming and features subject to change at any time without notice.

Beautifully Dense, Stunningly Scalable The Centrix™ Platform, Corning’s next-generation switch center solution, combines extreme fexibility and simplicity with the ultimate in density. With superior jumper management and an innovative fber routing system, the Centrix Platform is a cross-functional solution that meets the requirements of multiple application spaces.

Corning. Transforming Technology. http://opcomm.corning.com/CentrixBuzz © 2015 Corning Optical Communications. CRR-380-AEN / February 2015

OUR FIBER network brings the world to your community

TM

CALL US TODAY!

800.677.6812

Simply Exceptional Connections

SUBSCRIBE …

ADVERTISE…

ARCHIVES …

CONTACT US…

One gigabit per second. Now that’s a high-speed amenity. XFINITY’s Advanced Communities Network provides fber solutions to gigabit speeds for your property. Every resident wants more Internet speed. As an XFINITY® Community on our exclusive Advanced Communities Network, your property will be gigabit capable, ready to support the latest integrated TV, Internet, Voice and Home Automation experience with the X1 Entertainment Operating System® from XFINITY. And since every property is unique, we customize our fber solutions to ft your environment. Plus, we constantly monitor our network for consistent, reliable service and our customer support is available 24/7. Become an XFINITY Communities property and get a better network, better entertainment and better service.

Visit xfnity.com/xfnitycommunities today.

Suits available with XFINITY On Demand, on XFINITY TV Go app and at xfnity.com/tv

Not available in all areas. Restrictions apply. Availability limited to qualifying properties. Features and programming vary depending on area and service level and are subject to change. Call for restrictions and details. © 2015 Comcast. All rights reserved. NBCU celebrity endorsement not implied. All networks are divisions of NBCUniversal. © NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All rights reserved. NPA159162

MAKE THE LEAP

Give your residents

the riGht connections. Call Today Shawn Geagan Director, MDU Sales – East

Residents expect the latest entertainment and communications technology in their lives.

[email protected]

When you partner with Cox, you provide your residents with the

1-404-269-3979

most advanced products and services available in your area, with local

Guillermo Rivas

support whenever you need it. And since Cox owns and maintains one

Director, MDU Sales – Southwest & CA

of the nation’s largest hybrid fber-optic networks, you get the bandwidth

[email protected]

needed to support advanced connectivity demands. Become a Cox

1-623-328-2055

Signature Community, and make sure your residents get the services they want, today and in the future.

GigablastSM | Contour® TV | Cox HomelifeSM | Digital Telephone

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

APRIL 5 – 7, 2016 Renaissance Hotel – Austin

twitter.com/bbcmag

TO SPONSOR OR EXHIBIT: email: [email protected]

www.bbcmag.com

505-867-3299

Enhance Your Community With Advanced Fiber Networks The Lexington conference encompasses a 12-state region: Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri and Arkansas

Meet the Conference Directors: The Hon. Hilda Legg

Heather Burnett Gold

Former RUS Administrator and Vice Chair, Broadband Communities

President & CEO, FTTH Council Americas

Economic Development Chairman

What You Will Learn: How to successfully plan for, monetize, and manage an all fber-based broadband investment. Explore best practices for developing broadband strategies for the knowledge economy. Learn the strategies necessary to foster collaboration with economic development agencies. Diferentiate your community with advanced broadband connectivity. Discover how your community can become a magnet for the tech industry.

Jim Baller President The Baller Herbst Law Group, PC

Community Toolkit Chairman

Who You Will Meet: Local, State & Federal Ofcials Economic Development Professionals Investors Public and Private Network Operators Business Leaders & Entrepreneurs Financial Institutions Community Anchor Institutions – Education, Medical, Public Safety & Security Broadband Champions

How To Write A Winning RFP What will attract providers to build FTTH in your community?

Joseph Jones Executive Director On Trac, Inc.

How To Leverage Your Fiber For Economic Development Once you have your network, how do you get business to make the most of it?

EDITOR’S NOTE

Catching Up With the News

CEO & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Scott DeGarmo / [email protected] PUBLISHER Nancy McCain / [email protected] EDITOR Masha Zager / [email protected] EDITOR-AT-L ARGE Steven S. Ross / [email protected] ADVERTISING SALES ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Irene Prescott / [email protected]

I thought I was up to date with all the FTTH news – until I started compiling the FTTH Top 100 list.

COMMUNIT Y NEWS EDITOR Marianne Cotter / [email protected] 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 © 2015 Broadband Properties LLC. All rights reserved.

O

ne thing I enjoy about compiling the FTTH Top 100 list is catching up with the news of the past year. Despite spending nearly all day, every day, reading and writing about fber to the home, I still miss some interesting stories. Keeping up with the fber-tothe-home industry has become more than a full-time job. Here are just a few things I learned about this year’s Top 100 winners (in alphabetical order): • Responding to the need for middle-mile fber, Atlantic Engineering Group, a design and engineering frm, established a new subsidiary, Atlantic Fiber Networks, to construct middle-mile and dark fber networks on a build-to-own basis. • To accommodate networks in transition, Charles Industries introduced a line of universal enclosures for distributing fber, copper and coaxial cables. • Even though some large telcos are selling wireline assets to focus on their wireless networks, Cincinnati Bell made the opposite decision: It sold its wireless spectrum licenses to focus its eforts on the efcient deployment of FTTH. • For customers who just can’t wait an extra millisecond for a Web page to load, Pavlov Media introduced WebSnap – a set of trafc

2 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

management techniques that enable fast Web page loading through superfast blasts of service – and hosted a root domain name server on its network. • Sonic, the ISP that pioneered low-cost gigabit service, has now reduced its gigabit tier to $40 per month – which must be one of the best deals anywhere. • City dwellers hoping for FTTH in their neighborhoods will be glad to hear about Vermeer’s new D23x30 S3 Navigator horizontal directional drill, which was designed for congested areas and is one of the quietest drills on the market. Te FTTH Top 100 feature in this month’s issue (p. 26) is packed full of useful information about the key players in the fber-to-the-home ecosystem, from service providers to vendors, distributors and consultants – as well as the nonprofts that do so much to raise awareness about fber to the home and about the need for better bandwidth. Tey’ve all been busy in the last year moving the industry forward. Take a look at the list for yourself and fnd out what you’ve missed. Congratulations to all the 2015 Top 100! v

[email protected]

Give your residents

the riGht connections. Call Today Shawn Geagan Director, MDU Sales – East

Residents expect the latest entertainment and communications technology in their lives.

[email protected]

When you partner with Cox, you provide your residents with the

1-404-269-3979

most advanced products and services available in your area, with local

Guillermo Rivas

support whenever you need it. And since Cox owns and maintains one

Director, MDU Sales – Southwest & CA

of the nation’s largest hybrid fber-optic networks, you get the bandwidth

[email protected]

needed to support advanced connectivity demands. Become a Cox

1-623-328-2055

Signature Community, and make sure your residents get the services they want, today and in the future.

GigablastSM | Contour® TV | Cox HomelifeSM | Digital Telephone

TABLE OF CONTENTS IN THIS ISSUE

COVER STORY

26

PROVIDER PERSPECTIVE

FTTH Top 100 List / A BBC Staff Report Leaders and innovators in the fiber-to-thehome arena for 2015

8

By Bryan J. Rader, Bandwidth Consulting LLC

FEATURES

Paying attention to what customers want is more productive than playing catch-up with competitors.

COMMUNITY BROADBAND

22

Lexington Goes for a Gig /

METRICS

By Masha Zager,

10

Broadband Communities Mayor Jim Gray’s fiber optic initiative puts Lexington, Ky., on a forwardlooking path.

Korcett Holdings

Holy Cross High School Graduates to a New Network /

PROPERTY OF THE MONTH

By Masha Zager,

14

Broadband Communities A new network infrastructure in a private high school yields educational benefits.

22

OPINION

BROADBAND APPS

78

84

Connecting Cambridge / By Saul Tannenbaum,

Cambridge Broadband Task Force Why doesn’t Cambridge, Mass., have a next-generation network?

FCC Connect America Fund Advances Broadband Deployment / By Douglas Jarrett, Keller and Heckman

Competitive providers get ready to bid on CAF funds for the underserved areas that the price-cap carriers turn down.

90

The developer of these new luxury apartments installed its own fiber-to-the-unit network and provides Internet service to residents.

By Michael B. Shear,

TECHNOLOGY

$25 Gigabit Wows Residents: Park Square at Seven Oaks, Bakersfield, Calif. / By Masha Zager, Broadband Communities

Distributed Work Centers / Strategic Office Networks Beyond telecommuting: Broadband infrastructure offers the opportunity to redesign the concept of the worksite.

THE LAW

80

Next-Generation Internet / By David Daugherty, Legacy cable and telco infrastructure was designed for the pre-Internet world. Next-generation Internet needs a new approach.

FIBER AND WIRELESS DEPLOYMENT

76

We Can Run Away With This Market /

THE GIGABIT HIGHWAY

96

FTTH Boosts Home Values / By Heather Burnett Gold, FTTH Council Americas

Optical Fiber in the Living Unit / By Anurag Jain and

Fiber-delivered Internet increases home values by up to 3.1 percent, according to a new study.

John George, OFS A new solution for installing fiber invisibly with no disruption to residents.

DEPARTMENTS Visit www.bbcmag.com for up-to-the-minute news of broadband trends, technologies and deployments

ABOUT THE COVER New York artist Irving Grunbaum is seeing stars – fber-to-the-home stars, that is.

twitter.com/bbcmag

4 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

2 6 94 95

EDITOR’S NOTE BANDWIDTH HAWK MARKETPLACE ADS ADVERTISER INDEX / CALENDAR

OUR FIBER network brings the world to your community

TM

CALL US TODAY!

800.677.6812

Simply Exceptional Connections

BANDWIDTH HAWK

New Broadband Thinking States are starting to fund broadband deployments in rural and other disadvantaged areas. Providers can beneft from this development – as long as they’re open-minded. By Steven S. Ross / Broadband Communities

O

ver the past year, states have earmarked serious money for broadband deployments as they seek to provide 21st-century infrastructure in support of job creation, schools, health care, emergency response and other services. My ongoing studies, published in this magazine, have shown that this is vitally necessary to stem rural population losses. Each state that has raised signifcant funds for broadband has chosen a diferent approach. Kentucky will contract with Macquarie Capital to raise around $300 million – maybe more –for a middle-mile build that should make local fber-to-the-home builds more economically viable, and it will supplement that private investment with $30 million in state bonds and $15 to $20 million in federal grants. Massachusetts is providing $40 million to help 45 of the state’s towns build their own broadband. New York put $500 million on the table and hopes deployers in underserved or unserved areas can match that to generate $1 billion in new broadband network building. Some community broadband activists worry that these funds will go to large network deployers to subsidize construction of networks they might have built anyway. Major Internet service providers may indeed receive subsidies because they already have infrastructure in underserved areas. Tey may have wired small communities’ cores but ignored outlying areas. A new competitor might have to start from scratch and spend more.

Community C i TToolkit lki P Program & Economic Development Conference Series Tuesday, September 15: Steve Ross will lead a hands-on workshop on rural broadband fnancial models.

Co-ops and other locally owned providers tend to be more egalitarian in rural areas, but their business plans are brittle, and many have already sufered as the Universal Service Fund is repurposed by the Federal Communications Commission for broadband access and away from voice service. Tis confict was highlighted in a panel chaired by Joanne Hovis of CLIC and CTC Technology & Energy at the New York State Broadband Summit in June. Charlie Williams, VP for government relations at Time Warner Cable, complained about the possibility of the state’s subsidizing the company’s competitors. Brian Ford, regulatory counsel at the National Telephone Cooperative Association, cited several examples of rural telcos hurt by changing rules for subsidies. When government policies, customer

6 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

needs or deployment technologies change, providers may indeed get hurt. However, all rural providers can beneft if they agree to share the new infrastructure. Studies have shown that sharing generates the most proft to carriers and the most beneft to customers and communities. Under current business thinking, this will not happen. When I asked Williams and Ford about the possibility of telcos and cable companies sharing infrastructure, they both replied that the policy is not to share. New broadband thinking is called for. Open-access technology is easy. A single fber can share dozens of providers’ signals, and modern fber networks have amazing real-time diagnostic and maintenance tools that make sharing realistic. An incumbent provider limits its revenues by selling poor service at a high price, with a low take rate, to

Sharing access networks is a largely untapped source of proft for service providers.

a small number of customers in one corner of a rural county. Often, it would do better by taking advantage of a new, faster, more versatile network that reaches far more customers – a network it could rent rather than pay for up front. Providers would gain by splitting their marketing costs and local overhead among more potential customers even while enduring competitors. Rather than ofer an overpriced product to 500 dissatisfed customers, a provider could ofer multiple services, aggregating to a higher average monthly bill, to three or four times the number of customers and get half the

JULY 2015

|

overall take rate – one likely to be 70 or 80 percent or more. Of course, the exact recipe for an open-access business plan varies with every community. But the cookbook already exists. Many favors of open access have been baked into network deployments around the country and around the world. Time for a taste. Te idea that infrastructure can’t be shared is just too bitter. Unserved and underserved communities should not continue to go hungry. v Contact the Hawk at [email protected].

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

7

PROVIDER PERSPECTIVE

We Can Run Away With This Market If you spend all your time looking over your shoulder at the competition, you can’t see your customers. By Bryan Rader / Bandwidth Consulting LLC

S

ometimes companies fail to adapt to the changing competitive landscape. Tey become so focused on the market leader as their primary competition that they miss seeing the rest of the market. Tis kind of thinking never ends well. It leads to apathy, staleness and eventually lost market share. Take Adidas, for instance. In the 1980s and early 1990s, this German shoe manufacturer had its eyes on Nike. “How can we sell more shoes than Nike does? How do we capture the hearts and minds of young basketball and soccer players in the United States? How can we stay relevant for young athletes who want to be hip and cool?” At one time, Adidas and Nike competed for world dominance in the sports shoe and apparel industry. Tey were like Coke and Pepsi, Colgate and Crest, big cable and big telco. Over the years, Adidas stopped understanding its own market. It missed out on major endorsements that would have helped grow its shoe business (see Michael Jordan). It made ill-timed acquisitions of tired shoe brands (see Reebok in 2005). And it kept looking over its shoulder at just one competitor, which took market share from it year after year (see Nike). All that time, Adidas focused on the market it knew: soccer shoes, soccer apparel, running shoes and so forth. It didn’t ever consider which other areas of the fast-growing U.S. sports apparel industry it could address. However, others did consider those areas. In 1995, Kevin Plank founded a startup in Baltimore with less than $40,000. Plank was the special teams captain for the University of Maryland football team, and he was unhappy with the cotton shirts his football players wore. During practice, the shirts were always soaked and heavy with sweat. Working in his grandmother’s basement, Plank designed a superior T-shirt that kept athletes dry and light. His players loved the shirts, so he sent samples to NFL teams, college programs and such famous athletes as Deion Sanders. Soon, Under Armour was selling product to teams across the country.

Fast forward to 2014. According to the Wall Street Journal, Under Armour had become a $3 billion a year business and surpassed Adidas as the No. 2 supplier in the sports apparel industry. Adidas sales fell around 23 percent; Under Armour grew 20 percent in the same time. MISSING THE OPPORTUNITY How did Adidas let this happen? Why didn’t it see its customers’ need for better athletic wear? Adidas was so focused on keeping up with Nike that it fell out of touch with customers and missed out on areas of opportunity. You might be asking, “When did private cable operators start selling T-shirts and athletic shoes?” Aha. Tat’s what makes this the perfect parallel to the PCO industry. Tink of Adidas as big cable (the long-time market leader), Nike as big telco (the very successful, wellheeled, well-funded competitor) and Under Armour as PCOs that deliver solutions and fx the problems Adidas is missing. Tink about it. Adidas watched only Nike, as Comcast monitors FiOS. But PCOs are on the ground, in the market, talking to property managers every day about their needs. PCOs can design the next-gen athletic wear (broadband products for multifamily residents) based on these conversations. Adidas executives aren’t talking to property managers. Tey are sitting in their German ofces missing out on these opportunities. PCOs are not. Tey are the upstart sports apparel company that Adidas is not paying attention to. It is time for them to build customer solutions and sneak up behind the market leader. What are you waiting for? Just do it. v Bryan Rader is CEO of Bandwidth Consulting LLC, which assists providers in the multifamily market. You can reach Bryan at [email protected] or at 636-536-0011. Learn more at www.bandwidthconsultingllc.com.

8 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

Speed Capacity Future-proof your network Black & Veatch has been delivering innovative telecommunications solutions for almost 50 years. Clients choose us to develop their fiber optics networks for our unique balance of skills and experience in successfully delivering projects from feasibility through design and construction.

We have developed thousands of miles of fber optic networks, including Fiber-to-theHome (FTTH) or Premise (FTTP), municipal area networks, utility private networks and local and longhaul networks for regional and national carriers.

Building a world of difference by accelerating innovation through communication solutions.

Learn more at bv.com/telecom Consulting

•

Engineering

•

Procurement

•

Construction

•

Operation

I

w w w.bv.com

METRICS

Next-Generation Internet Legacy cable and telco infrastructure was designed for the pre-Internet world. As the Internet evolves, the old infrastructure will fall increasingly short of consumer expectations. By David Daugherty / Korcett Holdings

R

oughly 319 million people live in the United States, and 84 percent of them, or about 270 million people, use the Internet daily. Given the vast array of people and equipment required to keep the Internet up and running, it’s a wonder it works at all. To compound this problem, the rate of change for underlying technology and customer expectations is increasing. Te result is a very complex ecosystem that often translates into a frustrating experience for subscribers and a nearly impossible mission for ISPs. Two things are needed: a standardsbased, future-proof approach to the design, construction and support of Internet services and a common, nontechnical way of quickly ascertaining operational health. INTERNET HEALTH An intuitive, commonly used indicator of network health is a bandwidth utilization

C Community i TToolkit lki P Program & Economic Development p Conference Series Tuesday, September 15: David Daugherty will moderate a session for electric co-ops on the challenges of building and running a broadband business.

report. IT professionals use this as a frst-glance diagnostic tool the same way a cardiologist uses an electrocardiogram. It has a predictable sinus rhythm that is indicative of the health and performance of Internet service. Figure 1 shows a typical bandwidth utilization chart in a bulk service multifamily environment where subscribers have unrestricted or “uncapped” access to the Internet. (Of course, all Internet access is limited by network capacity, but in the example shown here, network capacity exceeds user demand, and the service provider is not artifcially limiting access.) However, most subscribers don’t have unrestricted access. ISPs typically confgure (or cap) subscribers’ Internet service so they can’t use more than their service plans stipulate. Most commercially available Internet service packages limit available bandwidth to, for example, 5Mbps downstream and 5 Mbps upstream; these packages have been designed to help drive the sale of additional bandwidth. When an ISP or, in the case of multifamily properties, an owner, elects to limit the amount of available bandwidth, the report may look quite diferent. Figure 2 shows an environment in which access to bandwidth has been capped. In this environment, everything works well as long as subscriber devices and applications have ready access to the Internet before hitting the cap. As aggregate bandwidth demand approaches the bandwidth cap, network jitter and latency begin to increase, and things

10 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

Figure 1: Bandwidth utilization report for network with uncapped Internet access

slow down. Tis is called bandwidth fatlining. Unlike fatlining in living systems, network bandwidth fatlining is not a critical problem. If left unattended, however, it will most likely result in damage to the reputation of the service provider and the property owner (if this is a multifamily property). Te good news is that this problem typically develops over time and can be easily detected and corrected – hence the importance of monitoring bandwidth utilization charts. NEXT-GENERATION, STANDARDS-BASED SERVICES Over the years, although subscriber expectations have matured, legacy

infrastructure has remained fxed. Typically it delivers a limited (capped) amount of bandwidth. Tese infexible limitations on the delivery of bandwidth are quickly becoming unacceptable. Traditional capped Internet services are increasingly unpopular and are not future-friendly. Another important aspect of evolving Internet service is quick, competent customer support. Customers now expect the same kind of support from ISPs as they do from any other service provider. Whether they have problems with their bank, house cleaner or Internet service, they expect prompt, professional, courteous attention. Tis includes the rapid identifcation and resolution

of problems – otherwise known as customer support. An important element of ISP customer support is time to repair. Te more dependent subscribers become on ready, reliable access to the Internet, the less tolerant they become of poor performance and downtime. Translation: subscribers become more vocal (via social networking) as service deteriorates. What is becoming painfully obvious to service providers and subscribers is that the delivery of stable Internet service is not optional. Consumer demand for reliable service is already fueling market evolution, and only the fttest will survive. Tis, in turn, is driving the adoption of mature,

Figure 2: Bandwidth utilization report for network with capped Internet access JULY 2015

| www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

11

METRICS Demand for managed Internet services is outpacing demand for unmanaged services.

standards-based, modular network design and installation and superior customer support. Regardless of what some ISPs might believe (and tell their customers), legacy infrastructure and support models will not satisfy current, much less future, customer expectations. Legacy infrastructure used by ISPs to deliver Internet services is the byproduct of an evolution in network equipment. Te underlying business motivation for the development and evolution of the current batch of ISPs was the sale of telephony and video services, not Internet access. Te rapidly growing demand for ubiquitous Internet access has resulted in an unprecedented growth in the

number of Internet-connected devices – Cisco estimates that the number of devices was double the global population in 2014 and will be triple the global population by 2019. Tis device proliferation fundamentally changes service delivery requirements and, more than any other aspect of Internet usage, will drive the formation and evolution of next-generation ISPs. Next-generation ISPs will not only need to provide access to the Internet but also need to manage those connections. Tis is called “managed services.” With the rapidly growing number of connected devices, the demand for managed Internet services is quickly outpacing the demand for unmanaged services.

Another mission-critical aspect of next-generation Internet services is the ability for intelligent systems to control service delivery. Internet-based service delivery systems must have the ability to communicate with customers and their devices and decide when and how services are delivered. Tis must be done without human intervention. For example, if a customer who frequents Marriott hotels owns a half-dozen Internet-connected devices, the hotel’s Internet service delivery system must recognize each device, authenticate the customer and the device upon entry into any Marriott property and enable the correct level of service for that customer. Te system must also be able to determine whether the device is properly authenticated – in other words, is it still in the possession of the correct customer? Tis kind of service and support automation is beyond the capability of legacy infrastructure and will become a staple of next-generation (managed) service. CONCLUSION Even this simplistic snapshot of evolving requirements for Internetbased services illustrates the need for a radical new approach to network design, deployment and support. Tis problem is compounded by rapidly changing customer expectations and the lack of suitable alternatives – which is why Google Fiber and other fber overbuilders can gain a foothold. Mounting demand for managed services has scrambled the current marketplace and is driving rapid evolution. In the next few years, market evolution will continue to drive rapid convergence within the cable and telecommunications industries. But no one, not even Google, has cracked the managed-service model. v David Daugherty is the CEO and founder of Korcett Holdings Inc. Korcett Holdings is dedicated to the development and marketing of nextgeneration service solutions. For more information about Korcett Holdings, visit www.korcett.com.

12 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

A Furukawa Company

PROPERTY OF THE MONTH

$25 Gigabit Wows Residents: Park Square at Seven Oaks, Bakersfeld, Calif. This month, BroadBand Communities showcases Park Square at Seven Oaks, an upscale apartment community whose developer built its own fber-to-the-unit network. Now every resident receives gigabit Internet service for an unbeatable price – an attractive amenity for high-tech professionals in the Bakersfeld area. Thanks to Andrew Fuller, president of Fuller Apartment Homes and principal at Presidio Capital Partners, and Sharon Johnston, TE Connectivity account manager and sales engineer, for gathering the information for this profle. By Masha Zager / Broadband Communities

B

akersfeld, Calif., halfway between Los Angeles and Fresno, is home to many successful business professionals, from high-tech hipsters to oil executives. Telecommuting is popular there, not least because it reduces the need for high-priced ofce space. For telecommuters, the basic prerequisites are a strong cell phone signal and a broadband connection – preferably a gigabit. Park Square at Seven Oaks in Bakersfeld was designed with precisely this demographic in mind. Andrew Fuller, president of Fuller Apartment Homes, knew he needed a frstclass technology amenity to appeal to his target audience. In the past, Fuller had done many bulk service deals with cable companies, obtaining bandwidth at one-third the street price and using cheap and plentiful Internet access as a marketing tool. By the time Park Square was being designed, bulk wasn’t such a good deal

anymore. “It would have cost 80 percent of market price, and people resent having to buy that,” he says. Instead, he decided to bring fber to the property, build a traditional Ethernet LAN and provide Internet services directly – an approach he had used once before at the Roundhouse Place Apartments in San Luis Obispo. Tere was only one problem: Park Square is a 14-acre site, and cable lengths would far exceed the limits of Ethernet over copper. “So I contacted Sharon Johnston, our TE Connectivity rep,” Fuller says. “I called her with some basic cabling questions, and she said, ‘Tis is really interesting – I’m going to propose something totally diferent.’” TE’s proposed solution was a passive optical LAN, an increasingly popular solution for MDU and enterprise customers that need to distribute fber to multiple users. Installing the LAN cost the developer considerably less than it would have

14 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

Park Square at Seven Oaks has frst-class amenities, including gigabit Internet access.

paid a service provider to install it, and the costs of operation, maintenance and future expansion are also lower. With integrator Qypsys designing the network and, in Fuller’s words, “comforting the contractors” – who were unused to installing fber – the project was a great success. Fuller plans to use the same do-it-yourself approach in future projects. For the moment, at least, the economics make sense, and, as he puts it, “We have to deliver super broadband at a really compelling price.” VITAL STATISTICS Property Description: Park Square at Seven Oaks (www. parksquareatsevenoaks.com) in Bakersfeld, Calif., is an upscale development with one-bedroom, two-bedroom and loft apartment units. It is located in the third and fnal phase of the prestigious master-planned Seven Oaks community, whose 3,700 acres contains exclusive residential

neighborhoods, parks, tree-lined streets, a country club with a 27hole championship golf course, and thriving retail areas integrated with growing employment centers. Demographics: High-tech professionals and oil executives – all tech-savvy residents yearning to be free from beige carpets and low bandwidth. Greenfeld or retroft? Greenfeld Number of units: 224 Style: Mid-rise Time to deploy: Fiber was deployed during construction of the property, which took one year. SERVICES Services ofered or planned on the network: High-speed Internet access with a top speed of 1 Gbps Provider choice: None. Te property owner provides gigabit Internet access to every resident and charges $25 per month as part of the rent. JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

Technical support: Network operations and technical support are outsourced to a local service provider with a network operations center. BUSINESS Who owns the network? Te property owner owns the entire network and provides Internet service to residents. It has a commercial contract with AT&T for bandwidth to the property. What are the benefts of this network? Te low cost and convenience of broadband is part of the sales pitch to attract residents. As the development has just recently opened, it is still too early for hard evidence. TECHNOLOGY Broadband architecture: Fiber to the unit with Cat 6a cable to the network jack connection Where are ONTs placed? At the backs of the clothes closets | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

15

PROPERTY OF THE MONTH

The passive optical LAN distributes bandwidth to Park Square at Seven Oaks’s 224 units.

Technology used: GPON (passive optical LAN) Method for running fber to the unit: AT&T fber terminates at a fber switch in the Park Square clubhouse. Fiber is home-run to each of the 16 buildings, and a fber patch panel on the side of each building distributes the fber to each unit. See diagram for details. Vendors and strategic partners: TE Connectivity supplied its Optical LAN solution together with active electronics from Zhone Technologies. Qypsys was the infrastructure integrator. LESSONS LEARNED What was the biggest challenge?

Andrew Fuller: Tere were moments when the feld subcontractors began to doubt whether they could actually pull of all the terminations, switching gear and network installation. Tey knew mostly electrical and standard copper communications cabling,

but installing an optical fber network was something many had never been involved with before. Surprisingly, with the help of a local network cabling expert, they discovered that it was really pretty straightforward. In fact, we didn’t

PROPERTY OF THE MONTH HIGHLIGHTS ~ Park Square at Seven Oaks, Bakersfeld, Calif. ~ • • • •

New, upscale apartment complex in a prestigious planned community. Fuller Apartment Homes, the property owner, built fber to the unit and acts as ISP. Every resident pays $25 for gigabit Internet access as part of the rent. Vendors include TE Connectivity, Zhone Technologies and Qypsys.

