ftth – Page 15 – Steve Blum's Blog

If you don't believe Google Fiber is serious about city cooperation, maybe you'll listen to AT&T

10 March 2014 by Steve Blum
att, austin, broadband, dallas, ftth, google fiber, public policy

The odds of attracting FTTH investment depends on a lot more than luck.

AT&T was jolted into finding a fiber-to-the-home business case in Austin after Google Fiber said it was making the Texas capital and surrounding suburbs its next stop after Kansas City. But regardless of how it happened, AT&T is now singing in the FTTH choir. According to Fierce Telecom, CEO Randall Stephenson told an investment conference audience that the initiative, branded “Gigapower” is ready to roll out in Dallas this summer and other cities where it makes sense…

The market adoption and the performance of our U-verse Gigapower technology has been very, very encouraging…in fact, we’re so encouraged that we want to begin taking this to other communities.

… More

Google publishes broadband manifesto for cities

9 March 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, ftth, google, google fiber, public policy

In Kansas City, my crews don’t wait for inspectors, the inspectors wait for them. We work with communities that make it easy for us. If you make it hard on us, enjoy your cable connection.
Milo Medin, head of Google Fiber, 24 October 2013.

If you want Google to run fiber through your city, be prepared to clear the path. That’s the message Google delivered to the 34 cities that it’s considering for the next round of fiber to the home build-outs last month.… More

Eastern Sierra consortium presents plans for building broadband out from Digital 395

8 March 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, cpuc, digital 395, escrbc, ftth, mediacom, public policy, race telecommunications, regional consortia, schat, verizon

Click for the full presentation

With the Digital 395 fiber optic backbone complete – running more than 500 miles from from Reno down the eastern side of California to Barstow – the focus in the region is on hooking up last mile broadband projects and extending middle connectivity to areas it doesn’t reach.

Julie Langou, the project manager for the Eastern Sierra Connect Regional Broadband Consortium, presented a plan for building out from the Digital 395 fiber route at the annual meeting of regional broadband consortia in Sacramento earlier this week.… More

To get a gigabit from Google, cities need processing speed

26 February 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, ftth, google, public policy, santa cruz

Not to Google spec either.

Google has handed a fiber-ready checklist to 34 cities in 8 states, including five in California. Not just anywhere in California, but smack in the middle of Silicon Valley. You’d think that if there was any metro area in the state that would zip through Google’s homework, it would be the likes of San Jose, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Santa Clara and Palo Alto.

No need to guess, though. With Google setting a deadline of 1 May 2014 for cities to provide the information and accommodations requested, we’ll soon find out if there’s any hope for the Golden State.… More

Google joins FCC chair in waving the muni broadband flag at incumbents

21 February 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, community networks, fcc, ftth, google, public policy

Call it motivation.

Google is stoking the fires of gigabit demand and keeping the heat on major cable and telephone companies with its announcement that it’s talking to 34 more cities about fiber-to-the-home projects. That’s completely consistent with a strategy of goading incumbents into upgrades that