16 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

experience any major show-stoppers – there were actually more hiccups in other areas.” What was the biggest success? A combination of cost savings and implementing a new business model that helps lease apartment homes and reduce turnover. In this case, the traditional model would be to spend as much as $250,000 to allow a service provider to set up and install its basic network infrastructure in the apartment home community. Ten the residents would have to sign up individually for services and pay for their monthly subscriptions. What Fuller Apartment Homes has done is to build the network itself, paying instead only about $100,000 for the cabling infrastructure. Network operations and support are outsourced. Residents are charged only $25 per

Fuller Apartment Homes saved up to $150,000 by building the network itself.

month for their gigabit connections, which are simply incorporated into their monthly rental bills. What feedback does the leasing ofce get from residents? Residents love that they can pay $25 per month for gigabit service (which is about 10 times faster than the fastest broadband service ofered in the area) without having to sign a contract with a service provider. What should other owners consider before they get started on a similar deployment? Dig deep to fnd the true ROI. In this case, the ROI came from multiple sources:

• Network power consumption was reduced by 50 percent. • Te space normally allocated for a telecom closet on each foor is now usable, revenue-producing space. Multiple buildings are served by one main telecom closet. • Future expansion costs are lower. Te life cycle of a fber network is 10 years, compared with fve years in a traditional copper structured cabling environment. v Masha Zager is the editor of BroadBand Communities. You can reach her at [email protected].

ETI has built more than software for broadband service providers – for over 20 years, we’ve built a reputation for taking on our customers’ challenges head-on and delivering innovative solutions that work without fail. FTTH providers count on ETI. Find out why.

800-332-1077

etisoftware.com JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

17

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

AU S T I N GigafyAmerica.com

APRIL 5 – 7, 2016 Renaissance Hotel – Austin, Texas

TO SPONSOR OR EXHIBIT: email: [email protected] | phone: 505-867-3299 twitter.com/bbcmag

www.bbcmag.com

877-588-1649

AS A FIRST TIME PARTICIPANT, THE EVENT WAS VERY IMPRESSIVE “Each speaker described their individual origins within their deployment, key positives and negatives. As a frst time participant, the event was very impressive.” – Mayor William Wescott, Mayor City of Rock Falls, IL

WAS MY FIRST TIME HERE BUT NOT MY LAST “The sessions gave great examples and covered all types of fnancing. Overall, this was a great conference. Was my frst time here but not my last.” – Terrie Salinas, Economic Development Director Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council (TX)

EXPERIENCES TO HELP MAKE MY CASE BACK HOME “The sessions were very useful – real life experiences, ideas to help make my case back home.” – Richard Wilson, IT Director, Special Projects Walton County BCC (FL)

KEYNOTES WERE EXCELLENT “I appreciate the visionary forecasts of experts in the feld of broadband. Keynotes were excellent. Lots of insights and great stories.” – David Moore, Director Louisiana Broadband Initiative

A P R IL 5-7, 2016 • REAL WORLD EXPERIENCES “Real world experiences and the associated consequences – found value in all of the panelist’s commentary.” – David Hopkins, 911 Director Southern Tier Network

BEST CONFERENCE AND FRIENDLIEST I’VE BEEN TO IN YEARS “All the session including the actual muni broadband case studies were very useful. Best conference and friendliest I’ve been to in years.” – Saul Tannenbaum, Community Member Cambridge Broadband Task Force (MA)

EVENT WAS PERFECT AND ENERGY WAS GREATER THAN EVER “The BBC team once again batted a homer over the fence, the event was perfect and the energy was greater than ever. The unanimous popular opinion among all participants is that BBC is by far the best organization in our feld!” – William Vallee, State Broadband Policy Coordinator State of Connecticut

PRESENTATIONS WERE VERY USEFUL IN CASTING KEY BROADBAND ISSUES “The keynote presentations were very useful in casting key broadband issues in a very important global light.” – Andrea Brown, Attorney Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government (KY)

Here’s what attendees are saying about the 2015 Summit!

AUSTIN SUMMIT THE SCHEDULE OF GUEST SPEAKERS WAS FANTASTIC “The Broadband Communities Summit was a fantastic event. We met with lots of people interested in what SiFi Networks has to ofer. The schedule of guest speakers was fantastic and the workshops very useful, we look forward to hopefully attending again next year.” – Sara Pickstock, Marketing and Communications Director SiFi Networks

ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING AND REWARDING EVENTS I HAVE EVER ATTENDED

Hilda Legg Former RUS Administrator and Vice Chair, Broadband Communities

Tom Wheeler Chairman, Federal Communications Commission

“I am back from attending the Broadband Community Summit and will tell you it was one of the most exciting and rewarding events I have ever attended. I have so much to learn and attending this event has helped me tremendously in this journey. The level of education and expertise along with the common sense approach of the three track program was more than I had thought possible. I plan to ask our Governor to send someone to next year’s Summit as it is a very valuable experience.” – Mayor Eddie Fulton, Mayor City of Quitman, MS

NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES WERE SECOND TO NONE “A very professional efort put forth by every one of the BBC staf. The conference was outstanding, and it was extremely professional and the networking opportunities were second to none.” – Gordon Caverly, RCDD Regional Vice President Mid-State Consultants

Eric Free Vice President, The Internet of Things Group, Intel Corp.

Make plans to attend the 2016 Summit now.

COMMUNITY BROADBAND

Lexington Goes for a Gig Mayor Jim Gray’s fber optic initiative puts Lexington, Ky., on a forward-looking path. By Masha Zager / Broadband Communities

T

he city of Lexington, Ky., is famous for its beautiful horse farms and historic bourbon distilleries but not for its broadband. Internet service there could fairly be described as mediocre – the Internet metrics company Ookla recently measured the average download speed in Lexington at 16.2 Mbps, well below the U.S. average of 37.1 Mbps. On the other hand, unlike some other cities that have launched FTTH initiatives, Lexington isn’t precisely underserved. Tere is no groundswell of community outrage about broadband. But Jim Gray, the city’s mayor, believes better broadband will give the city a better future, and he vowed to make Lexington a gigabit city. “Every city is in a competitive chase for talent and investment and jobs,” he explains. “Tis is essential just to stay competitive.” LEXINGTON’S ADVANTAGES Gray thinks Lexington ofers advantages for Internet service providers that the existing providers do not take account of. For one thing, the city is very dense – about 300,000 residents in 90 square miles – and it’s growing denser. Land beyond the inner core is protected by

Lexington ofers advantages for broadband providers, including high density, a major research university and access to a middle-mile network.

Community C i TToolkit lki P Program & Economic Development Conference Series Find out more about the Lexington story at the BroadBand Communities Economic Development Conference in September.

zoning and by purchase of development rights to protect the horse farms. Tus, infrastructure within the urban service boundary will become increasingly valuable as the population rises. Another asset is the presence of a major research university, the University of Kentucky. Te university brings with it a knowledge economy built around research and development; a highly educated, afuent population; and a vibrant cultural scene. Te businesses and households associated with the university are all desirable customers for providers of advanced Internet services. Already, Lexington has the highest concentration of e-book readers in the country, according to Te Atlantic, and is the top city in the United States for using the Roku online streaming receiver, according to Roku. As Gray says, “Lexington is a university city, with a highly educated workforce that can leverage greater bandwidth

22 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

Credits: David Cronin

Lexington locals and visitors enjoy live music at the Thursday Night Live Block Party.

speeds to create new technologies, new ideas and new markets.” A third important asset that will soon be available is KentuckyWired, a middle-mile fber network that the state is about to begin building. Te network will pass through Lexington and connect educational and other anchor institutions there; it will also lower the cost of Internet transport for potential last-mile providers. To get Lexington the broadband infrastructure that will equip it for the future, Gray realized he would have to encourage competition by marketing the city’s assets to potential providers. Te frst step was for city stafers to begin working on the Google Fiber City Checklist, which helps cities assess their capabilities and infrastructure. Te checklist, originally created for cities to apply for Google Fiber rollouts, has become a national standard for cities to prepare for any fber optic builds. Tough completing the checklist took a lot of work, Lexington was

one step ahead of the game because it had already made a great deal of data available through its open data initiative. Te checklist proved to be a “powerful organizing framework,” in the words of Scott Shapiro, senior adviser to Mayor Gray. Shapiro says the exercise uncovered a “healthy chunk of fber” already existing in the city, including trafc system fber as well as commercially owned fber, and prompted the city to work on streamlining its permitting processes. Te most important efect of completing the checklist, he adds, is that it pushed the city out of the reactive mode of issuing franchises upon request and into a proactive mode of deciding what infrastructure it needs and determining how to work with companies to obtain that infrastructure. SEEKING A PROVIDER In March 2015, Lexington was ready to take the next major step: issuing a JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

request for information from companies interested in building and operating a fber optic network in the city. Te RFI gave respondents the option of proposing a public-private venture or a purely commercial solution. It set the following requirements for a network: • High-speed connectivity to business and residential customers on a highly reliable and available network • Services and network performance that are a signifcant improvement over what is currently provided by existing networks • Excellent customer service • Competitive cost for customer services and fexible plans for pricesensitive customers • Capability to extend the network as Lexington grows. Te initiative is generating excitement locally. Several thousand residents are following the events on the “GigforLex” page on Facebook. Te | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

23

COMMUNITY BROADBAND Lexington received 11 responses to its request for information and is now exploring a range of possible avenues to becoming a gigabit city.

University of Kentucky – a founding member of Gig.U, which popularized the idea of university communities soliciting proposals from the private sector to build fber optic networks – has been helping and advising the city. Te local chamber of commerce and the business community in general are also strongly supportive, according to Gray. Eleven responses to the RFI were received from a wide variety of companies, some of which proposed multiple solutions. Te city is currently exploring a range of possibilities – including whether to commit to building out all neighborhoods or use a “fberhood” approach and whether to select a public-private or fully private solution. It’s also exploring how to leverage a fber optic network to promote growth in the high-tech sector and to deliver government services more efciently. Stafers have been studying the Kansas City Playbook that helped the two Kansas Cities take advantage of the Google Fiber network, and they plan to assemble a playbook of their own. As Gray says, “If we’re a beacon on the map for fast access, then we are going to have a competitive advantage.”

v

Masha Zager is the editor of BroadBand Communities. You can reach her at [email protected].

KENTUCKYWIRED – A STATEWIDE FIBER RING One factor that makes Lexington’s gigabit initiative possible is KentuckyWired, a unique statewide project that aims to develop a robust, reliable, fber backbone infrastructure to bring high-speed Internet connectivity to every part of Kentucky. Gov. Steve Beshear and U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers announced in December 2014 that the project would be built as a public-private initiative with the Australian fnancial giant Macquarie Capital and its consortium partners, which include First Solutions, Fujitsu Network Communications, Black & Veatch and Bowlin Group. Gov. Beshear said at the time, “Kentucky’s Internet speed and accessibility have lagged behind the rest of the nation far too long. This partnership puts us on the path to propel the commonwealth forward in education, economic development, health care, public safety and much more.” KentuckyWired will be paid for primarily by leveraging private capital. “If we were to rely solely on state government funding to get this project of the ground, it would take years, if not decades. Those kinds of tax dollars just aren’t available,” said Gov. Beshear. “In this technologydependent economy, we can’t aford to wait another minute. That’s why this partnership is so valuable – it ramps up this project to the speed of the private sector without any additional burden on our taxpayers.” THE MIDDLE MILE The frst stage of the project is to build 3,000 miles of main broadband fber lines, or middle-mile network, across the state. Fiber will be available in all 120 counties, and the underserved eastern Kentucky region will be the frst priority area. Once this backbone is complete, Internet service providers, cities, partnerships or other groups may tap into it to complete the last mile to homes or businesses. The project will take advantage of existing infrastructure to deliver the network more quickly and reduce construction costs. Improved cell phone coverage is anticipated as part of the initiative. Cell phone companies may use the middle-mile fber network to add capacity and broaden coverage areas that have traditionally had poor cell phone reception. The push for reliable, accessible high-speed broadband emerged from the Shaping Our Appalachian Region (SOAR) initiative, which aims to help Kentucky’s economy adapt to the restructuring in the coal industry. “This new Super I-Way is the cornerstone of SOAR’s mission to diversify the economy in eastern Kentucky with improvements in business recruitment, fast-tracking telemedicine in the mountains and adding high-tech advancements in education,” said Congressman Rogers. The project is estimated to cost between $250 million to $350 million and will be supported by approximately $30 million in state bonds and $15 to $20 million in federal grants. The network will be open access, meaning that many Internet and cell phone service providers can lease portions of it. Because those leases will not be limited to one provider per county or community, consumers will have broadband choices. By partnering with the network, providers will be able to reduce their costs when building out last-mile services – and that competition should result in lower consumer costs.

24 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

GO fAster witH

Fiber today! Delivering the fastest internet speeds vs. traditional technology, Hotwire Communications is an end-to-end gigabit fiber optics provider offering fision® service:

Ultra High-speed

incredible

Crystal Clear

Brilliant smart

Gigabit internet

Hd iPtV

digital Voice

Home Control

we build a 100% fiber optic network, at our cost, to serve your property. wired for the future, your residents will enjoy faster speeds with fiber riGHt NOw!

Hotwire Communications has been awarded the honor of being in the toP 100 Fiber-to-the-Home companies!

Hotwire Communications services multi-family developers, apartments, condo and homeowner’s associations, hotels, student housing and commercial multi-tenant buildings. Ask about a customized package to fit your operating budget.

800 - 40-WIRED | hotwirecommunications.com

HOME | WORK | STAY | U | ENCORE All services not available in all areas. Actual Internet speeds will vary based on a variety of factors. Speeds measured above 800 Mbps are classifed as gigabit. Hotwire Communications delivers 1 Gbps while the average speed users receive is approximately 7 Mbps. Speak to a Hotwire sales representative to learn more. Other restrictions may apply. Fision is a registered trademark of Hotwire Communications, Ltd. ©Hotwire Communications, LLC. All rights reserved. June 2015

2015 Leaders and innovators in the fber-to-the-home arena for 2015 A BBC Staf Report

Communities’ annual FTTH Top 100 list celebrates organizations for their contributions to “Building a Fiber-Connected World.” Tis has been a good year for building a fber-connected world, and that’s refected in the composition of the 2015 list. Among the trends the editorial staf took into account are the following:

B

roadband

• Cable companies are joining the fber-to-thehome parade. Comcast and Cox, leveraging fber they had deployed to business customers and others, announced large-scale residential FTTH buildouts (along with future

ORGANIZATIONS ADDED OR REINSTATED TO THE FTTH TOP 100 LIST IN 2015 3-GIS Allied Fiber Comcast Cable Cox Communications Fiberdyne Labs Fujitsu Network Communications OneCommunity Pavlov Media Pulse Broadband Tucows/Ting

www.3-GIS.com www.alliedfber.com www.comcast.com www.cox.com www.fberdyne.com http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom www.onecommunity.org www.pavlovmedia.com www.pulsebroadband.net www.ting.com/internet

DOCSIS 3.1 builds). As of press time, these projects were in the early stages, but they are ambitious enough to qualify both companies as FTTH leaders. Pavlov Media, a private cable operator, makes good use of its robust fber backbone, content delivery network and other advanced technologies to provide gigabit experiences for residents of student housing and other multifamily properties. • Several technology companies, following Google’s lead, are branching out to build fber-to-the-home networks. One such entity with national ambitions is the domain-services company Tucows, whose Ting subsidiary entered the FTTH market with a splash. • Delivering superior services requires more than just fber in the access network. Robust, reasonably priced backhaul is becoming increasingly necessary. Allied Fiber, which just completed the frst leg of its planned nationwide long- and short-haul dark fber network, and OneCommunity, a nonproft that operates a regional fber network in Northeast Ohio, are among the organizations using innovative methods to enable more economical Internet access. As in previous years, the FTTH Top 100 list represents many niches in the complex fber-to-the-home ecosystem. Optical fber and fber cables; passive equipment for connecting, protecting and managing fber; and active equipment for sending and receiving signals over fber are the most basic components of an

26 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

TOP 100 AT A GLANCE Network Planning, Design, Engineering, Construction, Installation Fiber and Fiber Cable Network Testing, Monitoring and Management Services Customer-Premises Equipment Other Than Network Interface Devices Network Management Solutions Fiber-to-the-Home Electronics Test and Measurement Equipment Passive Components for FTTH Networks Optical LAN Solutions Carrier Ethernet Solutions Distributors of Fiber Optic Products Network Planning and Design Solutions

FTTH network, along with software for planning, setting up and managing networks and for provisioning and billing fber services. Te list contains many companies that design, manufacture and distribute these essential products. To put all these pieces together requires frms that fnance, plan, design, engineer, construct and install fber optic networks as well as equipment for digging, pushing, pulling and attaching fber. Tese, too, are represented on the list. Te list also includes a variety of organizations that advocate for better broadband or create the conditions that make FTTH more proftable. Finally, there wouldn’t be any fber to the home if not for the network owners – large and small, private and public, incumbent and competitive – that invest in networks, decide what and where to build, operate networks and deliver services.

| 36 | 40 | 43 | 44 | 48 | 52 | 56 | 60 | 62 | 64 | 66 | 69

companies, the list includes municipal providers, a telephone cooperative and several nonprofts, some of which include both public and private partners. Although some organizations on the list focus entirely on fiber to the premises or other fber-based broadband technologies, most deliver or support a mix of broadband technologies. For some, broadband represents only a small part of their business. In making these selections, the editors considered how important the organizations are to advancing fber broadband rather than how important broadband is to them.

Te FTTH Top 100 list was researched by Marianne Cotter, Rachel Ellner and Kassandra Kania and overseen by editor Masha Zager, with recommendations and advice from editor-at-large Steve Ross. To nominate an organization for next year’s FTTH Top 100, email [email protected].

SELECTION CRITERIA In selecting the FTTH Top 100, the editors looked for organizations that advance the cause of fiber-based broadband by • Deploying networks that are large or ambitious, have innovative business plans or are intended to transform local economies or improve communities’ quality of life • Supplying key hardware, software or services to deployers • Introducing innovative technologies with game-changing potential, even if they have not yet been commercially deployed • Providing key conditions for fber builds, such as earlystage support or demand aggregation. To be listed among the FTTH Top 100, an organization may be based anywhere in the world but must do business in North America. Except for broadband service providers, which are inherently local, we give preference to organizations that serve national rather than local markets. Overall size is unimportant, as is corporate form – in addition to for-proft JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

27

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST COMPANY 3-GIS 3M Company / Communication Markets Division Actiontec Electronics ADTRAN

Advanced Media Technologies AFL

Alcatel-Lucent

WEBSITE www.3-GIS.com

PHONE

KEY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

256-560-0744 Fiber network design and mapping software

www.3M.com/telecom

800-426-8688 Interconnection, connection protection, fber management and facilities protection products for broadband networks

www.actiontec.com

408-752-7700 Broadband customer-premises equipment

www.adtran.com

256-963-8000 Solutions for FTTH, Carrier Ethernet, packet optical transport, mobile backhaul, service migration and service management

www.amt.com

954-427-5711; Distributor of fber optic transmission 888-293-5856 equipment, headends, IP and QAM set-top boxes, cable modems

www.AFLglobal.com

864-433-0333; Fiber optic cable, fber and copper 800-235-3423 interconnect products, optical connectivity, outside-plant hardware, fusion splicers, test equipment, training, systems integration

www.alcatel-lucent.com

908-582-3000 Broadband access equipment, IP routing platforms, optical switching and transport solutions, next-generation network and IMS solutions, network management, service integration, right-of-way solutions

Allied Fiber

www.alliedfber.com

Allied Telesis

www.alliedtelesis.com

212-920-8300 Long-haul and short-haul dark fber, network-neutral co-location space 800-424-4284 GPON, EPON and wireless network solutions and services for service providers, enterprises and home networks

Alpha Technologies

www.alpha.com

800-322-5742; Power systems for broadband 360-647-2360 communications

Anritsu Company

www.anritsu.com

800-ANRITSU (267-4878)

ARRIS

www.arris.com

AT&T / AT&T Connected Communities

www.att.com/ communities

Atlantic Engineering Group

www.aeg.cc, www. atlanticfbernetworks.com

Network test and measurement instruments; microwave, optical and RF components; service assurance solutions

678-473-2000; Optical and RF equipment, including RFoG, 866-362-7747 for HFC and fber networks; modems and gateways; software for remote workforce management and network management Broadband Internet, TV and voice services 706-654-2298 Design and field engineering, aerial and underground construction and professional services for FTTH and smart-grid networks

Baller Herbst Stokes & Lide PC

www.baller.com

202-833-5300 Legal services, public policy advocacy

BHC Rhodes

www.ibhc.com

913-663-1900 Planning, design and construction of FTTx projects

Black & Veatch

Blandin Foundation C Spire / C Spire Fiber

www.bv.com

913-458-2000 Consulting, engineering, construction, operations and program management services

www.blandin foundation.org

877-882-2257 Grant making, community leadership development and public policy programs

www.cspire.com/ fberhome

855-277-4734 Voice, video and Internet access delivered over a fber-to-the-home network

28 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

COMPANY

WEBSITE

PHONE

KEY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

Calix

www.calix.com

CCG

www.ccgcomm.com

202-255-7689 Regulatory, engineering, marketing, strategy and planning services

CenturyLink

www.centurylink.com

318-388-9000 Data, voice, video, managed services, cloud and hosted IT solutions

www.charles industries.com

847-806-6300 Fiber optic distribution enclosures and cabinets, fber aggregation and demarcation interconnects and hubs, fber cross-connects

Charles Industries

707-766-3000; Fiber access solutions for residential and 877-766-3500 business services, network and services management software, value-added software as a service

Cincinnati Bell

www.cincinnatibell.com, www.cincinnatibell.com/ Fioptics

Cisco Systems

www.cisco.com

800-553-6387 FTTH hardware, set-top boxes, cable modems, headends, network management systems

www.seeclearfeld.com

763-476-6866; Fiber distribution systems for inside plant, 800-422-2537 outside plant and access networks

Clearfeld Comcast Cable CommScope Corning / Corning Optical Communications COS Systems

www.comcast.com

High-speed Internet, video and voice services over cable and FTTH networks

www.commscope.com

828-324-2200; FTTH electronics, cable and connectivity 800-982-1708 products

www.corning.com/ opcomm

828-901-5000 Optical fber, optical fber cable, fber cabinets and splitters, fber connectors, terminals, MDU products

www.cossystems.com

Cox Communications

www.cox.com

CTC Technology & Energy

www.ctcnet.us

Dasan Networks USA

513-397-9900 Telephone, data, video, wireless and information technology solutions

800-562-1730 Demand aggregation software, BSS/OSS for managing open-access fber networks High-speed Internet, video, voice and home security services 301-933-1488 Fiber and wireless broadband network design, engineering, assessment and implementation

www.dasan networksus.com

770-674-0302 Access network equipment, Carrier Ethernet

Design Nine

www.designnine.com

540-951-4400 Broadband planning, design and project management; network operations

Ditch Witch

www.ditchwitch.com

800-654-6481 Construction equipment for laying fber

Dura-Line

www.duraline.com

800-847-7661 Conduit, cable-in-conduit, microducts and accessories

Dycom Industries

www.dycomind.com

EPB Fiber Optics

www.epbf.com

ETI Software Solutions

423-648-1372 Voice, video, data and smart-grid services provided over a fber optic network

www.etisoftware.com

JULY 2015

|

561-627-7171 Engineering, construction, maintenance and installation services for telecommunications providers

770-242-3620; Software products that manage broadband 800-332-1078 service fulfllment, activation and revenue assurance

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

29

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST COMPANY EXFO Fiberdyne Labs

WEBSITE www.exfo.com

PHONE

KEY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

418-683-0211; Telecom test and service assurance solutions 800-663-3936

www.fberdyne.com

315-895-8470 Fiber optic splitters, pedestals, cabinets, fber cable and fber cable assemblies, test equipment; fber installation, splicing and testing services

Finley Engineering

www.fecinc.com

417-682-5531 Network design and engineering services

Fujitsu Network Communications

http://us.fujitsu.com/ telecom

888-362-7763 Multivendor core, access and wireless network equipment; network management software solutions; end-to-end multivendor network project integration; other professional services

www.g4s.us

402-233-7700; Design, construction and maintenance of 855-447-8721 stand-alone and integrated communications networks and security systems

G4S Secure Integration

Genexis

GLDS

www.genexis.eu

www.glds.com

443-602-4510; Customer-premises equipment for FTTH +31 40 747 service providers, service-provisioning 0233 software 800-882-7950 Subscriber management, billing, provisioning and workforce management software

Google / Google Fiber

www.google.com

650-253-0000 Video and gigabit Internet services delivered over FTTH networks

Graybar

www.graybar.com

800-GRAYBAR PON electronics, optical transport, fber (472-9227) cabinets/enclosures, single-mode fber optic cable, fber splice closures and pedestals, DC power, outdoor fber terminals, FTTx drop cable, hardened MSTs

www.gvtc.com

800-367-4882 Video, high-speed Internet, security monitoring, local and long-distance telephone and advanced data services, Wi-Fi, Ethernet backhaul

www.henkels.com

215-283-7600 Planning, design, engineering, project management, construction and installation of wireline and wireless communications networks

www.hbci.com

888-474-9995 Voice, video, data and wireless services over high-speed networks

GVTC Communications

Henkels & McCoy

Hiawatha Broadband Communications Hotwire Communications InfniSys Electronic Architects

www.hotwire communications.com

800-409-4733 Data, voice and video services delivered over fber-to-the-home networks

www.electronic architect.com

386-236-1500 Telecommunications network design for multifamily buildings, technology amenity engineering

Institute for Local SelfReliance

www.ilsr.org; www.MuniNetworks.org

612-276-3456 Broadband policy research and municipal broadband advocacy

Inteleconnect

www.inteleconnect.com

734-944-6694 Telecommunications strategies for municipalities, campuses, developments and businesses

iPhotonix

www.iphotonix.com

214-575-9300 Optical network terminals, residential gateways

30 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

MAKE THE LEAP

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST COMPANY JDSU KGP Logistics

WEBSITE

PHONE

KEY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

www.jdsu.com

408-546-5000 Fiber optic communications components, network optimization and test equipment

www.kgplogistics.com

800-755-1950 Products for FTTH, including outside plant, central ofce, DAS, transmission and customer premises; supply-chain and distribution services

Leviton Manufacturing

www.leviton.com

718-229-4040 Premises wiring, outside plant, central-ofce solutions and home automation products

LUS Fiber

www.lusfber.com

337-993-4237 Voice, video and data services delivered over an FTTH network

m2fx Macquarie Group / Macquarie Capital

www.m2fx.com www.macquarie.com

847-325-5454 Armored polymer microduct and fber cables for FTTH and MDU markets 604-605-1779 Project development and equity investment, fnancial advisory, debt arranging, lending and funds management services

Magellan Advisors

www.magellanadvisors.com

Mapcom Systems

www.mapcom.com

804-743-1860 Visual operations system software, database administration, workforce management tools, training and consulting

MasTec

www.mastec.com

218-785-3030 FTTx deployment, outside-plant cabling, inside-plant construction and installation, joint trench systems, splicing and testing, systems integration, ongoing maintenance

MaxCell

www.maxcell innerduct.com/

888-387-3828 Fabric innerduct, conduit technology

Michels Corporation

www.michels.us

920-583-3132 Fiber optic network construction, including outside-plant construction, structured cabling and fiber splicing and testing

Mid-State Consultants

www.mscon.com

435-623-8601 Communications engineering services

Millennium Communications Group

www.millenniuminc.com, www.matrixdg.com

888-488-1767 Broadband and telecom planning, deployment and management services

800-677-1919 Planning, design, permitting, project management, IT services and solutions, physical security and related services for fber optic networks

Multicom

www.multicominc.com

800-423-2594 Distributor of fber optic products for endto-end communications solutions; VoIP services

Multilink

www.gomultilink.com

440-366-6966 Fiber distribution and cable management solutions; network power supplies, enclosures and cabinets; MDU enclosures; raceways and pathways

NEO Fiber

www.NEOfber.net

970-309-3500 Consulting, feasibility analysis, business planning, RFP writing and vendor management, project management, design and engineering

OFS

www.ofsoptics.com

770-798-5555; Optical fber, optical cable, fber 888-342-3743 management and connectivity products for homes, businesses and MDUs; splicers; network design services

32 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST COMPANY On Trac

WEBSITE www.ontracinc.net

PHONE

KEY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

423-317-0009 FTTx consulting, design, installation and splicing services

OneCommunity

www.onecommunity.org

216-923-2200 Fiber optic connectivity for anchor institutions and enterprises

Pace / Aurora Networks

www.pace.com/americas, www.aurora.com

561-995-6000 FTTH and cable network equipment, home media servers, set-top boxes, and customerpremises equipment for fber, Ethernet, xDSL and cable networks

Pacifc Broadband Networks Pavlov Media Power & Tel

www.pbnglobal.com/ www.pavlovmedia.com www.ptsupply.com

703-579-6777 FTTH electronics, software for network management and provisioning 800-677-6812 Internet, video and voice services; secure home networking for apartment units 800-238-7514 Fiber optic products and cable, optical networking electronics, test gear, IPTV, home networking solutions

Preformed Line Products

www.preformed.com

440-461-5200 Cable anchoring and control hardware and systems, fber optic and copper splice closures, high-speed cross-connect devices

Prysmian Group

www.prysmian.com

803-951-4800; Optical fber and telecommunications 800-713-5312 cables

Pulse Broadband

www.pulsebroadband.net

314-324-7347 Fiber network and FTTH planning, design, construction management, provisioning, billing, customer care, video programming services and operations management

SDT

www.sdt-1.com

601-823-9440 Telecommunications infrastructure services, including structured cabling; engineer, furnish and install services; design and engineering

SENKO Advanced Components

www.senko.com

508-481-9999 Fiber distribution and connectivity equipment, fber optic components

Smithville Communications / Smithville Telecom / Smithville Fiber Sonic

www.smithville.net

www.sonic.net

812-876-2211; Residential broadband services and fber 800-742-4084 connectivity for businesses and government agencies 888-766-4233 Gigabit fber and DSL Internet access, residential and business voice service, colocation, business networking

Superior Essex

www.SuperiorEssex.com

770-657-6000 Premises and outside-plant fber and copper cable products, FTTH closures

Suttle

www.suttlesolutions.com

800-852-8662 Fiber enclosure systems, home networking solutions; structured wiring media panel enclosures and modules, high-speed panels and frames

www.te.com

610-893-9800 Fiber optic cabling and connectivity products

www.teamfshel.com

614-274-8100; Network design, engineering, construction, 800-347-4351 installation and maintenance services

TE Connectivity Team Fishel Telect

www.telect.com

509-926-6000; Fiber optic and copper connectivity 800-551-4567 solutions, network power management, equipment racks and cabinets, cable management systems

34 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

COMPANY Tellabs

Tucows / Ting US Ignite Vantage Point Solutions

WEBSITE

PHONE

www.tellabs.com

630-798-8800 Optical LAN, GPON optical line terminals and optical network terminals, outside plant and network management

www.ting.com/internet www.us-ignite.org www.vantagepnt.com www.verizon.com; www.verizon.com/ communities

Vermeer Corporation

www.vermeer.com

Walker and Associates

www.walkerfrst.com

ZyXEL Communications

855-846-4389 Gigabit Internet access 202-365-9219 Coordinating development and testing of next-generation broadband services

Verizon Communications / Verizon Enhanced Communities

Zhone Technologies

KEY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

605-995-1777 Telecom engineering and consulting services Internet, TV and digital voice services

641-628-3141; Horizontal directional drilling equipment, 888-837-6337 utility and pedestrian trenchers and plows 800-925-5371 Products and services for deploying communications networks

www.zhone.com

510-777-7000; Equipment for all-IP multiservice broadband 877-946-6320 access, including integration of FTTx, Ethernet in the First Mile and wireless access technologies

www.us.zyxel.com

714-632-0882; Customer-premises equipment and Ethernet 800-255-4101 switches for FTTH and FTTN networks

“Fiber networks not only provide the greatest broadband capability but are typically the least expensive to deploy as well. Without the best broadband network, a landline provider will quickly become irrelevant.” – Larry Thompson, CEO, Vantage Point Solutions

3-GIS 256-560-0744 www.3-GIS.com

3M Company / Communication Markets Division www.3M.com/telecom 800-426-8688

Key Products: Web-based fber network design and mapping software Summary: 3-GIS is the developer of popular Web-based software for planning, designing and managing fber networks. Te software suite, which uses ESRI’s ArcGIS platform, includes browser-based, mobile and admin applications and can be confgured to cover a range of needs and use cases. It can be deployed either on premises or in a cloud-based SAAS model. Te mobile application can be used by technicians to collect, correct and view asset information in the feld with a variety of devices. 3-GIS clients include Level 3 Communications, Atlantic Engineering Group, NewCom, Allo Communications, Southern Light and BHC Rhodes. Te company has about 50 employees. It was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Decatur, Ala. JULY 2015

|

Key Products: Interconnection, connection protection, fber management, facilities protection products for broadband networks Summary: 3M ofers a full-fber MDU broadband solution for both inside and outside living units. For quick, easy deployment of fber broadband in existing residences, the 3M Fiber Pathway for inside the living unit can be combined with the 3M One Pass Fiber Pathway hallway solution via simple, feld-installable 3M fber connectors. For more than 50 years, products from 3M have formed the backbone of the telecommunications industry, and network operators worldwide rely on 3M to connect and protect their infrastructures. From FTTx to xDSL to wireless, 3M’s network of networks connects smart grids to smartphones,

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

35

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST wind farms to server farms, greenfeld to brownfeld, wireline to wireless and customers to their goals.

Actiontec Electronics www.actiontec.com 408-752-7700 Key Products: Broadband customer-premises equipment, wireless and video networking solutions

Summary: Actiontec Electronics is a leader in broadband delivery solutions for the entire home, with more than 40 million connected home devices sold to date. Its products include whole-home wireless networking solutions, wireless video and display devices, gigabit Ethernet fber routers and high-speed VDSL gateways that are deployed by some of the largest global broadband providers and available in retail and online stores. In January 2015, Actiontec announced the launch of 802.11ac wireless network extenders that provide the fastest Wi-Fi speeds for high-bandwidth activities such as streaming HD video and games. Te wireless network extenders ofer a cost-efective way to add next-generation speeds to home networks and extend Wi-Fi signals to hardto-reach parts of homes. Actiontec is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has ofces worldwide.

NETWORK PLANNING, DESIGN, ENGINEERING, CONSTRUCTION, INSTALLATION (Excludes companies that provide these services only for networks they will own or manage.) In this and subsequent tables, FTTH Top 100 companies are in bold.

COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS AFL www.AFLglobal.com Alcatel-Lucent www.alcatel-lucent.com Allied Telesis www.alliedtelesis.com Alpha Techologies www.alpha.com Atlantic Engineering Group www.aeg.cc BHC Rhodes www.ibhc.com/ Black and Veatch www.bv.com BVU Authority www.bvu-optinet.com CCI Systems www.ccisystems.com/ CCG www.ccgcomm.com/ CHR Solutions www.chrsolutions.com Communications Test Design Inc. (CTDI) www.ctdi.com Corning Optical Communications www.corning.com/opcomm Crestino Telecom Solutions www.crestino.com CTC Technology & Energy www.ctcnet.us Design Nine www.designnine.com Dycom www.dycomind.com Ervin Cable Construction www.ervincable.com/ eX2 technology www.ex2technology.com Fiber-Tel Contractors www.fbertelcontractors.com Finley Engineering www.fecinc.com Fujitsu Network Communications http://us.fujitsu. com/telecom G4S Secure Integration www.g4s.us GTS www.gts-yes.com Henkels & McCoy www.henkels.com HunTel Engineering www.htleng.com InfniSys Electronic Architects www.electronicarchitect.com

COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS Inteleconnect www.inteleconnect.com J&R Underground www.jrundergroundllc.com KGP Logistics www.kgplogistics.com Ledcor Group www.ledcor.com Magellan Advisors www.magellan-advisors.com MasTec www.mastec.com Michels Communications www.michels.us Mid-State Consultants www.mscon.com Millennium Communications Group www.millenniuminc.com MP Nexlevel www.mpnexlevel.com Multicom www.multicominc.com NEO Fiber www.neofber.net OFS www.ofsoptics.com On Trac www.ontracinc.net Pace International www.paceintl.com Pinpoint Services www.pinpointservices.com/ Pulse Broadband www.pulsebroadband.net S&N Communications www.sncomm.com SDT www.sdt-1.com Spectrum Engineering Corp. www.spectrumeng.com Team Fishel www.teamfshel.com Tellabs www.tellabs.com Tellus Venture Associates www.tellusventure.com Turnkey Network Solutions www.tkns.net Uptown Services www.uptownservices.com U-reka Broadband Ventures www.u-rekabroadband.com Vantage Point Solutions www.vantagepnt.com Walker and Associates www.walkerfrst.com

36 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

“For communications service providers, upgrading to fber networks and adding NFV elements are crucial today when trends such as mobility, big data, social networks and cloud computing are increasingly demanded by customers.” – Amir Elbaz, CEO, iPhotonix

ADTRAN www.adtran.com 256-963-8000 Key Products: Solutions for FTTH, Carrier Ethernet, packet optical transport, mobile backhaul, service migration and service management Summary: ADTRAN is one of the fastest growing FTTH vendors globally. Its solutions enable broadband expansion, IPTV video deployment, business Ethernet service delivery, cell site and small-cell backhaul and converged network services. Te advanced packet network infrastructure of the company’s fagship Total Access 5000 platform delivers fber and copper access services across a pure Ethernet core, allowing mixed deployments of GPON (including NG-PON2), active Ethernet, vectored VDSL2 and traditional T1 services. For services that require strict service-level agreements, the Total Access 5000 also provides MEF-based Carrier Ethernet services over wavelength, OTN, fber, copper and TDM. In April 2015, ADTRAN announced that Troy Cable had selected its advanced FTTH portfolio to deliver gigabit Internet service to residential customers in more than 20 communities across Alabama. In May 2015, ADTRAN announced a breakthrough in the economics of delivering FTTP service based on NGPON2 architecture. ADTRAN’s implementation of this 10 Gbps, symmetric, standards-based technology allows for simultaneous delivery of residential, business and backhaul applications on the same infrastructure using diferent optical transceivers. ADTRAN is based in Huntsville, Ala., and had 2014 sales of approximately $630 million.

Advanced Media Technologies www.amt.com 954-427-5711; 888-293-5856

added reseller of high-performance broadband products, ofers a complete line of FTTH, IPTV, data and CATV products. AMT specializes in prebuilt headends and data over DOCSIS solutions. It ofers products from such leading manufacturers as Adtec, Alcatel-Lucent, Amino, ARRIS, ATX Networks, Blonder Tongue, Casa, Drake, EGT, Emcore, Harmonic, Olson Technology, RGB/Imagine Communications and ZeeVee. Customers include major cable companies in the United States and Latin America, telcos, private cable operators and entertainment and multimedia content delivery companies around the world. Located in Deerfeld Beach, Fla., AMT is a subsidiary of ITOCHU International, the North American subsidiary of ITOCHU Corporation of Japan. AFL www.AFLglobal.com 864-433-0333; 800-235-3423 Key Products: Fiber optic cable, fber and copper interconnect products, optical connectivity, outside-plant hardware, fusion splicers, test equipment, training, design, engineering, integration Summary: AFL products, services and engineering expertise help customers improve their infrastructures and enable delivery of voice, video and high-speed data communications. AFL’s product line includes fber optic cable, connectivity, fber management, outside-plant closures, demarcation devices, fusion splicers, test equipment and Light Brigade training and education. AFL plans, designs, implements and maintains communications networks, ofering solutions for MDU and master-planned community networks as well as for telephone, cable TV and wireless providers; utilities; hospitality companies and enterprises. Founded in 1984, AFL is headquartered in Spartanburg, S.C., and is a division of Fujikura Ltd. Te company has more than 4,300 associates around the world with operations in the United States, Mexico, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Key Products: Fiber optic transmission equipment, cable modem termination systems, headends, IP and QAM settop boxes, cable modems Summary: Advanced Media Technologies (AMT), a valueJULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

37

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST “The FTTH industry has changed dramatically. Every operator, whether it is a cable operator, a telco or a new entrant, now understands that its end network will be all fber. This was not true two or three years ago, when many operators were still fghting the concept of going fber to the home. The success of innovative operators in launching gigabit services has pushed the conversation from a debate about whether to fber to one of when to fber. G.fast and DOCSIS 3.1 technologies will help traditional operators extend their time frames with support for copper infrastructure, but even the largest advocates of these technologies are capitulating to an all-fber future. That is a major shift in the market psychology.” – Dave Russell, Solutions Marketing Director, Calix

Alcatel-Lucent www.alcatel-lucent.com 908-582-3000

Allied Fiber www.alliedfber.com 212-920-8300

Key Products: Wireline and wireless broadband access equipment, IP routing platforms, optical switching and transport solutions, next-generation network and IMS solutions, IMS applications, IPTV and IP video solutions, network management, service integration

Key Products: Long-haul and short-haul dark fber, network-neutral co-location space

Summary: One-third of fxed broadband subscribers worldwide are served by access networks that use AlcatelLucent technology, including EPON, GPON and DSL. Te company is ranked third in fber-to-the-home deployments globally with a 23 percent market share. Alcatel-Lucent continues to introduce innovative broadband technologies with the technical help and scientifc expertise of Bell Labs, the largest innovation powerhouse in the communications industry. In 2011, it was frst to commercialize vectored VDSL2, which boosts FTTN bandwidth by eliminating crosstalk. By 2015, it had shipped 10 million vectored VDSL2 lines and is ranked frst in market share for VDSL2. It has also made major new announcements in G.fast, TWDMPON, cloud services and software-defned networking. Incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris, AlcatelLucent had revenue of $15 billion in 2014. In April 2015, Nokia announced the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent. Te acquisition is expected to close in 2016; the combined company will be called Nokia Corporation, with headquarters in Finland and a strong presence in France.

Summary: Allied Fiber owns, builds and operates a networkneutral, fber optic cable system that connects subsea landing points, wireless towers, data centers, carrier hotels, co-location facilities, enterprise buildings, schools and governments with long-haul and short-haul dark fber. Its goal is to build and provide access to an abundant supply of dark fber in areas where it is most needed. Allied Fiber recently completed construction of the network segment between Miami and Atlanta and is currently planning its next route segment. Carriers along Allied Fiber’s route are already using the network to expand last-mile service. For example, Joytel Networks, a Florida ISP, entered into a 10-year agreement with Allied Fiber that will enable it to provide Internet access and fber-based network services to underserved areas on the east coast of Florida, and municipal operator Palm Coast FiberNET connected its open-access network to Allied Fiber’s network to help drive job growth and give business customers access to additional service providers.

Allied Telesis www.alliedtelesis.com 800-424-4284 Key Products: Access network equipment that delivers 38 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

services to 40 Gigabit Ethernet; IP/Ethernet switching and routing equipment; home networking solutions; deployment and operation of IP networks Summary: Allied Telesis is a global provider of IP/Ethernet network equipment and a deployer and an operator of IP tripleplay networks. With its recent introduction of an OpenFlowcompliant platform that also supports traditional intelligent Layer 3 switching, it is a pioneer in carrier-grade, softwaredefned network architecture. It provides multimedia solutions for video, voice and data networking for service providers, civilian and military government clients, health care providers, and the education, retail and hospitality markets. Trough the Allied Telesis Support and Professional Services organization, it ofers a comprehensive suite of network management services. Allied Telesis powers the Grant County Public Utility District’s gigabit build in Washington state. In March, Wisconsin’s Vernon Telephone Cooperative selected Allied Telesis for its new gigabit build. Headquartered in Tokyo, with its main U.S. ofce in Bothell, Wash., Allied Telesis operates in 60 countries and maintains global R&D operations and vertically integrated manufacturing centers. Allied Telesis Holdings reported worldwide sales of about $300 million for 2014. Alpha Technologies www.alpha.com 800-322-5742, 360-647-2360 Key Products: Standby, non-standby and uninterruptible power supplies; surge suppressors; enclosures and batteries; installation and construction services Summary: Founded in 1976, Alpha Technologies is a major player in power systems for the broadband communications industry worldwide. Alpha products provide critical power conditioning and emergency backup for video, data and voice networks. Alpha’s installation and construction services include structure engineering, right-of-way and easement procurement, site preparation, equipment installation, system turnup and system testing. Customers in 50 countries include major cable television system operators, telecommunications service providers and full-service communications providers. Alpha recently launched several products that power FTTH networks, including AC, DC and line power systems that support both single-family and multifamily applications. In December 2014, Alpha acquired the status monitoring division of Cheetah Technologies, a developer and supplier of network monitoring hardware and software. Alpha, with more than 1,000 employees, has sales and service centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, China and Australia. Alpha Technologies is a member of Te Alpha Group, a global alliance of independent companies that share a common philosophy: to create powering solutions for communications, commercial, industrial and renewable energy markets.

JULY 2015

|

Anritsu Company www.anritsu.com 800-ANRITSU (267-4878) Key Products: Network test and measurement instruments; microwave, optical and RF components; service assurance solutions Summary: Anritsu was founded in 1895, the year Marconi demonstrated the frst “wireless telegraph,” and has been at the forefront of the evolution of information and communications networks ever since. Anritsu’s core business is test and measurement instruments for existing and next-generation wired and wireless communication systems and operators, and its products are used in R&D, manufacture and maintenance of wired and wireless, RF/microwave and optical solutions. Fiber network installers use Anritsu equipment for such critical measurements as optical time-domain refectometry, chromatic dispersion, polarization mode dispersion and optical return loss. In addition, Anritsu manufactures a line of optoelectronic components for optical communications systems and fber optic sensing applications. Te company also ofers solutions for network and service performance management and service intelligence. Anritsu Company, the U.S. subsidiary of Anritsu Corporation, is headquartered in Morgan Hill, Calif., and has operations in Richardson, Texas, and Pine Brook, N.J. Anritsu Corporation, headquartered in Atsugi, Japan, posted revenue of just under $1 billion for the fscal year ending March 31, 2015. ARRIS www.arris.com 678-473-2000; 866-362-7747 Key Products: Optical and RF equipment, including RFoG, for HFC and fber networks; Carrier Ethernet solutions; voice and data modems and gateways; on-demand video and interactive advertising platforms; whole-home DVR; fxed-mobile convergence; software for remote workforce management and network management Summary: ARRIS broadband solutions support traditional RF triple-play services as well as IP video and high-speed data services, voice, on-demand content, targeted advertising, and network and workforce assurance solutions. Te company’s FTTMAX RFoG solution is a cable-friendly FTTP infrastructure that allows future migration to EPON or GPON without changes to the outside plant. Because FTTMAX design fundamentals are based on HFC technology, deployment and maintenance are relatively simple for service technicians, and the technology allows cable providers to postpone the transition to all-IP solutions. In April 2015, ARRIS announced its plans to acquire Pace, a provider of technology solutions to the pay-TV and broadband industries. When the acquisition is complete, the company will operate as New ARRIS. Headquartered north of Atlanta, in Suwanee, Ga., ARRIS has R&D, sales and support centers

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

39

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST “Advanced broadband service is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity for all of us to work, play and efectively conduct our lives. Communities can dramatically disrupt the old scarce service delivery model by building all-fber networks. Today the options for collaboration and entering into public-private partnerships make the business models much more doable.” – Diane Kruse, Founder and CEO, NEO Fiber

throughout the world and employs 6,500 people globally. In 2014, ARRIS reported revenue of $5.3 billion. AT&T / AT&T Connected Communities www.att.com/communities Key Products: Broadband Internet, TV and voice services Summary: AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high-speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. Its advanced residential service bundle, AT&T U-verse, based on IP technology, includes TV, high-speed Internet and home phone. At the end of 2014, there were almost 6 million U-verse TV customers, 4.8 million U-verse voice connections and 12.2 million U-verse high-speed Internet customers – an increase of almost 20 percent over 2013 despite the sale of

FIBER AND FIBER CABLE These frms supply optical fber for fber access deployments. COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS AFL www.afglobal.com Clearfeld www.SeeClearfeld.com CommScope www.commscope.com Corning Optical Communications www.corning.com/opcomm Fiberdyne Labs www.fberdyne.com m2fx www.m2fx.com Nexans www.nexans.us OFS www.ofsoptics.com Optical Cable Corporation www.occfber.com Prysmian www.prysmian.com Sumitomo Electric Lightwave www.sumitomoelectric.com Superior Essex www.SuperiorEssex.com/Comm TE Connectivity www.te.com Telect www.telect.com Timbercon www.timbercon.com

all wireline assets in Connecticut in 2014. In 2014, AT&T announced plans to expand U-verse with GigaPower, its ultrafast fber network technology, to up to 100 candidate cities and municipalities nationwide. Trough May 2015, AT&T has launched U-verse with GigaPower in parts of the Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Jose, Kansas City, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, RaleighDurham and Winston-Salem markets. Te service ofers some of the fastest consumer Internet available, with speeds up to 1 gigabit per second. Trough AT&T Connected Communities, the company works with multifamily and single-family builders, developers, real estate investment trusts, apartment ownership and management groups and homeowners associations to provide next-generation communications and entertainment services. AT&T revenue for 2014 was $132 billion. Atlantic Engineering Group www.aeg.cc, www.atlanticfbernetworks.com 706-654-2298 Key Products: Design and feld engineering, aerial and underground construction, technical services, and professional services for FTTH networks Summary: Atlantic Engineering Group (AEG), known as a pioneer of fber-to-the-home network deployment, leads the drive to combine innovative FTTH and smart-grid technologies into a single business plan for municipalities and rural electric cooperatives. Te company, founded in 1996, specializes in the design and construction of fber communications networks. Tough this outside-plant specialist is headquartered in Braselton, Ga., it deploys inhouse personnel and on-site project managers globally. AEG performs project management, business modeling, service planning, engineering, underground and aerial construction, splicing, premises installation, headend activation, testing and many other professional and technical services. AEG has completed design or build commissions for more than 100 networks, including more than 40 FTTH projects. Recently, AEG established Atlantic Fiber Networks, which constructs fber networks, including middle-mile and dark fber applications, on a build-to-own basis. Atlantic Fiber Networks designs, builds, manages and maintains end-to-end fber optic

40 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

solutions tailored primarily for middle-mile applications. Clients include municipalities, electric utilities, telephone companies, electric cooperatives and government agencies.

Baller Herbst Stokes & Lide PC www.baller.com 202-833-5300

Spire, Unite Private Networks, and numerous municipalities. BHC Rhodes recently expanded its geographic base by opening an Austin, Texas, ofce. Based in Overland Park, Kan., BHC Rhodes is privately owned and has more than 100 employees.

Black & Veatch www.bv.com 913-458-2000

Key Products: Legal services, public policy advocacy Summary: Tis telecom law frm has a long, consistent record of support for the development of fber to the home through its representation of clients and through public policy advocacy. Te frm represents public and private entities on a broad range of communications matters, both nationally and in more than 35 states. It is best known for representing the rights of public entities to build and operate their own communications networks. Baller Herbst served as a consultant to Google on its Fiber for Communities initiative and was involved in several Gig.U projects. As the founder and president of the US Broadband Coalition, a broad-based consortium, Baller Herbst president Jim Baller was a major contributor to the development of a national consensus on the need for a national broadband strategy. He is now a driving force behind the movement to use high-capacity broadband to foster economic development, and he was instrumental in the recent formation of CLIC, the Coalition for Local Internet Choice (www.localnetchoice.org), dedicated to protecting the rights of communities to determine their economic futures by choosing the best broadband Internet infrastructure for their businesses, institutions and residents. Founded in 1983, Baller Herbst is based in Washington, D.C., and Minneapolis and has six attorneys. BHC Rhodes www.ibhc.com 913-663-1900

Key Products: Consulting, engineering, construction, operations and program management services Summary: Founded in 1915, Black & Veatch is a global engineering, consulting and construction company that specializes in telecommunications, energy, water and government services. An employee-owned company, Black & Veatch has approximately 10,000 professionals working in more than 110 ofces worldwide and has completed projects in more than 100 countries. Services include engineering, procurement, construction, design, management consulting, asset management, environmental consulting and security. Black & Veatch has deployed more than 30,000 miles of fber for commercial carriers, cities and utilities and was recently selected by the Commonwealth of Kentucky as part of a consortium that will build a statewide fber backbone. Revenue in 2014 was $3.0 billion.

Blandin Foundation www.blandinfoundation.org 877-882-2257 Key Products: Grant making, community leadership development and public policy programs

Key Products: Planning, design and construction of FTTx projects Summary: BHC Rhodes provides civil engineering services to telecom frms that build and maintain fber networks across the United States. BHC Rhodes has designed and managed thousands of miles of telecom network infrastructure for clients that range from small communities and telcos to large international service providers. Its FTTx services include feasibility studies, cost estimating and budgeting; planning, layout and network architecture; GIS and AutoCAD mapping; hut site development and construction; outside-plant design; site surveys; right-of-way permitting and asset management. BHC Rhodes customers include AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Level 3 Communications, Cox Communications, C JULY 2015

Summary: Since 1941, the Blandin Foundation, a private foundation based in Grand Rapids, Minn., has been dedicated to strengthening rural Minnesota communities. Its Broadband Initiative, launched in 2003, helps communities educate citizens about the need for ultra-high-speed broadband and plan and execute broadband projects. Te foundation has published informational guides, sponsored conferences and educational events, and supported many feasibility studies for the development of robust, high-speed broadband networks. It has supported implementation of broadband applications in schools, health care facilities and other institutions and for home-based users and has promoted broadband adoption in rural communities. In May 2015, Blandin Foundation awarded 29 grants totaling $321,245 to

| www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

41

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST “The hard part about future-proofng anything is that the future never stops coming at you. For over a decade, we’ve talked with [MDU] clients about spec’ing gigabit electronics and fber as deep as possible so they’d be ready and wouldn’t have to reinvest when the local loop infrastructure caught up with the demand for speed. In many cases, that added extra costs up front. But now that residents are starting to expect gigabit connections, those clients who invested early are reaping the benefts of being ahead of the curve.” – Richard Holtz, CEO, InfniSys Electronic Architects

support rural Minnesota communities as they grow highspeed Internet access and use in their communities.

Calix www.calix.com 707-766-3000; 877-766-3500

C Spire / C Spire Fiber www.cspire.com/fberhome 855-277-4734

Key Products: Fiber access solutions for residential and business services, network and services management software, value-added software as a service

Key Products: Voice, video and Internet access delivered over a fber-to-the-home network

Summary: Calix serves more North American FTTx providers than all other equipment vendors combined. It is the leading supplier of optical ports to Tier 2 and Tier 3 carriers in North America and supplies FTTH equipment to a Tier 1 carrier, CenturyLink. Its fber access solutions for GPON and point-to-point Gigabit Ethernet are widely deployed in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean; in addition, Calix recently entered the African, Asian, Australian, European and Latin American markets. In 2014, Calix introduced its Ethernet Service Access solution for delivery of Carrier Ethernet 2.0 and LTE-Advanced mobile backhaul services. Te solution includes the Service Verify software application for monitoring and managing servicelevel agreements. Calix also introduced the frst 802.11ac carrier-grade wireless premises service delivery platform with 4x4 MIMO. Te company has shipped more than 19 million ports to providers that have more than 100 million subscriber lines. Headquartered in Petaluma, Calif., Calix had 2014 revenue of $401 million.

Summary: C Spire is aggressively building a 1 Gbps ultra-high-speed Internet network in Mississippi to attract investment and economic growth and pave the way for improvements in health care, education, civic life and municipal services. Using a crowdsourcing model similar to Google Fiber, the company began preregistration in December 2013 in nine Mississippi cities. Four cities were removed from the program after they failed to qualify any areas during their year of eligibility. Jackson, the state’s largest city and capital, was added to the program in September 2014, and two others were added in 2015. C Spire began ofering service in the frst three C Spire Fiber cities in the fall of 2014. A fourth city turned up its frst customers in June 2015, and the company expects to activate service in several other cities by the end of this year. C Spire’s FTTH deployment in Mississippi is supported by its existing fber optic infrastructure, which was built to support the company’s LTE network and business services and includes more than 5,500 miles of fber cable. C Spire, which operates 67 company-owned retail locations and another 10 select retailer locations throughout its four-state footprint, opened a new $23 million Tier 3+ commercial data center in October 2014. Based in Ridgeland, C Spire is privately owned and employs 1,425 people.

CCG www.ccgcomm.com 202-255-7689 Key Products: Regulatory, engineering, marketing, and strategy and planning services

42 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

Summary: In business since 1997, CCG is a full-service consultant for small communications carriers. Te company specializes in launching new broadband ventures and in making existing businesses more proftable. CCG ofers a wide range of regulatory, engineering, strategy and planning, operations, budgeting and billing services. CCG can help clients design, upgrade or maximize fber, coaxial, copper or wireless networks. CCG also ofers direct operational assistance in areas such as number portability, new product development, cable programming, carrier disputes, and billing audits. One of CCG’s notable recent achievements was to assist with the funding and launch of RS Fiber, a new broadband cooperative in rural Minnesota – a project that seemed all but impossible for fve years and fnally succeeded. CenturyLink www.centurylink.com 318-388-9000 Key Products: Data, voice, video, managed services, cloud and hosted IT solutions Summary: CenturyLink is a global communications, hosting, cloud and IT services company. It ofers network and data systems management, Big Data analytics and IT consulting, operating more than 55 data centers in North America, Europe and Asia. Te company provides broadband, voice, video, data and managed services over a 250,000-route-mile U.S. fber network and a 300,000-route-mile international transport network. CenturyLink launched its 1 Gbps FTTH service in Omaha, Neb., in 2013. Today, CenturyLink passes 360,000 homes with 1 Gbps service and plans to expand to 700,000 homes in select locations in 10 cities by year-end 2015, with further expansion in 2016 and beyond. Early in 2014, the company also began ofering 1 Gbps service to businesses located in multitenant unit buildings throughout Salt Lake City. CenturyLink has expanded that service to 490,000 small and midsize business locations in 17 states. CenturyLink also ofers Prism TV, an interactive IPTV service, in 13 markets, passing 2.4 million homes. Headquartered in Monroe, La., CenturyLink is an S&P 500 company and is included on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations. With approximately 46,000 employees, CenturyLink posted operating revenue of $18 billion in 2014. Charles Industries www.charlesindustries.com 847-806-6300 Key Products: Fiber optic distribution enclosures and cabinets, fber aggregation and demarcation interconnects and hubs, fber cross-connects Summary: Charles Industries designs and manufactures buried distribution pedestals and remote cabinet enclosures for fber optic applications. Te company serves telecommunications, CATV, municipal, utility and government service providers. It introduced nonmetallic fber JULY 2015

|

pedestals in 2001 and continues to provide new solutions for nearly all fber deployment architectures. Charles Fiber Distribution Point pedestals ofer closed-architecture protection for ribbon and loose bufer-tube fber; the Buried Distribution Optical open-architecture fber pedestals ofer a low-cost alternative. Charles Universal Broadband Enclosures provide environmental protection for remotely deployed electronics and batteries at cell sites, small cells, DASs, MDUs, business parks and other multiuser locations. Charles Fiber Interconnect Terminals and Charles Fiber Building Terminals are compact indoor and outdoor terminals and hubs for fber aggregation and demarcation points. New this year are the CFIT-Flex line of compact universal enclosures for fber, copper and coaxial distribution as well as fber rack and wall solutions for space-constrained patch, splice and splitter requirements. Founded in 1968, Charles Industries is privately held and headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Ill., with U.S-based engineering and manufacturing facilities. Cincinnati Bell www.cincinnatibell.com www.cincinnatibell.com/Fioptics 513-397-9900 Key Products: Telephone, data, video, wireless and information technology solutions Summary: Households and businesses in Greater Cincinnati have access to Cincinnati Bell’s integrated communications solutions, which include local, long-distance, data, Internet, entertainment, wireless and information technology services.

NETWORK TESTING, MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT SERVICES COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS AFL www.AFLglobal.com Alcatel-Lucent www.alcatel-lucent.com Allied Telesis www.alliedtelesis.com Atlantic Engineering Group www.aeg.cc BVU Authority www.bvufocus.com CHR Solutions www.chrsolutions.com Design Nine / WideOpen Networks www.wideopennetworks.us Ericsson www.ericsson.com iGLASS www.iglass.net INOC www.inoc.com Korcett Holdings www.korcett.com MasTec www.mastec.com Michels Communications www.michels.us Satellite Management Services www.smstv.com

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

43

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST In addition, Cincinnati Bell ofers complex information technology solutions, such as managed services and technology stafng. Te company’s fber-based services, branded as Fioptics, include advanced high-speed data, digital television and telephone services and are available to 335,000 residential and business customers, more than 40 percent of Greater Cincinnati. In 2014, the company made gigabit Internet speed available to Fioptics customers. It also sold its wireless spectrum licenses for $194 million so that it could focus its eforts on the efcient deployment of fber. Cincinnati Bell’s revenue in 2014 was $1.3 billion. Cisco Systems www.cisco.com 800-553-6387 Key Products: Platforms for fber-to-the-home deployments, digital set-top boxes and accessories, cable modems, wireless routers, headend equipment, network management systems Summary: Cisco, which dominates the Ethernet switch market worldwide, has supplied equipment used in active

CUSTOMER-PREMISES EQUIPMENT OTHER THAN NETWORK INTERFACE DEVICES These companies provide set-top boxes, routers, residential gateways, home networking gear and related equipment. COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS Actiontec www.actiontec.com Advanced Digital Broadcast www.adbglobal.com Amino Communications www.aminocom.com ARRIS www.arris.com BEC Technologies www.bectechnologies.net Cisco Systems www.cisco.com Comtrend www.comtrend.com D-Link www.dlink.com DrayTek www.draytek.com EchoStar www.echostar.com Entone www.entone.com Genexis www.genexis.eu Leviton Manufacturing www.leviton.com NETGEAR www.netgear.com Pace www.pace.com Roku www.roku.com Suttle www.suttleonline.com Technicolor www.technicolor.com Tilgin www.tilgin.com ZyXEL Communications www.us.zyxel.com

Ethernet FTTH deployments for more than a decade. In 2014, it introduced the ME 4600 Series Multiservice Optical Access Platforms, which support both point-to-point (active Ethernet) and point-to-multipoint (GPON) topologies for fber to the home, building, curb, cell and business. Te ME 4600 Series includes modular optical line termination (OLT) and fexible optical network terminal/unit (ONT/ ONU) devices. Another platform, Prisma D-PON, delivers an FTTH option for cable service providers by enabling a PON architecture in the outside plant while maintaining existing cable back-ofce systems. Cisco also supplies set-top boxes and cable modems, transmission networks for home broadband access and digital interactive subscriber systems for video, high-speed Internet and VoIP networks. A leader in the smart-city movement, Cisco recently signed an agreement with Kansas City, Mo., to deploy a Smart+Connected City framework to transform urban services and enhance the citizen experience. Cisco Systems, headquartered in San Jose, Calif., reported fscal 2014 revenue of $47.1 billion. Te company has about 74,000 employees worldwide. Clearfeld www.SeeClearfeld.com 763-476-6866; 800-422-2537 Key Products: Fiber distribution and protection systems for inside plant, outside plant and access networks Summary: Headquartered in Minneapolis, Clearfeld designs and manufactures a high-density fber distribution system for the inside plant, a fber scalability center for the outside plant, a fber delivery point series for access networks and an optical fber delivery and protection system made up of microduct and pushable fber. All product lines integrate with the Clearview Cassette 12-fber management system. For environments that require fewer fbers, the Clearview xPAK cassette is the foundation of a small-count delivery series. Te CraftSmart product line provides outdoor physical fber protection. During the last year, the company introduced three new products: the FieldSmart Makwa, a fber distribution hub designed for aboveand below-grade environments; FieldShield StrongFiber, an OSP-rated, ready for in-duct placement, 900um optical fber cable that delivers exceptional pull strength in a small form factor; and the FieldSmart ZoneBox, a new ceiling- and foormount panel that supports all cable constructions for the inside plant. Clearfeld, which has 179 employees, posted $58 million in revenue for the year ending September 2014.

Comcast Cable www.comcast.com Key Products: Internet, video and phone service

44 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

“The past year has been great for community networks – from President Obama’s speaking in favor of municipal networks to the FCC’s removing barriers to community networks in North Carolina and Tennessee, we have seen a lot of enthusiasm for communities’ investing in themselves to expand high-quality Internet access.” – Christopher Mitchell, Director, Community Broadband Networks, Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Summary: Comcast delivers Internet, phone and media services to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and to businesses under the Comcast Business brand. After building a national fber backbone across 145,000 route miles of fber, Comcast is launching Gigabit Pro, a symmetrical, 2 Gbps FTTH service. Te company began rolling out the service in Atlanta in May 2015 and quickly followed with rollouts in California, Chattanooga, Chicago, Colorado, Houston, Knoxville, Nashville, Northwest Indiana, Portland, the Twin Cities, Utah, Michigan and Washington state. Comcast plans to ofer Gigabit Pro nationwide to 18 million homes by the end of the year. Te company is currently testing DOCSIS 3.1, a scalable, national, 1 Gbps technology solution, which it plans to begin rolling out in early 2016. When it is fully deployed, Comcast expects to deliver gigabit speeds to almost every customer in its footprint over its existing network (a combination of both fber and coax). Headquartered in Philadelphia, Comcast Cable reported 2014 revenue of $44.1 billion. CommScope www.commscope.com 828-324-2200; 800-982-1708 Key Products: EPON, GPON and RFoG FTTH electronics; cable and connectivity products Summary: CommScope’s solutions constitute a complete, end-to-end FTTH portfolio with active and passive components, ofering multiple fber architectures compatible with RFoG standards. With a suite of headend, outsideplant and end-user solutions, CommScope’s BOS and PON solutions enable MSOs, electric co-ops and other operators to choose the right technology and architecture to meet the needs of residential, MDU, commercial and cellular backhaul applications. Te E2O solution enables MSOs to bridge from hybrid fber-coaxial (HFC) to all-fber networks and rapidly deploy optical solutions, pushing fber deeper, under one sheath. Founded in Hickory, N.C., CommScope has been involved in the broadband and cable TV industry since 1976 and has played a role in nearly all the world’s most advanced telecommunications networks. It is the largest manufacturer of coaxial and fber cable for HFC applications and a major JULY 2015

|

supplier of subscriber-premises connectivity products and rugged conduit products. In January 2015, CommScope announced plans to acquire TE Connectivity’s telecom, enterprise and wireless businesses for approximately $3 billion. CommScope expects the transaction to close by the end of 2015. CommScope’s broadband segment reported $511 million in revenue for 2014. Corning / Corning Optical Communications www.corning.com; www.corning.com/opcomm 828-901-5000 Key Products: Optical fber, optical fber cable, FTTH cabinets, splitters, terminals, connectors, cable assemblies, MDU products, other telecommunications hardware and equipment, engineering services, training Summary: Corning is one of the world’s leading innovators in materials science. For more than 160 years, it has applied its expertise in specialty glass, ceramics and optical physics to develop products that have created new industries. Corning Optical Communications develops and manufactures optical fber, wireless technologies and connectivity solutions that enable high-speed communications networks. It developed the frst commercial low-loss optical fber in 1970. Its preconnectorized solutions, such as the OptiTap Connector, introduced a new way to deploy FTTH networks, and its ultra-bendable ClearCurve product suite opened the way for cost-efective installation of fber in MDUs and other challenging environments. Te Corning ONE Wireless Platform, the frst all-optical converged cellular and Wi-Fi solution, supports cellular service enhancements and other building applications, including Wi-Fi, video surveillance and building automation, and the Centrix optical connectivity solution combines high termination density with an intuitive jumper routing system and superior cable management. Sales were $7.7 billion in 2014, of which telecommunications accounted for $2.6 billion.

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

45

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST COS Systems www.cossystems.com 800-562-1730

CTC Technology & Energy www.ctcnet.us 301-933-1488

Key Products: Demand aggregation software, BSS/OSS for managing open-access fber networks

Key Products: Fiber and wireless broadband network design, engineering, assessment and implementation

Summary: COS Systems’ cloud-hosted software helps deployers plan, deploy and manage modern broadband networks that deliver services from one or more providers. COS Service Zones is a demand aggregation tool that enables network builders to identify grassroots interest in better broadband, spread awareness of their projects and pre-sell Internet connections, using a “fberhood” approach. COS Business Engine is a BSS/OSS suite for managing and operating gigabit fber networks. It enables network operators to easily market and ofer services from multiple providers in an online marketplace. COS clients include private Internet service providers and operators, public-private partnerships, municipalities, utilities and housing cooperatives in the United States, Sweden and South Africa. In the last year, COS Systems has rapidly expanded its customer base, mainly in the United States, where multiple customers are now running or preparing to launch COS Service Zones campaigns. Privately held COS Systems is headquartered in Umea, Sweden, and has U.S. headquarters in New York City.

Summary: A technology and energy consulting frm, CTC provides business and engineering consulting services for public sector and nonproft clients. Its expertise includes feasibility analysis, strategic planning, business plan development, network design and engineering, RFP preparation, grant applications and negotiations with privatesector partners. CTC currently provides fber engineering and network fnancial planning services to the cities of Atlanta; Boston; Lexington, Ky.; Palo Alto, Calif.; San Francisco and Seattle. Over the last year, CTC has been the lead business and technical consultant to the commonwealth of Kentucky in its partnership strategy and negotiations with Macquarie Capital. CTC played a key role in helping negotiate publicprivate partnerships for FTTP network expansion on behalf of the city of Westminster, Md., and of the coalition comprising the cities of Urbana and Champaign and the University of Illinois, as well as for an innovative fxed wireless broadband network in rural Garrett County, in Maryland. Founded in 1983, CTC is headquartered in the Washington, D.C., area and has satellite ofces in many other states.

Cox Communications www.cox.com Key Products: High-speed Internet, video, voice and home security services Summary: Cox Communications is the third-largest cable and broadband company in the United States, with about 6 million total customers. Cox is also the nation’s thirdlargest cable television provider. It serves both residential and business customers with a variety of advanced digital video, high-speed Internet and telephone services over its IP network. In May 2014, Cox committed to deliver residential gigabit Internet speeds to all markets it serves by the end of 2016. A year later, the company announced that G1GABLAST, its residential gigabit Internet service, was already available in parts of Phoenix, Ariz.; Orange County, Calif.; Omaha, Neb.; and Las Vegas, Nev. (Te company had been deploying multi-gigabit speeds to businesses for more than 10 years.) In February 2015, Cox and Cleveland Clinic announced the formation of Vivre Health, a strategic alliance to bring world-class health care to the home through innovative telehealth and home health solutions. Cox also invested in HealthSpot, a pioneer in patient- and provider-driven telehealth technology. Privately held Cox is a subsidiary of Cox Enterprises and headquartered in Atlanta.

Dasan Networks USA www.dasannetworksus.com 770-674-0302 Key Products: Access network equipment, including FTTP (GPON, active Ethernet, 10G EPON, NG-PON), Carrier and Metro Ethernet, edge and aggregation Layer 2 and 3 switching, and triple-play solutions for single-family, multifamily and business applications Summary: Based in Seoul, South Korea, with a U.S. ofce in Suwanee, Ga., Dasan Networks ofers technologies for carrier, enterprise, utility, government, hospitality and mobile backhaul networks and applications. Dasan’s FTTP solutions have been deployed to more than 30 million subscribers. Solutions for gigabit Internet services include NG-PON (next generation-passive optical network), which utilizes existing optical cables to deliver speeds up to 40 Gbps, and 10 GEPON, with line speed at 10 Gbps for multiservice needs. Dasan supplies such major service providers as Korea Telecom, SK Telecom, SoftBank Broadband, BSNL and ChungHwa Telecom. U.S. customers include New Knoxville Telephone, Horry Telephone, Benton Ridge Telephone, US Sonet and Hometown Cable. With 500 employees globally, Dasan reported revenue of $350 million in 2014.

46 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST Design Nine www.designnine.com 540-951-4400

modeling, network engineering and construction management, and network operations.

Key Products: Broadband planning and feasibility studies, network business and fnancial planning, broadband project management, broadband network design, network buildout, network operations

Ditch Witch www.ditchwitch.com 800-654-6481

Summary: Te broadband planning and network design frm Design Nine is well known for its expertise in – and commitment to – local transport networks and openaccess networks. Te successful open-access networks it has planned and designed include Palm Coast FiberNET in Florida; nDanville, Rockbridge and Wired Road in Virginia; FastRoads in New Hampshire; AccessEagan in Minnesota; and Charles City in Virginia. Design Nine’s services include fber and wireless network design, grant-writing assistance, needs assessment, broadband network buildout assistance, fnancial modeling, business planning, legal and organizational design of community-owned broadband systems and project management. Design Nine’s subsidiary, WideOpen Networks, provides professional management of community-owned and private-sector networks, including network monitoring, service provisioning, service provider attraction, asset management, billing and outside-plant management. Headquartered in Blacksburg, Va., Design Nine works on projects throughout North America. It currently assists clients in six states with network design, equipment specifcations, pricing and fnancial

Summary: Ditch Witch, a Charles Machine Works company, specializes in the design and manufacture of high-quality underground construction equipment for broadband installations in the United States and abroad. It sells trenchers, vibratory plows, Subsite brand electronic tracking and locating tools, horizontal directional drills, mud recycling and fuid systems, drill pipe, HDD tooling, vacuum excavation systems and mini skid steers. Ditch Witch Financial Services ofers a variety of fnancing and lease options. Recent product launches include a new HDD Advisor interactive drill string confguration tool, the MR90 mud recycling system for midsize drills and the SK850 mini skid steer. Ditch Witch manufacturing is located in Perry, Okla., and the company has more than 1,400 employees. Ditch Witch equipment is distributed through a worldwide dealer organization.

Key Products: Construction equipment for laying fber

NETWORK MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS These companies provide OSS or software for network monitoring, optimization, provisioning, service management, subscriber management, billing and related functions. COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS ADTRAN www.adtran.com Advance Fiber Optics www.ospinsight.com Alcatel-Lucent www.alcatel-lucent.com Allied Telesis www.alliedtelesis.com Allot Communications www.allot.com Amdocs www.amdocs.com Anritsu Company www.anritsu.com ARRIS www.arrisi.com BTI Systems www.btisystems.com Calix www.calix.com CHR Solutions www.chrsolutions.com Cisco Systems www.cisco.com Comverse www.comverse.com COS Systems www.cossystems.com Enghouse Networks www.enghousenetworks.com Ericsson www.ericsson.com ETI Software Solutions www.etisoftware.com EXFO www.exfo.com

COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS Fluke Networks www.fukenetworks.com GE www.gedigitalenergy.com/ GLDS www.glds.com IDI Billing www.idibilling.com Incognito Software www.incognito.com Ineoquest www.ineoquest.com/ iToolsOnline www.itoolsonline.com/ Logisense www.logisense.com Mapcom Systems www.mapcom.com MRV Communications www.mrv.com National Information Solutions Cooperative www.nisc.coop Pacifc Broadband Networks www.pbnglobal.com Procera Networks www.proceranetworks.com Sandvine www.sandvine.com Sigma Systems www.sigma-systems.com Tellabs www.tellabs.com TraceSpan www.tracespan.com ZCorum www.zcorum.com

48 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST “The proven risk transfer and low cost of capital of the public-private partnership model … has the potential to make viable fber projects which were previously considered uneconomic and to ensure that fber connectivity is regarded as an essential public utility rather than a luxury.” – Nicholas Hann, Senior Managing Director, Macquarie Capital

Dura-Line www.duraline.com 800-847-7661 Key Products: Conduit, cable-in-conduit, microducts and accessories Summary: Dura-Line develops and manufactures HDPE conduits for protecting fber optic, electrical and coaxial cables. It supplies fber optic conduit and related products to telecom, data, cable TV, power and other markets. Customers include Verizon, AT&T, Cablevision, Telmex, Time Warner Cable and Bharti. Dura-Line developed the frst ducts for installing and protecting fber optic cables in 1981, introduced a complete line of fber optic microduct products in 2001, and followed up in 2003 with FuturePath, a bundled package of microducts that can be installed the same way as traditional conduit. FuturePath allows up to 24 pathways in a single conduit. DuraLine, which was acquired by Mexichem in September 2014, is based in Knoxville, Tenn., and has revenue of more than $700 million with 1,500-plus employees worldwide.

Dycom Industries www.dycomind.com 561-627-7171 Key Products: Engineering, construction, maintenance and installation services for telecommunications providers Summary: Dycom Industries is a provider of specialty contracting services throughout the United States and Canada. It provides engineering, construction, maintenance and installation services for telecommunications providers; underground facility locating services for various utilities; and construction and maintenance services for electric and gas utilities and others. In 2012, Dycom acquired Quanta’s telecommunications business, which expanded its ofering with comprehensive broadband installation and maintenance services for inside- and outside-plant facilities and residential and commercial FTTx networks. Customers include AT&T, Verizon and many other leading telephone and cable operators. Services include rack installation, engineering and design,

long-term site and system planning, project management, procurement and warehousing, infrastructure construction, headend and central-ofce installation, content acquisition, marketing and premises installation. Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., Dycom has about 10,300 employees. It posted $1.8 billion in revenue for 2014.

EPB Fiber Optics www.epbf.com 423-648-1372 Key Products: Voice, video, data and smart-grid services provided over a fber optic network Summary: EPB’s fber-to-the-home network is frequently cited as one of the success stories of municipal broadband. It delivers Internet, voice and video services and serves as the backbone for the utility smart grid. In addition to increasing power reliability, reducing outage duration and improving operational efciency, the smart grid provides detailed usage information for electricity customers and soon will provide more tools. EPB has distributed electric power to the Chattanooga area since 1935 and now serves more than 170,000 homes and businesses in a 600-square-mile area that includes eight counties in Tennessee and Georgia. In 2009 it launched EPB Fiber Optics, which, as of May 2015, serves more than 67,000 homes and more than 5,000 businesses. EPB’s 1 Gbps broadband service helps position Chattanooga as an innovation and technology hub and furthers economic development opportunities. In collaboration with such organizations as the Company Lab and the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, the community launched a summer program, called GIGTANK, aimed at spurring innovation. Now in its fourth year, the program hosts students and entrepreneurs in Chattanooga to develop nextgeneration apps and disruptive business ideas using the nation’s largest gigabit network.

50 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

ETI Software Solutions www.etisoftware.com 770-242-3620; 800-332-1078

customer support center, strengthen ETI’s ability to serve its customers worldwide. ETI is a privately owned company headquartered in Norcross, Ga.

Key Products: Software products that manage broadband service fulfllment, activation and revenue assurance Summary: ETI Software Solutions, with more than 20 years of experience in B/OSS integration, ofers software for the FTTH marketplace. ETI’s Overture suite includes B/ OSS modules, ACS TR-069 modules, web apps, and fber management and mapping modules that harness realtime data to yield actionable intelligence for CSRs, feld technicians, management, marketing and network operations personnel. Overture is preintegrated with all major FTTH, IP video and softswitch platforms and provides service rating, subscriber and service management, work order management, trouble ticket, service provisioning, device management and end-user billing for all services delivered over fber networks. In 2015, ETI acquired Netmania IT, a UK-based provider of TR-069 services and solutions. Tis move expanded ETI’s customer base to include providers in 13 countries outside the United States, deepened ETI’s technology base and enhanced its customer service/professional service model. Investments in TR-069 technology and IoT products, combined with a 24/7

EXFO www.EXFO.com 418-683-0211; 800-663-3936 Key Products: Telecom test and service assurance solutions Summary: EXFO provides next-generation test and service assurance solutions for wireline and wireless network operators and equipment manufacturers in the global telecommunications industry. Te company ofers solutions for the development, installation, management and maintenance of converged, IP fxed and mobile networks from the core to the edge. Applications supported include 3G, 4G/LTE, IMS, Ethernet, 40G/100G, FTTx, FTTA and DAS, ADSL2+, VDSL2, IP Data, VoIP, IPTV and various optical technologies. According to Frost & Sullivan, EXFO leads the portable fber

ADVERTISEMENT

JULY 2015

| www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

51

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST “FTTH and its capabilities are bringing the world together in a way never experienced before. Students and teachers can connect to other classrooms around the world, and doctors can watch and even participate in surgeries remotely, all thanks to fber and the evolution of gigabit speeds. It’s been a very exciting time for the industry, and with new developments in the pipeline, there’s even more excitement to come.” – Gary Bolton, Vice President of Global Marketing, ADTRAN

optic test equipment market with a market share that exceeds 38 percent, owns more than 50 percent of market share worldwide in the OTDR segment, has been a pioneer in FTTH test solutions and has been involved in most major deployments around the world. Headquartered in Quebec City, Quebec,

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME ELECTRONICS These companies provide FTTH electronic equipment for central ofces/headends, customer premises or both. COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS ADTRAN www.adtran.com Alcatel-Lucent www.alcatel-lucent.com Allied Telesis www.alliedtelesis.com ARRIS www.arris.com Aurora Networks (a Pace company) www.aurora.com Calix www.calix.com Cisco Systems www.cisco.com CommScope www.commscope.com CTDI www.ctdi.com D-Link www.dlink.com Dasan Networks USA www.dasannetworksus.com Genexis www.genexis.eu iPhotonix www.iphotonix.com Multicom www.multicominc.com Pacifc Broadband Networks www.pbnglobal.com ReadyLinks www.ready-links.com Sumitomo Electric Lightwave www.sumitomoelectric.com Telco Systems www.telco.com Tellabs www.tellabs.com Tilgin www.tilgin.com Zhone Technologies www.zhone.com ZyXEL Communications us.zyxel.com

EXFO has a staf of about 1,600 people in 25 countries and supports more than 2,000 customers worldwide. In fscal 2014, the company reported revenue of $231 million.

Fiberdyne Labs www.fberdyne.com 315-895-8470 Key Products: Optical passive devices, fber cable and fber cable assemblies, test equipment; fber installation, splicing and testing services Summary: Fiberdyne is a manufacturer, refurbisher and value-added seller of fber optic products for FTTH, cable, telecom and enterprise networks. Products include components, passives, fber distribution equipment, fber media converters and switches, connectors, terminators, fber cables and cable assemblies and test equipment. Its professional services include design, installation and testing of structured fber cabling; fber characterization; emergency restoration of inside plant and outside plant; and engineering, furnish and install services. Fiberdyne is headquartered in Frankfort, N.Y., with ofces in Rochester, N.Y.; Pagosa Springs, Colo.; and Wenatchee, Wash. Te company, founded in 1992, is privately owned. It has 100 full-time employees. Finley Engineering www.fecinc.com 417-682-5531 Key Products: Network design and engineering services Summary: Finley Engineering Company has more than 60 years of communications and electric power engineering experience and nearly 30 years of experience with fber communication and data projects. Te company works with organizations that provide fber connections to improve end

52 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

users’ quality of life and economic opportunities. Founded in 1953, Finley Engineering Company has more than 300 employees in 10 ofces nationwide and is one of the largest communications network design companies in the United States. Te company specializes in end-to-end engineering consulting for telecommunications, broadband, wireless, cable television, electric power transmission and distribution networks, IT services, project management, and right-ofway and land services. Finley develops 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 more than 20,000 miles of FTTH projects and passed more than 100,000 homes with fber.

Fujitsu Network Communications http://us.fujitsu.com/telecom 888-362-7763 Key Products: Multivendor core, access and wireless network equipment; network management software solutions; end-to-end multivendor network project integration; other professional services Summary: Fujitsu Network Communications Inc., based in Richardson, Texas, builds middle-mile and last-mile fber networks, partnering with states, municipalities and utilities to deploy fast, reliable broadband services. It works with customers or alongside their consultants to plan, design, build, operate and maintain their broadband networks. It delivers custom, end-to-end network integration by combining the best of wireline, wireless and software technology with multivendor services. Its vendor-agnostic approach provides turnkey solutions for FTTH implementations. Fujitsu Network Communications has served as prime integrator for highprofle telecommunications and enterprise projects, including the ongoing last-mile FTTH deployment by Kit Carson Electric Cooperative in Taos, N.M., and middle-mile network connectivity for broadband provider Horizon Telcom across 34 counties in southern and eastern Ohio. It also powered a 2,000-mile fber network with broadband speeds up to 100 Gbps for Illinois Century Network, an open-access provider owned and operated by the state of Illinois. Fujitsu Network Communications is a subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited, a global information and communications technology company based in Japan, which ofers a wide range of technology products, solutions and services in more than 100 countries. Te company, which has approximately 159,000 employees in more than 100 countries, reported consolidated revenues of $40 billion for the fscal year that ended March 31, 2015. JULY 2015

|

G4S Secure Integration www.g4s.us 402-233-7700, 855-447-8721 Key Products: Design, construction and maintenance of stand-alone and integrated communications networks and security systems Summary: Headquartered in Omaha, Neb., with 17 regional ofces throughout the United States, G4S Secure Integration is a systems integrator and project manager for security systems and advanced communications networks, including SONET, IP/Ethernet, DWDM/CWDM, wireless and last-mile fber. It serves utilities, municipalities, large integration frms, government and transportation agencies, rural associations, ILECs and CLECs and has deployed more than 2 million fber miles and more than 200 networks throughout the country. Projects include a 600-mile fber optic backbone and distribution network for SLIC Network Solutions’ FTTH deployment in St. Lawrence County, N.Y.; design and construction of MassBroadband 123, a fber optic network that connects more than 120 communities in western and north-central Massachusetts; deployment and customer fulfllment services for LUS Fiber in Lafayette, La.; design and construction for the EAGLE-Net Alliance Network, a statewide Colorado broadband network; and construction of fber optic medical networks for Illinois Rural HealthNet and the Health Information Exchange of Montana. G4S provides nationwide systems integration, new product installation and systems maintenance services to Cox Enterprises and was selected to provide electronic security for the Virginia Department of Transportation. In 2014, G4S Secure Integration, which has 465 employees, reported revenue of $145 million.

Genexis www.genexis.eu 443-602-4510; +31 40-747-0233 Key Products: Customer-premises equipment for FTTH service providers, service-provisioning software Summary: Genexis provides solutions for in-home fber broadband connectivity. Te Hybrid modular FTTH gateway enables services for point-to-point and GPON networks. It ofers a fexible combination of fber management, network demarcation and a residential gateway that can be tailored to match various deployment scenarios. Te Hybrid product line recently expanded to include a cost-efective version for business use as well as an outdoor ofering. FiberTwist, for fber and network demarcation, is a compact, easy-toinstall CPE solution. Available for point-to-point and GPON networks, it has a twist-on interface that enables do-it-yourself

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

53

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST “We are in an industry that is changing by the day with respect to regulatory frameworks, technology and potential business models. The opportunities for public-private partnerships especially are an incredibly positive development for local governments seeking to promote broadband availability and adoption.” – Joanne Hovis, President, CTC Technology & Energy

installation. Te Platinum product portfolio, which includes the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology, addresses the need for high-speed in-home Wi-Fi. Te Platinum home gateway provides Wi-Fi speeds of up to 750 Mbps. It is a TR-069managed solution, reducing opex for operators by enabling remote troubleshooting. Te Platinum is available with SFP, SFF and copper uplinks. Based in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Genexis employs more than 75 people and has ofces in Sweden, the United States, Germany and India. In 2014, Genexis posted revenue of about $40 million.

GLDS www.glds.com 800-882-7950

Google / Google Fiber www.google.com, fber.google.com Key Products: Gigabit Internet access and video services over the Google Fiber network Summary: Te Internet search giant Google, founded in 1998, launched a fber access division in 2010 that popularized the term “gigabit” and profoundly changed the FTTH industry. With $66 billion in 2014 revenue, Google has the resources to conduct any new venture on a large scale, and Google Fiber is on its way to becoming a major competitive overbuilder. In January 2015, Google Fiber announced three new cities (Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta and Charlotte) where buildouts are currently underway, bringing the total number of Google Fiber metro areas to eight: Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Kansas City, Nashville, Provo, Raleigh-Durham and Salt Lake City. In May 2015, Google announced that it is taking applications for its new Digital Inclusion Fellowships, which will pair 16 people with local community organizations in its eight metro areas to spend a year building a digital inclusion program.

Key Products: Customer management, billing, provisioning and workforce management software for broadband Summary: Since 1980, Great Lakes Data Systems (GLDS) has helped small operators look big by providing reliable, full-featured billing and management software at afordable prices – including cloud-based services that operators can use with little equipment investment. Partnering with major equipment suppliers worldwide, GLDS supports FTTH, IPTV, DOCSIS, OTT, TVE, cloud service, wireless, satellite, mobile payments and legacy delivery systems. It serves more than 400 small to midsize broadband providers, including cable, satellite, wireless and FTTH operators that range from startup operations to providers with more than 300,000 subscribers. GLDS’ largest ofces are in Carlsbad, Calif.; Beaver Dam, Wis.; and Kaunas, Lithuania, but it operates in 49 states and 44 countries. Key products include BroadHub (formerly WinCable), for customer management and billing, and SuperController, for multiservice automated provisioning. WinForce tech, a mobile workforce management platform, empowers feld techs with tools previously available only to ofce staf. Available in native Android and browser-based platforms, WinForce tech is fully integrated with BroadHub.

Graybar www.graybar.com 800-GRAYBAR (472-9227) Key Products: PON electronics, optical transport, fber cabinets/enclosures, single-mode fber optic cable, fber splice closures and pedestals, DC power, outdoor fber terminals, FTTx drop cable and hardened multiservice terminals Summary: Graybar specializes in supply-chain management services – getting the right parts to the right places at the right time so construction moves ahead and inventory doesn’t pile up in warehouses. Te company is a leading North American distributor of components, equipment and materials for telecommunications and other industries. FTTH and related solutions represent a signifcant portion of its broadband business. Independent telephone companies, competitive phone companies, municipalities, RUS plow contractors,

54 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

wireless backhaul providers, central-ofce contractors and cable companies all depend on Graybar. Founded in 1869 as Gray and Barton, today Graybar sells thousands of items from leading manufacturers; its value-added services include kitting and integrated solutions. A Fortune 500 company with gross sales of $6 billion in 2014, Graybar employs more than 8,250 people at more than 260 locations throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. It is one of North America’s largest and oldest employee-owned companies.

management frms. It provides critical infrastructure for the communications, electric power, and natural gas and pipeline industries. In the telecommunications sector, H&M works with carriers, utilities, enterprises and all levels of government. H&M has been involved in many FTTH projects – including Verizon FiOS – performing feasibility studies, project management, construction management, outside-plant and inside-plant implementation, and underground and aerial construction. With more than 70 regional, area and project ofces throughout the United States, more than 4,000 employees and more than 6,000 pieces of equipment, the company has the ability to provide end-to-end solutions and consistently ranks in the top 10 of Engineering NewsRecord’s annual list of specialty contractors.

GVTC Communications www.gvtc.com 800-367-4882 Key Products: Video, high-speed Internet with 1 Gbps availability, security monitoring, local and long-distance telephone, advanced data services, Wi-Fi, Ethernet backhaul Summary: A large telephone cooperative based outside San Antonio in the Texas Hill Country, GVTC made a name for itself through its aggressive rollout of fber to the home and close collaboration with the economic development agencies that use its fber network to recruit and retain businesses. In June 2014, the company launched the GVTC GigaRegion with the cities of Boerne, Bulverde and Gonzales to collectively promote the business and lifestyle benefts of gigabit connectivity. In September 2014, GVTC started delivering 1 Gbps speeds through more than 2,200 miles of fber to its 2,000-square-mile service area. In January 2015, GVTC and the city of Boerne announced a partnership to expand GVTC’s fber network throughout the city limits to an added 1,590 homes. Tis year, GVTC continues work on its fber network 2.0 build out. Fiber connections are planned for 2,298 rooftops throughout the Texas Hill Country. Te company continues to expand its Ethernet backhaul services for wireless companies such as AT&T, Verizon and regional carriers. GVTC has 230 employees, and its revenue for 2014 was $94.8 million.

Henkels & McCoy www.henkels.com 215-283-7600 Key Products: Planning, design, engineering, project management, construction and installation of wireline and wireless communications networks Summary: Henkels & McCoy, founded in 1923 and headquartered in Blue Bell, Pa., is one of the largest privately held, diversifed engineering, construction and project JULY 2015

|

Hiawatha Broadband Communications www.hbci.com 888-474-9995 Key Products: Voice, video, data and wireless services over high-speed networks Summary: Competitive provider Hiawatha Broadband Communications (HBC) delivers services to small towns in southeastern Minnesota. Founded in 1997, HBC operates both hybrid fber-coax and fber-to-the-home networks – its frst two networks were HFC and the last 17 have all been FTTH. It also provides wireless broadband in rural areas. One of its deployments, Red Wing, was selected as a US Ignite city based on HBC’s gigabit network. HBC is also the operator of the RS Fiber Cooperative gigabit fber-to-the-farm project in Minnesota. Te company provides a video service selection of more than 300 channels (including approximately 100 in high defnition), digital music, pay-per-view and extensive local programming produced by HBC Productions. HBC recently launched a fber optic transport network. Te company has more than 110 employees, 19 retail communities, and wholesale, construction, fber transport, business consulting and technical support divisions. Annual revenue is $23 million.

Hotwire Communications www.hotwirecommunications.com 800-409-4733 Key Products: Data, voice and video services delivered over FTTP networks Summary: Hotwire Communications is one of the nation’s largest independent providers of fber-to-the-premises

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

55

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST communications solutions. In 2014, it operated in 10 states (New York to Florida, plus Texas) and has recently signed deals in several more. Hotwire ofers gigabit connectivity to deliver ultra-high-speed Internet, along with IPTV, VoIP and advanced home security products. It provides services to private residential communities, condominiums, hotels, multitenant commercial buildings, student housing and senior living facilities. Hotwire’s business services include Metro Ethernet, data backup, co-location, redundant wireless, hosted PBX, videoconferencing and more. Te company has ofered its Fision FTTP service since 2005 over an all fber optic network with a dedicated connection to each door.

InfniSys Electronic Architects www.ElectronicArchitect.com 386-236-1500 Key Products: Telecommunications/broadband network design for multifamily, student housing, mixed-use and hospitality buildings; amenity selection and engineering; contract negotiation and project management; managed wireless and DAS engineering, design and project management Summary: Developers and property owners that want to diferentiate their communities by leveraging broadband technology call on InfniSys Electronic Architects for customized, next-generation solutions. It works with

TEST AND MEASUREMENT EQUIPMENT COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS Alcatel-Lucent www.alcatel-lucent.com AFL www.AFLglobal.com Anritsu Company www.anritsu.com Corning Optical Communications www.corning.com/opcomm EXFO www.exfo.com Fiber Instrument Sales www.fberinstrumentsales.com Fluke Networks www.fukenetworks.com GAO Tek www.gaotek.com IneoQuest www.ineoquest.com JDSU www.jdsu.com Spirent Communications www.spirent.com Tektronix www.tek.com Trilithic www.trilithic.com VeEX www.veexinc.com

electronics manufacturers, software developers, infrastructure manufacturers and service providers to create new products and service oferings for the multifamily and hospitality markets. As an independent technology adviser, InfniSys Electronic Architects creates comprehensive, standards-based amenity solutions – including entertainment, access control, video surveillance, digital signage and messaging, energy management and leisure space control systems – for new and existing apartments, condominiums, student housing, hotels, mixed-use developments and master-planned communities. Te frm represents developers and property owners in negotiations with service providers and low-voltage contractors and oversees projects for fnancial stakeholders. InfniSys Electronic Architects uses a proprietary Web-based software system to streamline the RFP and service-provider selection process. Te company is based in Daytona Beach, Fla. Institute for Local Self-Reliance www.ilsr.org www.MuniNetworks.org 612-276-3456 Key Products: Broadband policy research and municipal broadband advocacy Summary: Since 1974, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) has championed local self-reliance based on humanscaled institutions and widely distributed ownership. Te nonproft organization, which has ofces in Minnesota and Washington, D.C., conducts research, advocacy and education that support local control of energy, recycling, fnancing, broadband and other initiatives. ILSR explicitly challenges the view that localism and regionalism represent a misguided desire to turn back time; rather, it promotes the intelligent use of advanced technology to achieve locally determined goals. Its Community Broadband Networks Initiative, directed by Christopher Mitchell, is one of the most important sources of information and analysis about municipal fber-to-the-home projects in the United States. ILSR’s publications, including its MuniNetworks.org blog and its weekly podcast, have been instrumental in showing communities that controlling their broadband destinies is feasible and has the potential to improve local economies and quality of life. Inteleconnect Inc. www.inteleconnect.com 734-944-6694 Key Products: Consultation and situation analysis for developers, property management companies, educational institutions, businesses and municipalities Summary: Founded in 1998, Inteleconnect develops telecommunications strategies for municipalities, college and university campuses, mixed-use developments and small, medium and large businesses. Te company negotiates service contracts and designs and manages service provider–neutral networks (duct and handhole systems, fber plant and

56 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

“The biggest current challenge I see for deploying broadband is funding. I see communities everywhere that are either unable or unwilling to totally fund broadband networks from municipal bonds. Finding funding is moving to the top of the list as the issue that is stopping wider broadband deployment, and I am advising cities to think about funding early in the process. Broadband networks are not cheap, but the economic cost of not having broadband is greater than the cost of paying for a network. Businesses don’t want to operate where there is no broadband, and nobody wants to live in a house without broadband. We now fnally see a distinct diference between the broadband haves and have-nots.” – Doug Dawson, President, CCG Consulting

central ofce space) to enable advanced Internet and data networks, CATV networks and telephone services. Recently, Inteleconnect created the fber-to-the-premises network plan for Avalon, an 86-acre, mixed-use development near Atlanta. iPhotonix www.iphotonix.com 214-575-9300 Key Products: Optical network terminals, residential gateways, network functions virtualization (NFV), cloud transformation Summary: Based in Richardson, Texas, iPhotonix develops and commercializes solutions to help service providers migrate to optical access networks in an easy, fast, afordable way. Its GPON and active Ethernet ONTs interoperate with a wide variety of central-ofce and customer-premises equipment, including RF video headends and set-top boxes, to provide FTTH services to homes, businesses, multitenant buildings and cell sites. iPhotonix’s new iVN software enables service providers to deploy, manage and orchestrate network services in an NFV environment. Functions such as performance monitoring, frewalls and end-device management can be deployed quickly on low-cost commodity hardware rather than on expensive, complex proprietary equipment. In March 2015, iPhotonix ONTs and residential gateways were selected to support the GPON deployment of Television Internacional, a large MSO in Mexico. iPhotonix was spun of from Siemens in 2006, and some of its technology was developed in Siemens R&D labs.

JULY 2015

|

JDSU www.jdsu.com 408-546-5000 Key Products: Fiber optic communications components, network optimization and test equipment for service providers and enterprises Summary: JDSU provides test, measurement and enablement solutions and optical products for telecommunications service providers, cable operators, network equipment manufacturers, contractors and enterprises. Te company’s network optimization and communications test tools are designed to enable systems that can be managed remotely and respond dynamically to changes in network trafc patterns as demand increases. As announced on Sept. 10, 2014, JDSU will separate into two publicly traded companies by the third calendar quarter of 2015. Lumentum will be an optical components and commercial lasers company consisting of JDSU’s current Communications and Commercial Optical Products segment. Viavi will consist of JDSU’s current Network Enablement, Service Enablement and Optical Security and Performance Products segments. Based in Milpitas, Calif., JDSU has approximately 5,000 employees. Its revenue for the fscal year ending June 2014 was just under $1.75 billion. Optical communications solutions include detectors/receivers, modulators, amplifers, transceivers, passives, pump/source lasers, ROADMs and WSSs, transport blades, and tunable transmission modules.

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

57

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST “Fiber connectivity is just as important to our country and our future as the development of the interstate system was in the 1950s. We must continue to pursue all-fber networks, which will improve how we live, work and play.” – Mike Hill, CEO, On Trac

KGP Logistics www.kgplogistics.com 800-755-1950

LUS Fiber www.lusfber.com 337-993-4237

Key Products: Products for FTTH, including outside plant, central ofce, DAS, transmission and customer premises; supply-chain and distribution services

Key Products: Video service, including IPTV; local and long distance phone service; Internet access with a community intranet, all delivered over an FTTH network

Summary: Headquartered in Faribault, Minn., KGP Logistics is one of the country’s largest singlesource, value-added suppliers of supply-chain services, communications equipment and integrated solutions to the telecommunications industry. With a diverse customer base, a national logistics network and a portfolio of manufacturer partnerships, the company is positioned to provide unique products and services to the communications market.

Summary: LUS demonstrates that superfast, communityowned networks can be fnancially successful. Te only community-owned, all fber optic network in Louisiana, LUS Fiber ofers 1 Gbps Internet access, making Lafayette a member of an elite group of U.S. cities. Like all Internet speeds provided by LUS Fiber, the gigabit service is symmetrical, so users enjoy 1 Gbps both upstream and downstream. Despite ferce price competition, the LUS Fiber customer list continues to grow; the company doubled its Internet access speeds last year for a minimal price increase and ofers 1 Gbps intranet speeds with all tiers of Internet service. LUS Fiber, operated by the Lafayette Utilities System, a department of the municipal government, became cash fow positive in 2012 (four years after operations started) and is on target to reach fnancial self-sufciency this year. Standard & Poor’s recently raised its revenue bond rating to A+. In 2014, the entire LUS system, including water and power, sent $22 million to the city’s general fund in lieu of taxes.

Leviton Manufacturing www.leviton.com 718-229-4040 Key Products: Premises wiring, outside plant, central-ofce solutions and home automation products Summary: Leviton Manufacturing supplies secure, highbandwidth fber and copper connectivity solutions for enterprise, data center and service provider networks. Residential customers use Leviton’s lighting controls, wiring devices and home automation products, which allow homeowners to create smart living environments that deliver energy savings, safety and convenience. Te company has more than 20 years of experience developing solutions for high-speed networks and ofers a full line of customconfgurable products along with layout and design support services for data centers. Te company’s online confgurator allows users to quickly and easily customize enclosures, copper and fber cable assemblies, copper patch cords and PDUs to meet their network needs. Privately held and based in Melville, N.Y., Leviton has a portfolio of more than 25,000 products and 600 patents, employs more than 7,000 people and has sales in 80 countries.

m2fx www.m2fx.com 847-325-5454 Key Products: Armored polymer microduct and fber cables for FTTH and MDU markets Summary: Te m2fx product range enables low-risk, costefective fber deployment through its range of fber optic cable and microduct solutions. m2fx manufactures Minifex cable, an optical fber cable solution that is a leader in fber protection, fexibility and installation performance and is fully compatible with industry-standard microduct. m2fx also supplies the QuikPush family of preconnectorized

58 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

“State Champion for Hoosier-based High-speed Gigabit Fiber Connectivity” – Indiana Lt. Gov. Sue Ellspermann

Smithville Fiber (formerly known as Smithville Communications) – Privileged and proud to herald in fber-based symmetrical wireless gigabit technology in the state of Indiana. With its frst FTTH conversion in 2008, Smithville has fashioned a reputation for innovative excellence in communication technology and customer service. Now establishing the Hoosier state’s frst GigaCity in Jasper (Indiana), Smithville Fiber remains

committed to a leadership position in: Fiber transformation Economic development Quality of life

SMITHVILLE.COM | (800) 742-4084

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST pushable fber solutions and recently announced new, alldielectric, self-supporting (ADSS) cable, designed to speed up the last mile of FTTH and FTTC deployments. m2fx microducts are manufactured with the company’s patented DVC liner, which allows the Minifex fber cable to be pushed by hand more than 400 feet, pulled for 900 feet or blown 2,500 feet. Founded in the U.K. in 1994, m2fx currently operates in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Africa. Minifex access and premises solutions can be found in more than 45,000 installations (25,000 of them FTTH installations, including most recently in the city of Loma Linda, Calif.), with 85 million feet of fber cable and microduct protecting optical fber in more than 52 countries. Macquarie Group / Macquarie Capital www.macquarie.com 604-605-1779 Key Products: Project development and equity investment, fnancial advisory, debt arranging, lending and funds management services Summary: With headquarters in Sydney, Australia, and

U.S. headquarters in New York City, Macquarie is a global fnancial services group with expertise in infrastructure, telecommunications and media, resources and commodities, energy, fnancial institutions and real estate. Founded in 1969, Macquarie employs more than 14,000 people in 28 countries and had $373 billion in assets under management as of March 2015, including $102 billion in infrastructure and real assets. Macquarie develops and fnances infrastructure across all sectors, including telecommunications, by leveraging private investment. In the United States, Macquarie Capital played a leading role in developing the public-private partnership model for infrastructure, participating in transactions that include the Goethals Bridge between New York and New Jersey, the Virginia Midtown Tunnel and the Denver FasTracks commuter rail project. Recently, Macquarie Capital was selected as the development partner for the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s 3,500-mile fber ring and for community fber networks in 46 Connecticut municipalities, which represent half the state’s population. Macquarie also entered into a predevelopment agreement to expand, fnance and operate the UTOPIA FTTH network as a public-private partnership with 11 Utah cities. Macquarie’s model represents

PASSIVE COMPONENTS FOR FTTH NETWORKS (OUTSIDE PLANT AND INSIDE PLANT) These companies provide fber management solutions, splitters, enclosures, connectors, ducts, conduits and related equipment for fber access networks. COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS 3M Company/Communication Markets Division www.3M.com/telecom AFL www.afglobal.com Alliance Fiber Optic Products www.afop.com Calix www.calix.com Channell Commercial Corporation www.channell.com Charles Industries Ltd. www.charlesindustries.com Clearfeld www.seeclearfeld.com CommScope www.commscope.com Corning Optical Communications www.corning.com/opcomm Crownduit www.crownduit.com Dura-Line www.duraline.com Emerson Network Power www.emersonnetworkpower.com Fiberdyne Labs www.fberdyne.com Leviton Manufacturing www.leviton.com Lite Access Technologies www.liteaccess.com m2fx www.m2fx.com Maxcell www.maxcellinnerduct.com/ Montclair Fiber Optics www.montclairfber.com Multicom www.multicominc.com

COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS Multilink www.multilinkone.com OFS www.ofsoptics.com Opterna www.opterna.com Opti-Com Manufacturing Network www.opti-com.info/ Pencell Plastics www.pencell.com Preformed Line Products www.preformed.com Primex Manufacturing www.primexfts.com Prysmian www.prysmian.com Radiant Communications www.rccfber.com SENKO Advanced Components www.senko.com Sumitomo Electric Lightwave www.sumitomoelectric.com Superior Essex www.SuperiorEssex.com/Comm Suttle www.suttlesolutions.com/ TE Connectivity www.te.com Telect www.telect.com Tellabs www.tellabs.com TeraSpan www.teraspan.com Thermo Bond www.thermobond.com Timbercon www.timbercon.com Westell www.westell.com

60 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

Beautifully Dense, Stunningly Scalable The Centrix™ Platform, Corning’s next-generation switch center solution, combines extreme fexibility and simplicity with the ultimate in density. With superior jumper management and an innovative fber routing system, the Centrix Platform is a cross-functional solution that meets the requirements of multiple application spaces.

Corning. Transforming Technology. http://opcomm.corning.com/CentrixBuzz © 2015 Corning Optical Communications. CRR-380-AEN / February 2015

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST a new type of public-private partnership for the U.S. telecom market, opening potential new avenues for FTTH funding.

Mapcom Systems www.mapcom.com 804-743-1860

Magellan Advisors www.magellan-advisors.com 888-488-1767

Key Products: Visual operations system software, network management, FTTH management, geographic information systems, workforce management tools, systems integration, training and consulting

Key Products: Broadband and telecom planning, deployment and management services Summary: Magellan Advisors is a full-cycle consulting frm that ofers services from project inception through implementation and into continuing operations. It provides comprehensive community broadband planning, telecommunications master planning, deployment and management services to government and private organizations, and a suite of public-sector IT solutions to local, state and federal government markets. Magellan helps communities identify, negotiate and forge public-private and publicpublic partnerships. Magellan’s portfolio includes more than 200 engagements for city, county, state, federal and private broadband projects. Clients include the city governments of Baltimore, Md.; Syracuse, N.Y.; Missoula, Mont.; Columbia, Mo.; Yolo County, Calif.; Hamilton, Ohio; Jupiter, Fla.; Ketchum, Idaho; College Station, Texas; and Riverside, Calif.; the national government of New Zealand; the old masterplanned community of Rancho Santa Fe near San Diego; and the new master-planned community of Babcock Ranch, Fla. – a diverse, multigenerational community that will eventually have more than 20,000 homes and 50,000 residents. Magellan is headquartered in Denver and has regional ofces in Florida, Kansas, and Pennsylvania.

OPTICAL LAN SOLUTIONS The following companies sell fber-to-the-desk solutions for corporate or campus LANs. COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS 3M Company/Communication Markets Division www.3M.com/telecom Cisco Systems www.cisco.com Corning Optical Communications www.corning.com/opcomm TE Connectivity www.te.com Tellabs www.tellabs.com Zhone Technologies www.zhone.com

Summary: Mapcom Systems ofers a visualization-based approach to FTTH operations and management. Its M4 Solution Suite encompasses the entire FTTH life cycle from PON or active network design and feasibility analysis to day-to-day plant/facility assignment to network maintenance and management. It includes both outside and inside plant at physical and logical levels. Providers use the M4 Solutions Suite to model their networks and service areas, integrating and correlating data from billing, accounting, GPS tracking, element management, network monitoring and vehicle-tracking applications in a powerful visual interface. Using the suite in conjunction with M4 Workforce and M4 Process Manager technology, staf can communicate via mobile devices to handle trouble tickets, service orders, feld locates and permitting in an efcient and customer-friendly manner. Since 1971, Mapcom has worked with independents, cooperatives, fber communities and campus telecommunications providers across the United States, Canada, Central America and the Caribbean. MasTec www.mastec.com 218-785-3030 Key Products: FTTx deployment, outside-plant cabling, inside-plant construction and installation, joint trench systems, splicing and testing, systems integration, ongoing maintenance Summary: MasTec’s engineering, design, construction and maintenance services support the world’s most advanced fber optic, copper, wireless and satellite networks. Its FTTH network experience includes underground and aerial fber installation in urban, suburban and rural environments, including Verizon FiOS installations in eight states. Based in Coral Gables, Fla., the company works in large geographic areas of the country; MasTec is able to supply crews and equipment to its customers 24/7. It combines cutting-edge technology, innovative solutions, skilled professionals and a commitment to safety to ensure that its customers are able to meet their customers’ communication needs with the highest levels of reliability and quality. MasTec’s communications division generated $2.0 billion in revenue for 2014. MaxCell www.maxcellinnerduct.com 888-387-3828 Key Products: Fabric innerduct, conduit technology

62 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

“Interest in innovative public-private partnerships as a way to get ultrahigh-speed Internet access for cities and counties has exploded in the last few years as municipal leaders understand more clearly the importance of a robust infrastructure to their economic future.” – Hu Meena, president and CEO, C Spire

Summary: MaxCell makes the only fexible fabric innerduct system designed specifcally for the network construction industry. Its fabric construction allows it to conform to the shape of cables placed inside it, greatly reducing the wasted space associated with rigid innerduct. Network operators that use MaxCell can increase their cable density by as much as 300 percent. MaxSpace is a new, patent-pending, no-dig technology and construction method that safely removes existing innerduct from around active fber optic cables with virtually no load on the cables and no interruption of service, enabling operators to recover up to 90 percent of conduit space. Te MaxCell group was founded in 1999 and is based in Wadsworth, Ohio.

Michels Corporation www.michels.us 920-583-3132 Key Products: Fiber optic network construction, including outside-plant construction, structured cabling, and fber splicing and testing Summary: In 1983, Michels, based in Brownsville, Wis., was one of the frst companies to construct fber lines. Today, it builds thousands of miles of fber optic and broadband networks per year. Its communications division serves all sectors of the communications industry – local telephone companies, broadband and cable TV providers, schools and enterprises. Plowing, trenching, splicing, terminating, testing, constructing aerial lines, directional boring, rail plowing, installing cable, conducting site work and providing FTTx solutions are some of the services Michels Communications ofers. Last year, the company booked $1.9 billion in new construction to rank 33rd on the Engineering News-Record list of top 400 contractors. It assists clients with growth forecasting, verifcation of existing facilities, investigation of potential migration strategies and cost estimates of numerous deployment options. Te company’s construction design and management services include all phases of inside- and outside-plant engineering. Te frm, which has more than 5,000 employees, has about 31 regional ofces throughout the United States. JULY 2015

|

Mid-State Consultants www.mscon.com 435-623-8601 Key Products: Communications engineering services, facilities management software Summary: Mid-State Consultants ofers a full range of communications engineering services for telephony, data and video networks as well as computerized mapping and conversion and construction supervision. Te company has experience working for a broad clientele, including local exchange carriers, RBOCs, interexchange carriers, competitive access providers, ISPs, cellular operators and CATV operators, and it has participated in many FTTH projects. Mid-State assists clients with growth forecasting, verifcation of existing facilities, investigation of potential migration strategies and cost estimates of numerous deployment options. Te company’s construction design and management services include all phases of inside- and outside-plant engineering. Mid-State’s e-TICS facilities management software facilitates the assignment of inside and outside plant from end to end; for FTTH networks, it can assign fbers and splitter ports to specifc locations. Last year, the company acquired CBW Communications Engineers, a professional engineering frm whose client base has expanded from independent telephone companies in North Carolina to companies throughout the southeastern United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands. MidState Consultants is headquartered in Nephi, Utah, and has eight regional ofces throughout the United States.

Millennium Communications Group Inc. www.millenniuminc.com www.matrixdg.com 800-677-1919 Key Products: Planning, design, permitting, project management, IT services and solutions, physical security and related services for fber optic networks Summary: Millennium Communications Group Inc., founded in 1995 and based in East Hanover, N.J., specializes in FTTx

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

63

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST “We think the next 24 months is going to be an exciting time for the industry as more consumers cut the cable TV cord and demand the kind of Internet bandwidth and quality that only fber and high-performance wireless can deliver.” – Dr. Andrew Cohill, President and CEO, Design Nine Inc.

deployments and fber optic networks of any size. Millennium Communications Group Inc. and its subsidiary Matrix Design Group can assist customers nationwide at any stage of a fber deployment, from concept to completion. Services include feasibility studies, budgeting, planning, design, buildouts and project management. Te company also handles business case development, grant application assistance,

CARRIER ETHERNET SOLUTIONS

right-of- way permitting and smart-grid planning, and it can help communities get started with fber to public facilities, schools and hospitals. Te frm also has experience in data center siting, design and operation and in broadband-based community amenities such as security. Current clients include Fortune 500 companies, telecom carriers, communities, cooperatives, municipalities and early-stage FTTH initiatives. Among its FTTH clients is WiredWest Communications Cooperative Corporation, a large municipal communications cooperative of 44 towns in western Massachusetts. Other clients deploying FTTH include ECFiber, a multitown cooperative in Vermont with a unique resident-funded business model, and the town of Leverett, Mass.

The following companies sell electronic equipment for fber networks certifed by the Metro Ethernet Forum. These devices provide fber connectivity for enterprises, mobile backhaul, schools, MDUs, MTUs and other large users that require service providers to adhere to service-level agreements. COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS Actelis Networks www.actelis.com ADTRAN www.adtran.com Adva Optical Networking www.advaoptical.com Alcatel-Lucent www.alcatel-lucent.com Allied Telesis www.alliedtelesis.com ARRIS www.arris.com BTI Systems www.btisystems.com Calix www.calix.com Ciena www.ciena.com Cisco Systems www.cisco.com D-Link www.d-link.com Dasan Networks USA www.dasannetworksus.com Fujitsu www.fujitsu.com MRV Communications www.mrv.com Omnitron Systems Technology www. omnitron-systems.com Overture Networks www.overturenetworks.com Rad Data Communications www.rad.com Telco Systems www.telco.com Tellabs www.tellabs.com Transition Networks www.transition.com ZyXEL Communications us.zyxel.com

Multicom www.multicominc.com 800-423-2594 Key Products: Fiber optic components, including FTTH actives and passives, fber optic cable, transmitters, receivers, amplifers, nodes, attenuators, enclosures, splitters, fusion splicers and tools Summary: Headquartered in Orlando, Fla., since 1982, Multicom is a full-line stocking distributor and manufacturer of products used for end-to-end integration of voice, data and video over fber, coax and copper. Te company has a multimillion-dollar inventory of more than 13,000 products from more than 270 of the world’s major manufacturers and provides all active and passive components required for complete FTTH end-to-end solutions. Multicom’s GPON “Everything Included” video-data-voice-Wi-Fi solution and fber optic product line makes deploying future-proof GPON networks easy and afordable. Multicom also sells retail and wholesale VoIP services through its Mconnect subsidiary as well as a complete HDTV hospitality solution that includes a 24/7 active monitoring and issue resolution application accessible from a smartphone. Multicom maintains sales ofces, rep agencies and subdistributors throughout the Americas.

64 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

Multilink www.gomultilink.com 440-366-6966 Key Products: Fiber distribution and cable management solutions, connectors, splice enclosures and cabinets; MDU enclosures; raceway and pathway solutions Summary: Multilink, founded in 1983, is a manufacturer of telecommunications network components that expanded to become a worldwide supplier and integrator of end-toend solutions as it focused its new product development on fber optic–based solutions. Multilink’s customers include independent telcos, RBOCs, utilities, local-area network providers and CATV MSOs. Its products are designed to meet the needs of both legacy plant and new technology applications. Based in Elyria, Ohio, Multilink is privately owned and has 200 employees. NEO Fiber www.NEOfber.net 970-309-3500 Key Products: Consulting, design and engineering services for middle-mile and FTTH networks

Summary: NEO Fiber, founded by telecom and FTTH veteran Diane Kruse, provides strategic services for utilities, municipalities, companies, tribal communities, real estate developers, grant recipients and government agencies that deploy fber optic, gigabit and fber-to-the-home networks. Services include consulting, feasibility studies, fnancial and business planning, fnancing, contract negotiations, design and engineering services, RFP writing and vendor management, project management, program management and appraisal services. OFS www.ofsoptics.com 770-798-5555; 888-342-3743 Key Products: Optical fber; optical fber cable; fusion splicers; fber management and connectivity products for homes, businesses and MDUs; network design services Summary: OFS’s heritage, which goes back to the original Bell Labs, includes pioneering research and development in fber optics. Wholly owned by Furukawa Electric of Japan, OFS designs, manufactures and supplies optical fber, fber optic cable, specialty photonics and optical connectivity solutions, providing end-to-end fber optic solutions for outside-plant and inside-plant networks. Products include

Get in the groove WITH LITE ACCESS TECHNOLOGIES

Lite Access Technologies is the World leader in Air Blown and Microduct solutions. Focusing on innovative Micro-Trench technologies, Lite Access has made end to end fber connectivity a fast, environmentally friendly and cost efective solution KEY BENEFITS >

Completely air and water tight system

> > > > > >

Fast Installation - environmentally friendly, non-disruptive 50% quicker, half the cost Flexible and adaptive - integrates with all ISP, OSP Telecom RUS approved

604 247 4704 JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

w w w.liteaccess.com | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

65

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST EZ-Bend ultra-bend-insensitive optical cables and EZ Bend InvisiLight fber optic solutions for in-MDU and in-home deployments; AllWave+ ZWP full-spectrum, zero-water-peak, bend-optimized fber; gel-free Fortex loose tube, AccuRibbon ribbon and PowerGuide ADSS fber cables; end-to-end fber connectivity, optical splitter and fber management solutions; fusion splicers and several MDU deployment solutions. Te professional services group helps optimize network designs. Headquartered near Atlanta, OFS is a global provider with facilities in North America, Europe and the Middle East and sales ofces around the world. Furukawa Electric reported revenue of about $1.5 billion for its telecommunications group for the fscal year ending March 2015.

On Trac Inc. www.ontracinc.net 423-317-0009 Key Products: FTTH splicing, FTTH residential and commercial installation, mainline fber splicing, MDU network design and installation, structured cabling, consulting, project management, warehousing, back-ofce structure Summary: Based in eastern Tennessee, On Trac provides telecommunications services and special projects to network operators nationwide. Core services include FTTH splicing and FTTH installation. Additional services include consulting; project management; training, service and repair; materials

DISTRIBUTORS OF FIBER OPTIC PRODUCTS COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS Advanced Media Technologies www.amt.com Anixter www.anixter.com Communications Supply Corporation www.gocsc.com Fiber Instrument Sales www.fberinstrumentsales.com FiberOptic.com www.fberoptic.com Graybar www.graybar.com KGP Logistics www.kgplogistics.com Metrotek www.metrotek.com Multicom www.multicominc.com Pace International www.paceintl.com Power & Tel www.ptsupply.com TVC Communications www.tvcinc.com Walker and Associates www.walkerfrst.com

management and warehousing; scheduling processes and backofce structure. Clients include municipal network operators as well as cooperatives. On Trac serves ongoing FTTH deployments by Auburn Essential Services, Bristol Tennessee Essential Services, Erwin Utilities, GVTC, BVU Authority, Clarksville Department of Electricity, Dalton Utilities, LUS Fiber and Google Fiber. To date, On Trac has connected more than 175,000 FTTH installations, performing outside-plant work that includes aerial drops, underground drops, mainline fber splicing and bidirectional testing.

OneCommunity www.onecommunity.org 216-923-2200 Key Products: Fiber optic connectivity for anchor institutions and enterprises Summary: Te nonproft organization OneCommunity, founded in 2003 as OneCleveland, builds and operates a state-of-the-art fber optic network that connects Northeast Ohio’s universities, schools, hospitals, cultural institutions, social service organizations and government agencies. Te OneCommunity network was in many ways the prototype for the BTOP model of an open-access, middle-mile network connecting anchor institutions. Te network now covers more than 2,400 route miles, connecting some 1,800 facilities and organizations in 23 counties. In 2014, OneCommunity launched Everstream, a for-proft subsidiary that serves the high-speed networking needs of enterprise businesses throughout Northeast Ohio. Also in 2014, OneCommunity, along with the city of Cleveland, began installing the nation’s frst commercially available metropolitan 100 gigabit network through Cleveland’s Health-Tech Corridor to University Circle – a project funded by the Economic Development Administration, the city of Cleveland and OneCommunity. Trough the Big Gig Challenge Grant program, OneCommunity makes matching funds available to help support fber network construction for economic development in Northeast Ohio. Pace PLC / Aurora Networks www.pace.com/americas www.aurora.com 561-995-6000 Key Products: FTTH and cable network equipment, home media servers, set-top boxes, customer-premises equipment for fber, Ethernet, xDSL and cable networks Summary: More than 200 cable and telco TV providers (and eight of the top 10) choose Pace for customer-premises equipment for digital TV and broadband solutions. Over

66 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

“FTTH service providers must cost-efectively manage and monitor all connected devices that deliver subscriber services. Those that do not will be unable to retain and grow their businesses. Consumers will pay for faster broadband speeds to consume more content, but they will also demand highly reliable and consistent connections, making service assurance the No. 1 driver of success in today’s competitive environment.” – Frank Gine, President and COO, ETI Software Solutions

the past 30 years, Pace has become the global market leader in set-top boxes and is No. 1 for U.S. residential gateways. Pace gateways are available for a variety of broadband infrastructures, including ADSL, VDSL, cable and FTTH. Te company’s open gateway software can be integrated into multiple gateway designs and used across networks to standardize the application layer. In 2014, Pace acquired Aurora Networks and now ofers optical access solutions for cable operators, including headend-based and node PON solutions. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Pace, with more than 2,000 employees worldwide, also has ofces in the United States, France, India, Australia and South Africa. Revenue in 2014 was more than $2.6 billion, of which almost 60 percent came from North America.

Pacifc Broadband Networks www.pbnglobal.com 703-579-6777 Key Products: Optical broadband access products and network solutions, including active Ethernet, GEPON and RFoG equipment for the central ofce and customer premises; network management and provisioning software Summary: Pacifc Broadband Networks (PBN) supplies advanced optical broadband access products and network solutions. Its headend equipment and network management and access products are suitable for HFC, FTTH, RFoG, Ethernet and DOCSIS applications. PBN’s fexible product portfolio was designed to enable network operators to bridge the gap between existing and emerging technologies. Recent product introductions include a new series of GEPON optical network units with CATV overlay. Customers include major telcos and MSOs serving tens of millions of subscribers around the world. Recent deployments include GIB, the owner of Flashcable, an ISP near Zürich, Switzerland; Energie AG Oberösterreich in Austria; KOMNEXX in Germany; Arizona JULY 2015

|

State University in Phoenix; NuLink Digital in Georgia; and SuperVision, an afliate of YukonTel, in Alaska. PBN has research and development facilities in Melbourne and Beijing and ofces in Australia, China, Europe and the Americas. PBN is also well represented by channel partners globally. Pavlov Media www.pavlovmedia.com 800-677-6812 Key Products: Internet, video and voice services; secure home networking for apartment units Summary: Pavlov Media is a leading network provider in the MDU space and the largest private provider of broadband services to of-campus student housing in the United States. It serves apartment complexes, businesses and housing communities in more than 35 states. Pavlov’s 10G national fber backbone network, along with its Tesseractiv content delivery network, which launched in 2012, enable it to deliver popular content at speeds up to 1 Gbps. Other recent speedenhancing innovations include launching WebSnap – a set of trafc management techniques that enable fast Web page loading through superfast blasts of service – and hosting a root domain name server on its network to improve latency. Pavlov Media was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Champaign, Ill.

Power & Tel www.ptsupply.com 800-238-7514 Key Products: Fiber optic and cable products, optical networking electronics, test gear, IPTV and home networking solutions Summary: Te distributor Power & Tel specializes in the procurement, sales and logistics of communications products. By cost-efectively and efciently managing the supply

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

67

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST “Consumers are demanding gigabit performance to and throughout their connected homes. Service providers with progressive plans, from VDSL to G.fast with fber to FTTH and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, are best suited to thrive in this hypercompetitive market. These operators will successfully lead their customers into the Internet-centered world surrounded by smart devices and always-on connectivity.” – Brian Feng, Senior Vice President, ZyXEL

chain, Power & Tel lets its customers – service providers, contractors and other entities large enough to maintain their own communications networks – focus on building and maintaining fber networks. Te company also provides materials management services that make use of state-of-the art distribution technology to accommodate the industry’s rapidly changing supply needs. Founded in 1963 and privately owned, Power & Tel is headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., and has locations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Brazil.

Preformed Line Products www.preformed.com 440-461-5200 Key Products: Fiber optic and copper splice closures, highspeed cross-connect devices, cable anchoring and control hardware and systems Summary: Founded in 1947, Preformed Line Products (PLP) is an international designer and manufacturer of products and systems used to construct and maintain overhead and underground networks. Its fagship product line of COYOTE fber closures has been updated to make the devices more durable, more versatile and easier to install. PLP serves telecommunications network operators, cable television and broadband service providers, power utilities, corporations and enterprise networks, government agencies and educational institutions. Headquartered in Cleveland, PLP operates domestic manufacturing centers in Rogers, Ark.; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Albemarle, N.C. Te company serves worldwide markets through operations in 16 countries. Net sales for 2014 were $388 million.

Prysmian Group www.prysmiangroup.com 803-951-4800; 800-713-5312 Key Products: Optical fber and telecommunications cables Summary: Prysmian Group is the world’s largest cable solutions provider. Te company operates through two global brands: Prysmian and Draka. With 130 years of history, Prysmian Group has subsidiaries in 50 countries, 89 plants, 17 R&D centers and more than 19,000 employees. In North America, Prysmian Group has deployed more than 80 million fber miles. Its product portfolio includes optical fber cable, composite 4G cable, FTTx solutions and premises/data cables. Prysmian ofers two compact solutions for FTTH. Mini FlexTube cables are optimized for mid-span access with superfexible 1.3mm tubes that can be removed without tools. LT2.0 cable ofers the smallest, most fexible conventional bufer tubes in the market, with bend-insensitive fber as a standard feature. Prysmian Group also ofers ADSS and OPGW cables for FTTH and middle-mile builders that have access to electrical utility poles or transmission infrastructure. In 2014, Prysmian’s sales reached more than $7 billion.

Pulse Broadband www.pulsebroadband.net 314-324-7347 Key Products: Fiber network and FTTH planning, design, construction management, provisioning, billing, customer care, video programming services and operations management Summary: Pulse Broadband helps electric cooperatives, municipalities and other organizations build and operate gigabit fber networks to deliver high-speed broadband to their constituents. Pulse helps clients determine which type of

68 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

fber architecture is the most fnancially viable option for their markets and then works to design the fber network, manage construction and optionally ofer voice, video and data services once the fber-to-the-home (FTTH) network is completed. Pulse also ofers assistance with back-ofce functions, including billing, customer sales and support, reporting and marketing. Recent projects include working with Sebewaing Light and Water to design and launch Michigan’s frst gigabit village, partnering with Midwest Energy as it accelerates the buildout of its substation fber interconnect project and extends FTTH to its members and with Kit Carson Electric Cooperative as it brings a transformative FTTH network to its northern New Mexico customers.

and distributes more than 1,000 fber optic products for the telecom and datacom industries. Its Intelligent Building Solution facilitates the distribution of advanced, highbandwidth services, such as HDTV and telemedicine, within commercial buildings, multifamily buildings, hotels, hospitals and educational institutions. Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Boston, SENKO Advanced Components is a subsidiary of SENKO Group in Japan. It has 1,500 employees and is privately held.

Smithville Communications / Smithville Telecom / Smithville Fiber www.smithville.net 812-876-2211; 800-742-4084 SDT www.sdt-1.com 601-823-9440 Key Products: Telecommunications infrastructure services, including structured cabling; engineer, furnish and install services; design and engineering Summary: Headquartered in Brookhaven, Miss., with 200 employees, SDT provides a diversifed package of services to telecommunications carriers, developers and integration providers. Te company performs network planning, design, development, installation, testing, turnup and maintenance on all network environments, from long-haul fber networks to FTTH, wireless and LAN. Over the last year, SDT has been involved in numerous fber-to-the cell-site projects. With its integrated project delivery strategy, SDT can bundle individual products from its separate business units (outsideplant engineering and construction, inside-plant and wireless services, real estate, right-of-way and managed services) as turnkey solutions. In association with its strategic partner, Clearion Software, SDT pioneered the use of GIS in fber network design, which greatly reduces the time to engineer and design networks, speeds network buildouts and achieves cost savings for owners. SENKO Advanced Components www.senko.com 508-481-9999 Key Products: Fiber distribution panels, network access terminals, fber protection equipment, fber cleaning and inspection equipment, splitter modules, couplers, attenuators, connectors and adapters Summary: Many companies that sell FTTH technology integrate SENKO into their product oferings. SENKO Advanced Components develops, manufactures, markets JULY 2015

|

Key Products: High-speed Internet, IPTV, voice, managed services, cellular, home security services, cloud services, big data support, videoconferencing, consulting services for broadband-supported economic development Summary: Privately owned Smithville Communications is Indiana’s largest independent telecom company, with about 200 employees. In the last year, it has continued its $90 million FTTP buildout to homes, businesses, educational institutions and government facilities inside and outside its traditional service area. In addition to connecting technology parks, universities, Fortune 100 companies and nearly 25,000 residences, Smithville created two new all-fber communities in rural Indiana, continuing its commitment to rural areas ignored by larger telcos. To mark this expansion, the company

NETWORK PLANNING AND DESIGN SOLUTIONS These companies provide software used to plan and design FTTH networks. COMPANY NAME WEB ADDRESS 3-GIS www.3-GIS.com Advance Fiber Optics www.ospinsight.com Comsof www.comsof.com COS Systems www.cossystems.com CrowdFiber www.crowdfber.com ETI Software Solutions www.etisoftware.com GLDS www.glds.com Mapcom Systems www.mapcom.com Mid-State Consultants www.mscon.com Network Design Decisions Inc. www.nocplan.com

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

69

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST adopted the brand Smithville Fiber. Smithville’s FTTP service ofers Internet speeds at a standard of 1 Gbps with the capacity to boost speed to 10 Gbps for commercial installations. Smithville is widely recognized for its positive impact on economic development. Its subsidiary, Smithville Telecom, provides fber-based connectivity, data consulting, network management and managed services for businesses, university campuses, biotechnology companies, health care providers and government ofces in central and southern Indiana.

Sonic www.sonic.net 888-766-4233 Key Products: Gigabit fber and DSL Internet access, residential and business voice service, co-location, business networking Summary: Sonic, based in Santa Rosa, Calif., was founded in 1994 as an Internet service provider and was one of the frst ISPs to bring DSL access to the California wine country. Because of its reliable, inexpensive connectivity and excellent customer service – as well as its commitment to transparency and user privacy, which was recognized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation – Sonic survived an era during which most independent ISPs collapsed. In addition to serving tens of thousands of residential customers, Sonic provides customized Internet and phone solutions to many top companies, including the Golden State Warriors and Oracle Arena, Uber, Minted, Amy’s Kitchen and others. In 2010, Google chose Sonic to manage its “beta” FTTH network in Stanford University faculty housing. When Sonic began deploying FTTH technology, it prioritized its buildout in neighborhoods where it already had high demand for its advanced DSL service and could deploy relatively inexpensively. Te company quickly won acclaim for ofering gigabit fber Internet service for $70 per month (now down to $40) – a price-performance ratio unheard of elsewhere in the United States. Both its demanddriven rollout strategy and its pricing then set the standard nationwide for gigabit fber networks. Currently, Sonic provides gigabit fber Internet and phone service to residents in Sebastopol, Calif., and Brentwood, Calif., as well as gigabit fber Internet and cloud phone service to businesses in the Northpoint Business Park, the Airport Business Park and the Petaluma Redwood Business Park in the North Bay area. Te company is continuing to build gigabit fber Internet in residential and business areas in the North Bay and East Bay.

Superior Essex www.SuperiorEssex.com 770-657-6000 Key Products: Premises and outside-plant fber and copper cable products, FTTH enclosures Summary: Superior Essex designs, manufactures and supplies a large selection of premises and outside-plant fber optic and copper wire and cable products. Te company supplies many of the largest telecommunications service providers, and its cable products are installed in thousands of enterprises around the globe. It recently introduced a line of cables for distributed antenna systems; FTTH closures, including fber distribution hubs; and redesigned families of fber dome closures. In 2013, Superior Essex announced a co-development and marketing alliance with Legrand to create a suite of structured cabling systems, nCompass, which provides solutions to the challenges of technical support, network energy efciency, reliability and fexibility. Other recently introduced products include the reduced-diameter 10Gain XP category 6A unshielded twisted pair cable, the low-voltage 600V power cable, and a new hybrid cable, which combines copper conductors for power with optical fber. Superior Essex is headquartered in Atlanta and has more than 3,000 employees. Its state-of-the-art product development center is in Kennesaw, Ga., and it has manufacturing facilities in Brownwood, Texas; Tarboro, N.C.; and Hoisington, Kan. Suttle www.suttlesolutions.com 800-852-8662 Key Products: Fiber enclosure systems for OSP, MDUs and building entrances; home networking solutions; structured wiring media panel enclosures and modules; high-speed panels and frames Summary: Suttle specializes in connectivity solutions for communications service providers, meeting network needs from central ofces all the way into customer premises. In the last several years, Suttle has focused on innovating solutions for gigabit broadband deployments. Suttle’s newest brands are FutureLink and MediaMAX. FutureLink provides highquality, medium-agnostic connectivity for high-speed OSP and premises applications. MediaMAX premises distribution systems are designed to meet the demand for wired and wireless high-speed triple play connectivity throughout homes and small ofces and to optimize the installation cost for gigabit services. Suttle’s products are designed to comply with the most stringent industry standards. Quality management systems are ISO 9001 and TL9000 certifed. Headquartered in Hector, Minn., Suttle was founded in 1910 and is now a subsidiary of Communications Systems Inc. Revenue for 2014 was $67 million.

70 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

TE Connectivity www.te.com 610-893-9800

telecom, enterprise and wireless businesses (about two-thirds of its network solutions operations) in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $3 billion.

Key Products: Fiber optic cabling and connectivity products – undersea, from the central ofce to the customer premises and from the data center to the desktop Summary: TE Connectivity is a fber connectivity powerhouse. It designs and manufactures products that make electronic and fber connections in nearly every industry – from broadband communications and automotive to industrial, aerospace and defense. TE’s products include connectors, above- and below-ground enclosures, heat-shrink sleeves, cable accessories, surge arrestors and fber optic and copper cabling systems. Te fber optic product line ofers solutions for central ofces, data centers, FTTx and optical LANs. Recently introduced was a powered fber cable system, which combines optical fber with copper for power. TE Connectivity has 80,000 employees in more than 50 countries; its U.S. headquarters is in Berwyn, Pa. In its fscal year 2014 (ending September 26, 2014), TE had net sales of $13.9 billion, with almost $3 billion of that directly tied to TE’s Network Solutions products. In January, CommScope Holding Company agreed to acquire TE Connectivity’s

JULY 2015

Team Fishel www.teamfshel.com 614-274-8100; 800-347-4351 Key Products: Network design, engineering, construction, installation and maintenance services Summary: Established in 1936, Team Fishel has 1,850 “teammates” and 37 ofces in 13 states across the country. Te company specializes in designing and constructing last-mile fber optic networks for broadband service providers. Its fber specialists have more than 35 years of experience building fber networks to the home and business. Team Fishel has the technical resources to design broadband network infrastructures from initial planning stages all the way through construction, installation and system maintenance.

| www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

71

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST “Consumer demand for increased capacity and data speeds is rising and will continue to rise. Research suggests that FTTH will be the fastestgrowing access equipment market, with double-digit gains through 2017. Much of that will include expansion in rural areas. The market demand for fber broadband is there, and that trend will only increase.” – Marc Bolick, Vice President, Product & Marketing, KGP Companies

Telect www.telect.com 509-926-6000; 800-551-4567

Tucows / Ting www.ting.com/internet 855-846-4389

Key Products: Fiber optic and copper connectivity solutions, network power management, equipment racks and cabinets, cable management systems

Key Products: Gigabit Internet access

Summary: For more than 33 years, Telect has provided connectivity, power, equipment racks and cable management solutions for global communications networks. Products include fber optic distribution panels, high-density optical frames, copper connectivity products, cable management, power distribution and systems, and equipment racks. Headquartered in Liberty Lake, Wash., with 220 employees, Telect also operates a facility in Guadalajara, Mexico. Tellabs www.tellabs.com 630-798-8800 Key Products: Optical LAN, GPON optical line terminals and optical network terminals, outside plant and network management Summary: Tellabs customers include enterprise, government and telecom. Te company has delivered carrier-class access solutions to service providers for more than two decades. An early supplier to the FiOS build, Tellabs is now a leader in the optical LAN marketplace and a provider of broadband access solutions to many of the world’s leading networks. As a company in the Marlin Equity Partners portfolio, Tellabs concentrates on two solutions. Its passive optical LAN solution is a favorite among enterprise and government customers, in addition to such markets as hospitality, health care and education. Last year, Tellabs Optical LAN was deployed in the Santa Fe Public Schools, providing gigabit speeds to students, teachers and classrooms to improve the digital learning environment and increase the efciency of IT systems and operations. Tellabs continues to serve traditional telecom carriers by providing essential equipment and services to support critical last-mile applications. Te company backs its access solutions with the Tellabs Services Suite, a collection of training, professional services and support services customized to meet specifc needs.

Summary: One of the most unusual and promising newcomers to the FTTH market in the last year was Ting. A subsidiary of Tucows – a domain-management service company that ventured into the MVNO business in 2012 – Ting launched its FTTH business with a bang in December 2014 when it acquired Blue Ridge InternetWorks, a competitive fber provider in Charlottesville, Va. Today, Ting provides fber services to several thousand Charlottesville customers, and it plans to expand the FTTH network to cover the entire city in 2016. Shortly after the Charlottesville announcement, the city of Westminster, Md., chose Ting to be the network operator and frst service provider on its city-owned fber optic network. Ting has ambitions to provide FTTH services in other small markets; the company is evaluating opportunities to invest in or partner with additional network operators, and its website invites consumers to “Put your town or city’s name on our watch list.” Tucows is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with ofces in Starkville Miss.; Amsterdam; Bonn and Singapore. It reported $148 million in revenues for 2014.

US Ignite www.us-ignite.org 202-365-9219 Key Products: Fostering the development, testing, and deployment of transformative applications for nextgeneration networks Summary: US Ignite spurs the development of nextgeneration broadband applications – novel applications and digital experiences that promise to transform health care, energy, education, transportation, public safety and advanced manufacturing. Te initiative makes use of advanced technologies developed by researchers, entrepreneurs and US

72 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

Ignite’s commercial partners. US Ignite advocates for core technologies – software-defned networking, symmetrical gigabit to the end user and locavore computing (local cloud computing) – that provide the opportunity to create the Internet of Immersive Experience and transform the way people live, work, learn and play in gigabit cities. US Ignite launched at the White House in 2012 and was formed with leadership from the National Science Foundation and the White House Ofce of Science and Technology Policy. It responded to the administration’s call to ensure all Americans access to the information and tools necessary to thrive in a 21st-century economy. An independent nonproft funded through member organizations, US Ignite works with 45 technical partners, including many large network deployers, and more than 30 communities. As coordinator and incubator of this ecosystem, US Ignite aims to accelerate the adoption of next-generation fber and wireless networks.

speeds up to 500 Mbps symmetrical, and FiOS Quantum TV ofers the ability to record up to 12 shows at the same time and up to 200 hours of HD recording capacity. Verizon Enhanced Communities works with property owners, property managers and businesses to serve multifamily residential, multitenant commercial and mixed-use communities with high-bandwidth Internet, TV and phone services. Verizon bought the 45 percent of Verizon Wireless it did not already own from Vodafone in February 2014. Early in 2015, Verizon announced its intended sale of all residential and small-business wireline operations in California, Florida and Texas to Frontier Communications. If the sale closes as planned in 2016, Frontier will take over approximately a quarter of all FiOS customers. Vermeer Corporation www.vermeer.com 641-628-3141; 888-837-6337 Key Products: Horizontal directional drilling equipment; utility and pedestrian trenchers and plows

Vantage Point Solutions www.vantagepnt.com 605-995-1777 Key Products: Telecom engineering and consulting services Summary: Vantage Point Solutions (VPS) provides engineering and consulting services to broadband wireless and wireline providers. With a staf of more than 150, VPS has enormous depth and expertise in broadband engineering, fnancial analysis and regulatory services. Services include professional engineering, outside-plant engineering, strategic planning, technology evaluations, network architecture design, and regulatory and feasibility studies. VPS also developed the popular Remote Assistant, a cloud-based home monitoring service that providers can private label to allow their customers to control door locks, lighting, thermostats, cameras and other devices. VPS deploys FTTP, wireless, data and transport networks as well as IPv6 network transitions and IPTV implementations.

R E G I S T E R N OW ! Fiber For The New Economy

Community Toolkit Program Lexington, KY September 15-18, 2015

Verizon Communications / Verizon Enhanced Communities www.verizon.com/www.verizon.com/communities Key Products: FiOS TV, Internet and Digital Voice; FiOS Quantum Internet and FiOS Quantum TV Summary: Verizon delivers broadband and other communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. Te largest FTTH provider in the United States, it provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over an advanced fber optic network in the U.S. and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries. A Dow 30 company with more than $127 billion in 2014 revenues (30 percent from wireline services), Verizon employs a diverse workforce of 177,300 worldwide. Te Verizon FiOS network now passes more than 20 million homes, and, according to RVA LLC, FiOS served more than half of all U.S. FTTH subscribers in 2014. FiOS Quantum Internet ofers connection JULY 2015

Summary: Headquartered in Pella, Iowa, and selling worldwide, Vermeer Corporation manufactures underground installation equipment. Its involvement in fber optic installation began in 1991 with the launch of its Navigator horizontal directional drill product line, which can install

|

& Economic Development Conference Series

To Exhibit or Sponsor contact: Irene G. Prescott [email protected] | 505-867-3299 877-588-1649 | www.bbcmag.com

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

73

FIBER-TO-THE-HOME TOP 100 LIST communications lines underground without excavating or trenching, minimizing environmental disruption and helping reduce labor costs in fber deployments. In 2010, Vermeer introduced a microtrenching system that allows installation of fber lines into a roadway in one quick, efcient pass. A recent introduction was the D23x30 S3 Navigator horizontal directional drill, which packs speed and power into a compact design for installation in congested commercial and residential areas. Te D23x30 S3 is also one of the quietest drills on the HDD market – another advantage in congested areas. Privately owned, Vermeer was founded in 1948. Walker and Associates www.walkerfrst.com 800-925-5371 Key Products: Products and services for deploying communications networks Summary: Walker and Associates is a national distributor of network products for broadband providers, including wireline, wireless, CATV, government and enterprise network operators. Walker’s extensive range of products from more than 250 suppliers facilitates carriers’ delivery of highspeed Internet, video, data and voice services to residential,

business and mobile users. Walker supports technologies such as switching, routing, Wi-Fi, microwave, NFV, Carrier Ethernet, VoIP, WDM, ROADM, packet optical networking, SDN, GPON, active Ethernet, fxed wireless, DSL and more. Additionally, Walker provides physical plant products, including fber/copper connectivity, power systems, indoor/ outdoor enclosures and outside-plant products. In addition to supplying basic material, Walker simplifes network deployment through services such as product engineering, expert installation, systems integration and managed services. In an advisory capacity, Walker helps network designers make wise product selection decisions for optimum network performance, scale and operating cost. In a hands-on capacity, Walker kits, integrates and installs products to help carriers efciently deploy networks. Walker performs important promotional, logistical and technical support services for its manufacturer base, reaching 10 telecommunications submarkets and more than 1,200 domestic customers. Based in Welcome, N.C., Walker is TL9000/ISO 9001/2008 quality certifed and is a certifed women-owned corporation. Zhone Technologies www.zhone.com 510-777-7000; 877-946-6320

Planning Your Gigabit Network? Prove your business case with real-time customer demand Take the guesswork out of your fber deployment

Service Zones™ Delivering successful network deployments

© 2015 COS Systems

617.274.8171 | www.cossystems.com/service-zones

74 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

Key Products: Telecommunications equipment for all-IP multiservice broadband access, including multiservice platform integration of FTTx, Ethernet in the First Mile and wireless access technologies Summary: Zhone Technologies’ all-IP multiservice access solutions serve more than 750 network operators worldwide. With the company’s integrated portfolio of FTTx, EFM and Wi-Fi access technologies, providers can deliver residential and business broadband, fxed and mobile voice, advanced video and entertainment, and mobile backhaul over copper, fber and wireless infrastructures. Zhone’s fagship, carrier-grade FTTx platform, the MXK, is accompanied by a suite of smart ONTs. In 2012, Zhone launched the Fiber LAN solution, a high-performance, high-density, GPON-based optical LAN. In the last year, Zhone announced several major deployments in Canada, the United States, Italy and Ireland. Zhone is headquartered in Oakland, Calif., and its MSAP products are manufactured in the United States in a facility that is emission-, wastewater- and CFC-free. With more than 250 employees worldwide, Zhone posted revenue of $121 million in 2014.

ZyXEL Communications Inc. www.zyxel.com/us 714-632-0882; 800-255-4101 Key Products: Customer-premises equipment and Ethernet switches for FTTH and FTTN networks Summary: In operation since 1989, ZyXEL ofers a portfolio of fber and DSL broadband gateways, home connectivity, entertainment solutions and smart-home devices. Service providers deliver FTTH and FTTN services to homes, buildings and campuses with ZyXEL products that include broadband gateways, Wi-Fi routers and media streamers, power line and HPNA adapters, indoor and outdoor WLAN access points, gigabit and 10G Ethernet switches, next-gen UTM security gateways, Wi-Fi hotspots and Internet service gateways. Over the past year, ZyXEL has been the broadband CPE vendor of choice for major service providers and more than 100 independent operating companies throughout the United States. Headquartered in Anaheim, Calif., with 90 employees, ZyXEL ofers logistical, sales and technical support through a domestic team of professionals. v

To nominate an organization for next year’s FTTH Top 100, email [email protected].

JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

75

FIBER AND WIRELESS DEPLOYMENT

Holy Cross High School Graduates to a New Network A generous gift allowed a private high school to upgrade its antiquated network infrastructure. The result: a future-proof network plus educational benefts. By Masha Zager / Broadband Communities

H

oly Cross High School in Waterbury, Conn., is a college preparatory school with 730 students from around the region. It has an intensive academic program (nearly all students go on to college), a successful athletic program and a thriving arts program. Until recently, however, it didn’t have up-to-date technology. Its campus network was 15 years old, built on an ad-hoc infrastructure whose accessibility and capacity were limited. Over time, IT staf had patched up the network with donated equipment, usually to fx urgent problems. Students and administrators needed a better solution. An opportunity arose in December 2013 when an anonymous donor gave the school a transformational gift of $3.4 million. Te gift allowed Holy Cross to address several aspects of its strategic plan, including upgrades to facilities, programs and infrastructure. One important infrastructure project to which gift funds were applied was an upgrade of the campus network, including ISP, structured cabling, switching and the wired and wireless Internet network. School IT personnel knew what they needed, but they didn’t have the skills to design and implement the upgrade. Timothy McDonald, the school president, says, “It was evident that we had exhausted internal expertise and were at the point where we recognized it was time to go outside. We needed a solutions provider that understood the complexities of

a private school that includes students, faculty and staf all accessing the Internet at diferent times in the day, on diferent devices, in a variety of diferent places in the building.” Enter RESOLUTE Partners – a frm based in Southington, Conn., that engineers, installs, operates and maintains wired and wireless networks. RESOLUTE won the opportunity to engineer a unifed solution to deliver on-demand wireless Internet access to the Holy Cross campus and all the students, faculty, staf and guests. SITE REVIEW RESOLUTE began by doing a thorough site review. Tis was an opportunity for engineers to visit the campus, determine the locations that would deliver the required level of Wi-Fi coverage throughout the school, and decide what hardware was needed to meet the school’s capacity demands. “We performed both physical analysis and logical analysis to determine where the heaviest requirements were,” says Frank DeMasi, RESOLUTE vice president of information technology. Te team identifed several distinct coverage areas, along with the functions performed in each area and their intensity of network usage. For example, science rooms require more network capacity than language rooms because students use more virtual books and wireless projectors in science classes and tend to stream more information from the Internet in real

76 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

time. Auditoriums have a higher user density than classrooms but a lower intensity of usage. Te engineers also studied the devices students used in various areas of the school – it’s not uncommon to have two or three devices per student. Understanding the devices and how they were used made the network more fexible as well as useful. Finally, the site review team looked at the school’s future plans for using technology. Over time, the school will use more and more wireless technology, but the main building ofers what DeMasi calls a “worst-case scenario” for wireless: cinder block and concrete construction with hard ceilings. To support the school’s growth plans, engineers decided to run fber to each corridor and add enough intermediate distribution frames (IDFs) so that every wireless access point would be within about 200 feet of an IDF. During site review, they mapped out fber paths and IDF locations for easy access, using existing pathways if available. In one case, to accommodate a major renovation of the athletic area, the team decided point-to-point wireless would be less expensive than fber. IMPLEMENTATION Working from the approved site review action report, RESOLUTE created a detailed implementation plan for the school, including additional fber runs, additional IDF locations, access point types and locations and network backbone upgrades. Once the installation was completed, RESOLUTE implemented the detailed confgurations for the network, including SSIDs and VLANs, and then completed the network testing. Te entire project took just six weeks. Tough the school network was originally only wired, IT staf had added some wireless access points to accommodate students’ use of mobile devices. By contrast, the new environment is predominantly wireless, with a few wired computers in areas such as the library and training labs. Wireless equipment from HP Networking was used throughout the

project because HP’s wireless access points and controllers allow for many possible network confgurations. Tis fexibility allowed RESOLUTE to meet both the school’s current needs and its anticipated future needs at a reasonable price. Also required was the ability for students, faculty and staf to move around the campus without having to log in and out of the network. To accommodate this, three wireless networks are now broadcast throughout the campus. One allows students to access the Internet via their own cell phones (the school can turn of this network to keep students from spending too much time on applications such as Facebook). Te second is for administrative staf, and the third is for students to access the school curriculum via school devices. All access points support both 2.4 GHz (for legacy devices) and 5 GHz (for newer devices). DeMasi explains that as device technology moves to the 5 GHz range, trafc will shift to that frequency range, where more bandwidth is available, without users or network administrators having to take any action to move it there. Because the school is moving its curriculum to the cloud, more Internet bandwidth – and redundant bandwidth – is now a necessity. In place of the T1 circuit that connected the school to the Internet, RESOLUTE brought fber circuits from two diferent service providers, with the primary fber provisioned at 100 Mbps and the JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

secondary one at 50 Mbps. Te bonded capacity of the two circuits is 150 Mbps and can expand over time. A highavailability frewall pair connects the school to the circuits. EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS Today, the school reaps educational benefts from its robust, ubiquitous wireless network. Michael Blanco, CEO of RESOLUTE Partners, explains that students and faculty walk around the school with their laptops. Tey can have discussions in hallways, do research in classrooms and collaborate in small groups wherever they are. Te library is no longer the only place to fnd information. Easy access to educational resources makes it more practical for the school to ofer accelerated and specialized classes. “Tey’re having conversations now about a ‘barbell strategy,’” Blanco says. “Tat means they would ofer common teaching to a large group of students but stretch the boundaries at the remedial end and at the advanced end. Tey’re just at the infancy of that project.” “It’s such a challenge for schools that the technology moves so fast,” Blanco adds. “Tat’s why we’re focused on the consultative side of the process, rather than forcing them into a whiz-bang solution. Now they have the network bones to go where they need to go.” v Masha Zager is the editor of BroadBand Communities. You can reach her at [email protected]. | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

77

Give residents all they’re looking for with AT&T U-verse® from AT&T Connected Communities. When they have digital TV, high-speed Internet and Wi-Fi service, more people will be coming to your property. And more will be staying. Learn how you can attract more residents and earn more revenue today at att.com/livedigitally.

All-in-one digital TV • High-speed Internet • Total Home DVR® • Wi-Fi access • Additional income for you

AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet service requires AT&T Wi-Fi gateway. Credit restrictions apply. Up to $99 installation charge applies. Geographic and service restrictions apply to AT&T U-verse services. Call or go to att.com/u-verse to see if you qualify. AT&T U-verse: Residential customers only. Credit restrictions may apply. Pricing, programming and features subject to change at any time without notice.

OPINION

Connecting Cambridge Why doesn’t Cambridge, Mass., have a next-generation network? By Saul Tannenbaum / Cambridge Broadband Task Force

I

t’s a strange experience to go to the 2015 BroadBand Communities Summit and announce that you are a member of the Cambridge Broadband Task Force. After people make sure you meant that Cambridge, they’re surprised that Cambridge doesn’t already have a next-generation network. Is it local government interference? Robert Metcalfe, the co-inventor of Ethernet – technology at the foundation of all high-speed computer networks – reminds you that you live in the city in which the Internet was invented and asks what’s taking you so long. Of a libertarian bent, he’s sure it must be government interference. No, you explain, anyone who might want to invest in a better Cambridge network has been invited in, and all have declined. He’s still not entirely convinced. You point to Kendall Square, an area he knows well in his role as an MIT trustee, and suggest that if Cambridge were as anticorporate as he imagines, it wouldn’t have what many have called the most innovative square mile on the planet. Is it state government interference? Representatives of small towns seek you out to understand what the barriers have been,

There’s no local or state interference. The city has plenty of money. The absence of a next-generation network in Cambridge must result from market failure.

certain that it must be state legislation preventing you from moving ahead. Unlike 19 other states, Massachusetts has no laws keeping a municipality from investing in high-speed networks. Is it money, they ask? If so, there are interesting public-private partnerships available. Creative fnancial engineering is also possible to bring this within reach. No. Cambridge has had an AAA bond rating for 16 years and builds schools without state aid, all fueled by a thriving commercial tax base. IT’S NATIONWIDE MARKET FAILURE Te United States is sufering from nationwide failure of the telecommunications marketplace. Because there is no competition, incumbent telecommunications companies collect everincreasing subscriber fees without investing in higher-speed networks. Tis position, formerly voiced only by academics and activists, has now become a cornerstone of government policy. President Barack Obama, speaking in Cedar Falls, Iowa, voiced this, as has Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler. Along with acknowledging a market failure, both Obama and Wheeler urged the same solution: community networks. It may be no surprise that former community organizer Obama called for community networks as a solution, but Wheeler, formerly an industry representative for the telecommunications companies, certainly raised eyebrows when he told the BroadBand Communities Summit that “[w]hen commercial

78 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

providers don’t step up to serve a community’s needs, we should embrace the great American tradition of citizens stepping up to take action collectively.” Community networks turn out to be a viable business. Because incumbent telecommunications companies ofer poor service at artifcially high prices, building a business around higherspeed networking at reasonable prices is quite feasible. Tere’s no better indicator for that than the day-long “Financing Fiber Networks” session. Te list of potential fnancing mechanisms is quite long. Tough Cambridge has the fnancial strength to fund a network through traditional methods of infrastructure funding – selling bonds – many cities do not have that option. Private funders – corporations, investment banks, private equity funds – are increasingly prepared to risk capital on these investments. WESTMINSTER, MD.: OWNING THE NETWORK It is a bedrock assumption of government ofcials involved in next-generation networks that a municipality needs to retain ownership of the network it builds. Use a private partnership to mitigate risks and provide services, but retain ownership and create an open-access network to stimulate competition. Westminster, Md., is doing just that. Expecting to spend $15 million to build an open-access fber network, Westminster is leasing the network to Ting, which will sell service directly to residents. Robert Wack, Westminster’s city council president, is quite clear why they’re doing it: “We want to blow this thing up, and we want disruptive services at disruptive pricing. We’ve got Comcast and its usual suite of services, Verizon DSL with its patchy service areas, and dish and satellite services. Nobody is happy with any of it, and none of it has the capacity we need to take this city into the future.” DIGITAL INCLUSION A community-owned network can build network services that refect local community values and priorities, not

A municipal network in Cambridge could represent the city’s values and priorities better than a large, publicly held telecommunications company could.

the values of large telecommunications companies answerable to stockholders. Te Cambridge City Council went on record as early as 2005 as wanting to close the digital divide. Comcast has demonstrated no true interest in this, ofering its low-cost Internet Essentials as what some have called a “crass PR stunt.” A Cambridge-controlled community network could – and should – make some level of Internet service available to all, regardless of the ability to pay. It could – and should – make sure that this service has frstclass connections to the public schools, library resources and other city services. It could operate in the spirit of the early Internet: free and open, seeking only to recover most costs rather than to monetize every element. COMMUNITY NETWORKS: THE INNOVATION ECONOMY It is an open secret among advocates of gigabit networks that today there’s little for which anyone really needs a gigabit network. Te justifcation given for building networks of this speed is future-proofng. We’ll need it in the future, they say, and if you’re digging up a community to bury cables, it makes no sense to invest in technology that will soon be obsolete. Instead, build a fber-to-the-home network. Cambridge is an exception. Cambridge has companies and institutions for whom high-capacity, high-speed networks are mission critical. MIT, Harvard, the Broad Institute, Google, Microsoft, Biogen, Novartis and many others that are not yet household names move large amounts of data as part of daily work. With partners like those, Cambridge can become a true test bed for the network of the future. Cambridge, JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

where the Internet was invented, can be where the next Internet is developed. It’s not just the upper end of the research and education sector of the economy that can beneft. Ubiquitous high-speed networking enables health monitoring of the frail and elderly that’s not currently feasible. Vivid, lifelike, real-time video interaction can provide support for caregivers and for aging in place. REINVENTING A FREE, FAIR AND OPEN INTERNET Respondents to a Pew Research Center report, Killer Apps in the Gigabit Age, identifed two basic problems with this future: • a new digital divide as only economic elites get new network services and the poor do not • the reluctance of incumbent telecommunications companies to embrace the future. Cambridge is uniquely positioned to overcome these obstacles. It pairs a legacy of being on the frontiers of social justice with an economic sector whose future health requires a free and open Internet. It is a rarity in Cambridge politics to fnd the interests of our innovation community and our social justice community to be so closely aligned. To this unique opportunity, one can only repeat Bob Metcalfe’s question. What’s taking us so long? v Saul Tannenbaum is a member of, but does not speak for, the Cambridge (Mass.) Broadband Task Force. He is a retired IT architect and planner who now writes frequently about issues involving Cambridge. Contact him at saul@ tannenbaum.org. | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

79

THE LAW

FCC Connect America Fund Advances Broadband Deployment The FCC hopes to encourage broadband deployment in underserved areas by allowing competitive bidding for up to $1.8 billion of Universal Service Fund monies annually. By Douglas Jarrett / Keller and Heckman

T

he next eight to 12 months may be the “best of times” for competitive providers to secure Universal Service Fund (USF) monies to support fber-based broadband services in unserved rural areas of the United States. Local governments, entrepreneurs, electric cooperatives and independent cable operators looking to deploy broadband services in their communities should have a working understanding of the FCC Connect America Fund. FCC REDIRECTS USF TO SUPPORT BROADBAND In response to criticisms of the growth and direction in its USF programs, the FCC adopted its USF/ICC Transformation Order in 2011. In May 2015, the Supreme Court declined to consider further appeals of the order, cutting of challenges to the FCC’s authority to expend USF monies to support broadband infrastructure investment. In that 2011 decision, the agency capped the high-cost component of the USF program at $4.5 billion annually and redirected it to “advance universal availability of modern networks capable of delivering broadband and voice services to homes, businesses and community anchor institutions” and to ensure that rates for voice and broadband service available in rural, insular and high-cost areas are “reasonably comparable” to the rates for these services in urban areas. Consistent with

this new focus, the high-cost program was renamed the Connect America Fund (CAF). Te FCC divided CAF funding into several categories: • a mobility fund, including a tribal mobility fund • a fund for remote and extremely high-cost areas • approximately $1.8 billion in annual support for wireline broadband and voice services in the high-cost areas that price-cap carriers serve • approximately $2.0 billion annually for broadband and voice services for the highcost areas that rural rate-of-return carriers serve. To date, the FCC has set new rules and disbursed funds for the mobility fund and tribal mobility fund and is retargeting the $1.8 billion for rural areas served by the price-cap ILECs (the larger telephone companies) to support more robust, fxed wireline, rural broadband infrastructure. Long-term reform eforts for the USF support provided to rural rate-of-return carriers are just beginning. HIGH-COST CENSUS BLOCKS IN PRICE-CAP TERRITORIES Te FCC is now implementing its long-term plan for the $1.8 billion in annual funding for price-cap carrier service areas, generally referred

80 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

to as “CAF Phase II” or simply “Phase II.” If a price-cap carrier declines to accept funds available to it (based on aggregate “model-based support”), these funds will become available for competitive bidding. A central element is the FCC’s adoption of new minimum broadband service speeds of 10 Mbps downstream/1 Mbps upstream for CAF Phase II, subject to upward adjustments in the future. Recipients of CAF Phase II funds must satisfy these minimum speeds and meet standards for latency and minimum monthly usage levels (the “baseline broadband ofering”). Te annual disbursement of Phase II funds is grounded in the FCC’s Connect America Fund Cost Model (CAM), which quantifed the cost for deploying broadband-capable networks in high-cost areas and identifed census blocks in which the unsubsidized cost of voice and broadband services exceeds $52.50 per month but is less than $207.81 per month. Census blocks in which the cost of service exceeds this upper boundary are referred to as “extremely high-cost areas.” Te FCC established a rural broadband experiment (RBE) program to gain experience in shaping the CAF II competitive bidding procedures and to see how entities other than local exchange carriers might deploy broadband in rural areas. Te FCC set aside $100 million for these experiments. Bids for these funds were tendered in 2014, and the FCC is fnalizing the grants to the selected winning bidders. STEP 1: MODEL-BASED OFFERS TO PRICE-CAP ILECS On April 29, 2015, the FCC extended model-based ofers, approximating $1.7 billion annually, on a state-bystate basis to each price-cap ILEC. Funds were ofered for all high-cost areas in each carrier’s service territories that were not served by unsubsidized competitors ofering broadband service at speeds of at least 4 Mbps/1 Mpbs. Each price-cap carrier must accept or decline these model-based ofers on or before August 27, 2015. Te carriers may accept all, some or none of the

The reverse auction is open to a wide range of entities, not just those currently eligible for high-cost support. Electric co-ops, municipalities and others may bid.

ofers. Most observers expect carriers to accept some ofers and decline others. As of press time, Frontier Communications had accepted all its statewide ofers for slightly more than $283 million in annual support. Carriers that accept this support must build out broadband infrastructure capable of delivering broadband speeds of 10 Mbps/1Mbps (and of meeting the other components of the baseline broadband ofering) to 40 percent of funded locations by the end of 2017, 60 percent by the end of 2018 and 100 percent by the end of 2020. STEP 2: COMPETITIVE BIDDING Te competitive bidding process will be a reverse auction conducted in 2016. Te FCC must fnalize the bid procedures and establish a bidding platform for this reverse auction. As noted above, the funds available for the reverse auction will equal the model-based statewide ofers that the price-cap ILECs decline. In all likelihood, the reserve price per bidding area (census tract or census block) will be the CAM-determined amount for the number of eligible locations. Competitive providers will have the opportunity to bid on those census blocks for which the price-cap carriers decline statewide, model-based ofers; competitive providers and pricecap ILECs will be able to bid on those high-cost areas that the FCC expressly excluded from the price-cap ofers (“other high-cost areas”). Tese other high-cost areas include census blocks in which subsidized or unsubsidized providers currently ofer broadband in excess of 4 Mbps/1 Mbps but less than 10 Mbps/1 Mbps as well as those in which RBE applicants JULY 2015

| www.broadbandcommunities.com

applied for funding for broadband at 100 Mbps/25 Mbps and met the basic fnancial and technical requirements but were not selected. Te number of these other high-cost areas is expected to be a small fraction of the areas subject to the statewide ofers. Potential bidders can bid on extremely high-cost areas as well as high-cost areas. Te FCC believes bidders should be able to defne their service territories so as to design the most efcient and scalable networks. A fnal list of census blocks to be included in the reverse auction will be compiled after August 27, 2015, as the FCC determines the model-based ofers accepted and rejected by the price-cap carriers. ASSUMPTIONS UNDERLYING THE REVERSE AUCTION Te FCC assumes that: • Price-cap carriers will decline enough ofers so that sufcient funds are available for the reverse auction. • Parties other than price-cap ILECs will bid. • Te cost to deploy modern networks capable of supporting voice service and broadband service that meets or exceeds the baseline broadband ofering in high-cost areas and extremely high-cost areas will be substantially less than the CAM costs. • Rules and procedures that are relatively straightforward and will encourage substantial participation can be devised for the reverse auction, and the auction platform can be designed, deployed, tested and ready for use in 2016. • Entities will bid despite the possibility that not all “winning bids” will be funded. | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

81

THE LAW The FCC recommends that CAF II recipients construct future-proof networks.

THE REVERSE AUCTION: EASIER SAID THAN DONE Each bidder will be allowed to select the census blocks for its bidding package, and it is likely that each bidder will be able to submit one or more bidding packages. Te reserve prices for the reverse auction will be the CAM-based prices for the census blocks bid. An open question is whether the minimum bidding unit will be a census block or census tract. A fundamental policy decision for the FCC is whether bids should be keyed to the baseline broadband ofering, with price being the determinative factor, or whether, as the FCC has indicated, greater value should be placed on bids that propose more robust broadband buildouts, such as 100 Mbps/25 Mbps. Te FCC has also expressed a strong preference for multiround bidding.

R E G I S T E R N OW ! Fiber For The New Economy

Community Toolkit Program Lexington, KY September 15-18, 2015

& Economic Development Conference Series

To Exhibit or Sponsor contact: Irene G. Prescott [email protected] | 505-867-3299 877-588-1649 | www.bbcmag.com

Devising a multiround bidding procedure for variously defned bid packages for which geographic service areas will likely be diferent and in many cases will overlap may well be the most signifcant challenge in developing the bidding procedures. WHO IS QUALIFIED? Te reverse auction is open to a wide range of entities, not only to those currently qualifed to receive CAF funds. All CAF II recipients must qualify as eligible telecommunications carriers (ETCs) under Section 214 of the Communications Act. A selected bidder will be permitted to obtain its ETC certifcation after being selected as a winning bidder, either from its state public service commission or, if the state declines jurisdiction to grant ETC status, from the FCC. Bidders must show minimum fnancial and technical competence. Tese showings will be patterned after the showings adopted under the rural broadband experiment program. A letter of credit from a qualifed fnancial institution will be required. Te FCC is currently evaluating proposals to expand the scope of qualifed fnancial institutions and to adjust the amount of the letter of credit that must be maintained for the 10-year funding period. PROGRESS REPORTS Winning bidders will likely be subject to the same fve-year broadband buildout schedule required for price-cap carriers that accept model-based support. Moreover, the evolving broadband speed standard will apply to all CAF II recipients. Because of this, the FCC strongly recommends that CAF II recipients construct “future-proof networks that are capable of meeting future demand.” All recipients of CAF II monies will be required to submit annual reports beginning the frst year after receiving the initial disbursement. Te reports will describe the extent to which the service provider is meeting its current deployment milestone, providing broadband at the speeds committed to in its winning bid (which are subject to potential upward adjustment by the FCC) and providing voice and broadband service at “reasonably comparable” rates. Te failure to meet deployment milestones will subject the service provider to reductions in support that will not be restored until the milestone is met. CAF II recipients are also obligated to bid on all posted bids for E-Rate funding issued by schools and libraries located within their service territories. As the CAF II recipients must provide voice service, and as broadband Internet access is now regulated as a “telecommunications service” under the FCC’s Open Internet Order, successful bidders in the reverse auction will be subject to the federal and state regulations, fling requirements, FCC fees and contribution obligations, such as contributing to the Universal Service Fund, applicable to telecommunications carriers. v Douglas Jarrett, a partner in the law frm Keller and Heckman LLP, practices telecommunications law in Washington, D.C. Contact him at [email protected].

82 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

BROADBAND APPS

Distributed Work Centers Broadband is more than just Internet access. To take full advantage of broadband’s benefts, communities must broaden their broadband horizons. By Michael B. Shear / Strategic Ofce Networks

T

he greatest opportunity to create competitive, sustainable communities lies in understanding how to adapt to the revolution and character of information technologies rather than merely applying these technologies to the current ways of doing things. Te creation of the Internet is, without question, one of the most powerful constructs of broadband and Internet technologies. However, one negative consequence of the Internet’s rapid growth and adoption is that it obscures other potentially innovative ways to assemble and apply its pieces. In other words, people can’t see the broadband for the Internet. Addressing critical community needs with broadband requires two essential changes in the way people think and behave. Tey must • Understand the ability of broadband technologies to distribute information and the benefts of identifying aggregate community and regional requirements to attain economic efciencies • Tink about broadband technologies beyond Internet connectivity and consider focused applications of, and adaptations to, their unique distribution character. BROADBAND PLANNING FROM THE COMMUNITY OUT To be viable in today’s economy, every community requires a core set of elements to a greater or lesser degree. Jobs and access to jobs: To grow, communities have long relied on one approach –

attracting jobs by attracting employers one at a time. Tis approach pits neighboring communities against one another; in addition, relying on one or several major employers is often devastating when the employer moves, is acquired or goes out of business. As jobs move, so do people. Moreover, for many households, fnding, fnancing, owning and selling homes has become more problematic. People make decisions about where to live by balancing the cost and afordability of a home against the desirability of its community and its proximity to job opportunities. Education: Access to quality, afordable education at all levels has become more fundamental to the economy and society. Education no longer stops after graduation from high school or even from college; rather, lifelong education is needed to sustain and grow a career. Academic and technical schools can stimulate economic growth. Well-planned community networks permit widespread deployment of distance learning centers that provide access to advanced technology tools. Medical services: Te need for medical services is growing as the population ages. Timely access to quality medical services will greatly enhance quality of life through telemedicine and networks of remote clinics. Government and public services: As community revenues fall, leaders seek costefective approaches to inform the public and respond to its needs. Telecommunications

84 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

plays a central role in coordinating deployment of personnel and resources. Afordable housing: Few communities can exist unless afordable housing is available to a broad socioeconomic spectrum. Diversity of the workforce is necessary. As people’s social and economic lives become dependent on information and communications technologies, communities require both housing options and afordable, high-speed connectivity. Basic infrastructure: Key building blocks of today’s society include roads, transit, water, sewer, electricity and information technologies. Information infrastructure has a unique status in that it performs monitoring and control functions for the other infrastructures. ADAPTING TO NEW TECHNOLOGIES Achieving maximum social and economic benefts from advanced information and communications networks requires assessing aggregate community demands for information technologies and identifying opportunities to adapt. One likely place to start is the location of jobs. Jobs and job access are crucial to economic and social vitality. Communities and individuals spend a great deal of time and resources on one

“It is adaptive rather than allocative efciency which is the key to long run growth. Successful political/economic systems have evolved fexible institutional structures that can survive the shocks and changes that are a part of successful evolution. But these systems have been a product of long gestation. We do not know how to create adaptive efciency in the short run.” – Douglass C. North, “Economic Performance Through Time,” 1993 Economics Nobel Prize lecture

Locating workplaces in hubs distributed across metropolitan areas yields benefts of many types..

method of getting people to work – transit and transportation. Many people believed that greater Internet access would provide congestion relief by allowing teleworking. Unfortunately, current remote work processes have not yielded the congestion mitigation impact expected or necessary given the rate of growth occurring in many major metropolitan areas. If these information technologies are so transformative that they quickly move jobs across the globe, why not apply them to help reduce congestion and the substantial costs it imposes? Tree key institutional behaviors stand in the way: • Communities’ bidding against one another and incenting employers to locate in specifc places • Employers’ selecting a single location for a work site • Te way “solutions” are identifed for transportation in extended metropolitan areas and for rural development All these models are largely fxed in the past. JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

Some advocates of telework believe everyone should work from home or from a cofee shop. A portion of the workforce is successful using home workspaces. However, the data regarding the potential for remote working is clear: Only a small percentage of the potential remote workforce can or will work remotely under the current approaches. Te lower-than-expected level of telework participation is often attributed to middle-management resistance. However, given the complex, changing dynamics of the workplace, it is more likely that there is no one problem. Rather, there are a number of issues associated with the way people work, their behaviors at work, the nature of social (not cybersocial) interaction and the real need for the majority of people to preserve a separation of work life and home life. Remote working, or teleworking, has remained predominantly a privilege of the better-educated, higher-paid and senior employees of most organizations. For the vast majority of potential remote | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

85

BROADBAND APPS On any given day, fewer than 3 million of the 120 million daily commuters in the United States are working remotely. Home ofces and telework centers don’t work for most people.

workers, the daily commute is the only way to get to the job and keep the job. Of the approximately 120 million daily commuters in the United States, about 45 million to 50 million are knowledge workers – meaning they theoretically could perform their jobs from anywhere. On any given day, however, fewer than 3 million of them do work from home or remotely. Telework or drop-in centers work for some people. Certain communities have incubators that cater to entrepreneurs. However, society has yet to discover a model for the vast majority of knowledge workers. DISTRIBUTED WORKPLACE Distributed workplace is a community work model that seeks to change the current single-location workplace

model of major area employers and their workers by distributing and localizing access to more jobs. It is a network of strategically based work centers, each supporting multiple suites. Each suite is dedicated to, perhaps, 25 to 200 employees from one company or agency. With a dozen or more tenant organizations, each work center supports 300 to 2,000 employees. Each work center connects to other work centers and each employer’s primary location using dedicated, secure broadband technologies. Leveraging economies of scale, a central support technical staf provides infrastructure, training and security to all the work center clients. An employee can work for a major business or government

How a distributed work pilot program might be set up in a metropolitan area

86 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

employer in the metropolitan area or region from a networked work center located in his or her community. Broadband technologies such as virtual presence make it easy to meet with colleagues in other workplaces, and cloud services allow employees to share systems. Tese strategic ofce networks can achieve economies of scale and create secure, scalable platforms for rapid geographic expansion to other suburban and rural communities, providing residents local access to jobs. In addition, there are peripheral economic incentives to develop distributed work centers that extend employment opportunities to parttime working parents, students and individuals with disabilities. Locating work centers in residential communities puts underutilized commercial real estate to work and can improve employee productivity and employers’ abilities to attract, retain, mentor and manage quality employees. Distributed workplace is a permanent deployment of employees that produces measurable and predictable reduction in transportation congestion while immediately converting gasoline dollars into “local economy” dollars. Furthermore, this new approach can provide higher-level security and privacy for data, systems and employees than do current methods. Distributed work centers can do for area employers what retail malls did for retailers in the past – expand access. In this case, rather than expanding access to customers, they expand access to knowledge workers from a greater number of communities throughout the area. Te architecture for distributed workplace networks and communitybased centers is designed to integrate the other essential building blocks of distance learning, telemedicine, day care and after-school programs, government services and emergency preparedness based upon the needs of each community. Creation of networked centers not only enhances access to existing jobs but also creates

Possible locations for distributed work centers in the Baltimore-Washington area

new technology jobs to support this infrastructure. Te multilocation, distributed workplace model takes advantage of the changing nature of work and balances deployment with security and management oversight while enhancing economic growth and competitiveness. As an adjunct to transportation, transit and land use planning, this broadband methodology may ofer more timely relief, may be expanded in a shorter period and can easily be extended into exurban and rural communities. FEDERAL LEADERSHIP In communities where the federal government is a major employer, government agencies can take the lead in creating distributed workplaces. For all the pressures to change, including congressional legislation to support telework, most agency

and department heads have been unsuccessful at attaining acceptable levels of remote work compliance (currently less than 20 percent of the 2004 objective). Although these are discretionary laws, increased emphasis on cybersecurity, emergency preparedness and continuity of operations planning requires a more efective and strategic workforce deployment strategy. At a time when pay freezes and high gasoline prices afect federal workers the most, a distributed workplace initiative can provide an equitable method to improve their condition. By adapting an aggregated approach to the needs of agencies and departments, the federal government has the opportunity to reduce real estate and IT infrastructure costs and increase security and control while positioning federal employees to be vastly more JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

efective to deal with emergency situations. Not all emergencies provide advance warning or can be predicted. Many agency and department heads argue the efectiveness of the work-from-home approach to address emergencies but do not diferentiate between, for example, forecasted snow outages (notifcation events) and terrorist attacks (non-notifcation events). Current telework practices result in less than 3 percent of the federal workforce working remotely on any given day (and that is not the same 3 percent every day). In an event of a non-notifcation emergency, the likelihood is that too few employees will be positioned to respond and that they may be precluded from being efective because of interruptions in power and connectivity. Depending on where a ground-zero event occurs, federal employees will likely face the | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

87

BROADBAND APPS Federal, state and local government agencies, as well as government contractors, law frms, insurance companies and call centers, would be good candidates for distributed work.

daunting challenge to evacuate, arrive at an alternative work facility (most likely home) and ensure that power and connectivity are available for them to operate under these circumstances. Given these realities, the federal government as employer is in a unique position to lead by example by working with communities to demonstrate a more holistic application of information and communications technologies. A pilot project could start with three to fve locations in a metropolitan area – or even with one.

CONCLUSION Now is the time for communities to seize the opportunity to efectively use broadband technologies to increase their competitiveness and sustainability. Assessing the geographic distribution of a region’s knowledge-based workforce and major area employers is a frst step; another is identifying key chokepoints that could beneft from reduction of trafc congestion. Communities with a federal employment presence have a particularly good opportunity to work with their congressional delegations

88 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

and federal managers to create distributed workplace centers. Ultimately, these centers can include private-sector as well as state and local employers. Communities without a federal presence can work with local employers and real estate owners to establish distributed workplace centers. Organizations that have knowledge workers or clerical workers who spend substantial time at the computer or on the phone – government contractors, insurance companies, fnancial services, major law frms and even call center operations – would be good candidates for distributed work. v Michael B. Shear, founder of Strategic Ofce Networks LLC and of the nonproft Broadband Planning Initiative, has more than three decades of experience in bringing new technologies and services to market. You can reach him at mshear@ pocketsnet.com.

Subscribe today. FREE to those who qualify. Broadband Communities continues to be the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities.

In every issue, we ofer in-depth news, expert insights, and practical know-how on all aspects of outftting properties and communities with broadband solutions. Our editorial aims to accelerate the deployment to Fiber-To-The-Home and Fiber-To-The-Premises while keeping readers up to date on the available solutions capable of serving their practical needs.

Original Research • Trusted Reports Latest Trends • Industry News Every issue is flled with valuable articles on

Technology • Finance • Law • Marketing www.bbcmag.com/subscribe • 877.588.1649

TECHNOLOGY

Optical Fiber in the Living Unit The advantages of indoor ONTs have a created a need to place fber inside living units. The challenge: installing the fber invisibly with no disruption to residents. By Anurag Jain and John George / OFS

D

uring a recent fber-to-the-home installation in Brazil, installers heard feedback that has become familiar over the years. “We don’t want to see it,” said an 18-year-old resident, frmly paraphrasing his mother’s instructions to the installers. And he added another requirement often heard from residents in solid concrete buildings: “Tere can be no drilling or damage to any of the walls.” After the installers promptly explained the process and showed the InvisiLight indoor optical fber kit, the young resident had no difculty understanding the simple process or envisioning the attractive result, and he gave the installer the green light to proceed under his watchful eye. Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and fber-to-thebusiness (FTTB) deployments are accelerating globally, and 147 million subscribers are now fber-connected. Te current trend is to install optical fber inside a living unit to an indoor optical network terminal (ONT), which requires fber in the home (FITH). OFS launched the InvisiLight solution in 2012 to enable fast, virtually invisible fber

Running fber to an ONT centrally located inside a residence enables the provision of excellent Wi-Fi coverage and bandwidth to many in-home devices.

installation to indoor ONTs. Today there are more than 50,000 InvisiLight installations worldwide in multiple-dwelling-unit properties, residential single-family units and business premises. An indoor solution of this kind diferentiates a provider’s service ofering, improves subscriber acceptance (which yields a higher take rate) and speeds up time to revenue for the service provider. Figure 1 shows an example of an InvisiLight installation map and actual provider installation pictures. ADVANTAGES OF FIBER IN THE HOME Service providers are increasingly locating an ONT inside each living unit to help meet the growing need for speed. Many providers now deliver a gigabit connection to each subscriber, and some plan to ofer 10 Gbps connections in the next generation. Content providers, such as Netfix, recommend a 25 Mbps connection to accommodate a single 4K video stream. Soon to come is 8K video, with possibly 50 to 100 Mbps recommended per stream. In addition, the number of connected devices per home is projected to quadruple in the next fve years, and even more bandwidth will be needed per device for consumer and business applications. Te number of devices that will support streaming video, voice, security video surveillance, data, gaming or home and appliance automation is projected to increase from fve today to 20 per household by 2020. Cost and wireless coverage are also driving fber into the home. When fber is run to an

90 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

Figure 1: (a) InvisiLight installation map example; (b) InvisiLight installation examples

indoor ONT centrally located in a residence, a co-located wireless router can provide excellent coverage and bandwidth to a large number of inhome devices. Compared with placing ONTs outdoors, this approach allows the use of lower-cost, non-hardened ONTs and enables much easier access

to electrical power. Using indoor ONTs ofers the option to integrate an ONT, a residential gateway and even a wireless router into one device. How can a service provider get fber into a living unit cost-efectively, and how can it persuade subscribers to accept this arrangement? JULY 2015

| www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

91

TECHNOLOGY continuous adhesive bead to confne and protect the fber. Many service providers have determined this to be the optimum approach for many subscribers.

Figure 2: InvisiLight installation steps and benefts

FTTH solutions consist of central ofce or headend components, outside plant and drop cables that take optical fber to homes or buildings. Tere is no cookie cutter solution for FTTH, as each deployment has unique needs, and FITH is no exception. Although in some living units, an indoor ONT location may be optimally reached by ultra-bendinsensitive 3 mm cords pulled through existing conduit or behind open walls to outlets, many others don’t have such pathways accessible. Ducts may not exist or may be blocked; walls may be solid or flled with obstacles. When no pathways were available, installers typically tried to staple 5 mm-diameter cables to walls inside living units, but this caused another major problem: Up to 15 percent of prospective subscribers canceled service orders because of the visual appearance

of the cables. Tis cost service providers revenue and wasted truck rolls. Te OFS innovation team considered many options to address this pain point, and they eventually created a solution that blends seamlessly with the décor, is fast and easy to install, provides reliable service and is happily accepted by subscribers. Te solution uses a process similar to caulking to attach a tiny fber in the grooves between ceilings and walls, baseboards and walls, and corners between walls. Te fber used has the best available tight bending performance (2.5 mm radius) to wrap around what can be dozens of corners along a path to an ONT without breaking or incurring service-disrupting bend loss. Te resulting solution, called InvisiLight, enables easy, reliable fber installation in these pathways using a

92 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

A SIMPLE INSTALLATION PROCESS Te installation process is simple and intuitive. First, an installer places a small module, called a spool module, near the desired ONT location – usually close to a power outlet. Te installer then presses a small spool of factory-terminated EZBend 900 micron bufered fber onto an axle in the spool module and pulls one of the connectors to spool out enough fber to reach another small module placed where fber enters the living unit. Te spool module includes auto slack management so one spool part number can support fber lengths up to 132 feet. Next, the installer lays a safe, water-based adhesive bead along the pathway and presses the fber into the adhesive so it’s fully secured and protected along its entire length. Te spool module is then connected into an ONT, which is usually paired with a wireless router or a set-top box. Te adhesive dries clear within 30 minutes without leaving any stains. Te optical fber itself is tiny (less than 1 mm in diameter) and blends into the décor as it is nearly invisible to the human eye. It can be painted or caulked over if the subscriber chooses to do so. Tis simple process can place fber deep into a living unit without disrupting the décor or the resident and is very quick for installers. Because installation requires only simple skills, service providers have fexibility in utilizing an existing workforce or outsourcing, and they can minimize training costs by adopting the intuitive process shown in Figure 2, which installers easily learn by watching a training video. COMPARISON OF INDOOR SOLUTIONS OFS introduced the InvisiLight solution in 2012 after considering many diferent possibilities for installing optical fber inside living units. InvisiLight does not require electrical power or batteries, it uses a reliable adhesive system and it has

been tested to ensure that the fber stays in place and maintains an attractive appearance after aging and exposure to light and cleaning fuids. In the rare cases in which optical fber has to be removed or rerouted (for example, minor wall repairs), InvisiLight fber can be peeled back using a simple process without damaging the surface. In addition, it can be passed through or behind walls. Table 1 compares several indoor fber solutions on the market on several key attributes, based on published information. Readers can determine which factors are most important for them and choose the most appropriate solutions to ft their needs.

InvisiLight fber can be peeled back from the wall, if necessary, without damaging the surface.

happy new subscriber, joining tens of thousands of others worldwide. v

South Africa report that their lowskilled installers can be quickly trained to complete an installation in about 30 minutes or less, depending upon the size and type of living unit. Fiber-connected subscribers are forecast to increase to 600 million in 10 years, and indoor ONTs are becoming the norm. Now there is a simple, accepted, virtually invisible, robust solution available to connect these users to gigabit speeds. “Te installation is amazing. I cannot even see it,” exclaimed the

ADOPTION HAS JUST BEGUN Multiple service providers in the United States, Canada, South America and

Anurag Jain is the marketing manager responsible for the FOX Solution Fiber to the Home and Business portfolio at OFS. He can be reached at ajain@ofsoptics. com. John George is director of solutions and professional services at OFS. He can be reached at [email protected]. Please visit OFS at www.ofsoptics.com to learn more about the FOX Solution, case studies and information on fber to and into the home.

ATTRIBUTES

INVISILIGHT SOLUTION

TAPE SOLUTION

THERMAL SOLUTION

TAPE CLIP/ADHESIVE SOLUTION

Year Introduced

2012

2010

2014

2013

Size / Décor Impact

0.9 mm Negligible

8 mm Signifcant

0.9 mm Negligible

0.9 mm Negligible

Fiber Attachment

Adhesive along entire length

Tape along entire length

Precoated, feld-heated adhesive along entire length

Fiber suspended between numerous tape-backed clips and adhesive dots.

Handheld tool applies very thin bead. Fiber is pressed into adhesive, dries clear.

Handheld applicator presses tape into place while peeling backing. Wings of tape are cut out at corners.

Handheld heating and application tool (230 degrees F)

Clips are pressed on, and fber is pressed into clips. Adhesive tubes are used to apply dots to fber between clips.

Facilitates passing through or behind walls

Yes

No

No

No

Power required

No

No

Yes – batteries, typically changed or recharged after each installation

No

Installation time

1X

2X

1.3X

1X

Repositionable

Yes

Not recommended

Yes

Yes

2.5 mm

5 mm

5 mm

5 mm

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Tools and Attachment Process

Fiber minimum bend radius (smaller is better) Paintable Plug and play, both ends factory terminated and tested

Yes – facilitated by auto slack management on spool

No – requires feld-mounted No – requires feld-mounted connector or fusion splice and connector or fusion splice and associated precision tooling associated precision tooling

No – requires feld-mounted connector or fusion splice and associated precision tooling

Table 1: Comparison of several indoor fber solutions currently on the market JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

93

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 [email protected].

REGISTER NOW! Community Toolkit Program Lexington, KY | September 15-18, 2015

& Economic Development Conference Series

877-588-1649 | www.bbcmag.com

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

April 5 – 7, 2016

Renaissance Hotel – Austin, Texas

DELIVERING TELECOM RESULTS THAT EXCEED EXPECTATIONS FOR OVER 22 YEARS ibhc.com

Bill Brungardt, P.E. Utilities Services Director 913.663.1900

Allen Meyer Project Initiatives Manager 913.663.1900

94 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015

ADVERTISER INDEX / CALENDAR ADVERTISER

PAGE

WEBSITE

AT&T

94

www.att.com/livedigitally

BroadBand Communities Magazine

89

www.bbcmag.com

BroadBand Communities Summit Outside Front Cover Flap, 18 – 21, 94

www.bbcmag.com

BHC Rhodes

94

www.ibhc.com

Black & Veach

9

www.bv.com/telecom

Calix

31

www.calix.com/gigabit

49, 94

www.seeclearfeld.com

Comcast

Back Cover

www.xfnity.com/ xfnitycommunities

Corning

61

http://opcomm.corning.com/ CentrixBuzz

COS Systems

74

www.cossystems.com/ service-zones

Clearfeld, Inc.

Cox

3

www.cox.com

DrayTek

91

www.draytek.com

Economic Development & Community Toolkit Conference – Lexington, KY Inside Front Cover Flap – 1, 12, 73, 82, 94 www.TownsAndTech.com ETI Software Solutions

17

www.etisoftware.com

Fiberdyne

75

www.fberdyne.com

GLDS

27

www.glds.com

Henkels & McCoy

47

www.henkels.com

Hotwire Communications

25

www.hotwire communications.com

Lite Access Technologies

65

www.liteaccess.com

Mapcom

7

www.mapcom.com

MasTec

88

www.mastec.com

Inside Back Cover

www.matrixdg.com / www.millenniuminc.com

OFS

13

www.ofsoptics.com

On Trac

51

www.ontrac.com

Pavlov Media

5

www.pavlovmedia.com

Preformed Line Products

33

www.preformed.com

Power & Tel Supply

94

www.ptsupply.com

Smithville Fiber

59

www.smithville.com

Walker and Associates

83

www.walkerfrst.com

Wide Open Networks

71

www.wideopennetworks.us

Millennium Inc.

JULY 2015

|

www.broadbandcommunities.com

JUNE 29 – July 1 FTTH Connect Anaheim Convention Center Anaheim, CA 202-367-1173 • www.ftthconnect.org JULY 20 – 22 mHealth + Telehealth World Seaport Hotel • Boston, MA 800-767-9499 www.worldcongress.com/mHealth SEPTEMBER 15 – 17 Community Fiber Networks BroadBand Communities Economic Development Conference Hilton Lexington/Downtown Lexington, KY 877-588-1649 • www.bbcmag.com 28 – 30 NMHC Student Housing Conference & Exposition Arizona Biltmore • Phoenix, AZ 202-974-2300 • www.nmhc.org 29 – Oct 1 ECOC 2015 European Conference on Optical Communication Valencia, Spain + 33 (0) 169 81 6574 www.ecoc2015.org OCTOBER 13 – 16 SCTE Cable-Tec Expo New Orleans, LA 800-542-5040 • www.expo.scte.org NOVEMBER 17 – 19 NMHC OpTech Hyatt Regency • Chicago, IL 703-518-6141 • www.naahq.org FEBRUARY 2016 16 – 17 NAA Student Housing Conference & Exposition Hilton San Diego Bayfront San Diego, CA 202-974-2300 • www.nmhc.org APRIL 2016 5–7 BroadBand Communities Summit Renaissance Hotel • Austin, TX 877-588-1649 • www.bbcmag.com

| BROADBAND COMMUNITIES |

95

THE GIGABIT HIGHWAY

FTTH Boosts Home Values A new study commissioned by the FTTH Council Americas shows that access to fber-delivered Internet boosts home values by up to 3.1 percent. By Heather Burnett Gold / FTTH Council Americas

I

n June, the Fiber to the Home Council Americas released a white paper that showed access to fber may increase a home’s value by up to 3.1 percent. Using the National Broadband Map and a nationwide sample of real estate prices from 2011 to 2013, the study’s authors investigated the relationship between fber-delivered Internet services and housing prices. Te boost to the value of a typical home – $5,437 – is roughly equivalent to adding a freplace, half a bathroom or a quarter of a swimming pool to the home. Te new study found that, for homes where 1 Gbps broadband was available, transaction prices were more than 7 percent higher than for homes located where the highest speed available is 25 Mbps or lower.

Community C i TToolkit lki P Program & Economic Development Conference Series The FTTH Council’s Community Toolkit helps cities get a jump-start on the gigabit highway. Don’t miss the Community Toolkit Program in Lexington, September 16 and 17.

Te study adds to a growing body of research that demonstrates the consumer benefts from widespread access to fber broadband Internet. A number of studies have linked broadband networks and new investments in such networks to improved economic performance. Te speed and reliability that fber provides ofer further benefts. Most recently, in 2014, the FTTH Council released a study that found higher per capita GDP in communities where gigabit Internet was available. Infrastructure investment, job creation, entrepreneurship, and business relocation or expansion are all manifestations of this growth. Te evidence is mounting: Investment in fber improves the economic performance of a community as well as its quality of life. Around the United States, local leaders have started to think about how Internet infrastructure in their communities catalyzes economic, educational and governmental innovation. v Heather Burnett Gold is president and CEO of the Fiber to the Home Council Americas, a nonproft association whose mission is to accelerate deployment of all-fber access networks. You can contact her at [email protected]. 96 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JULY 2015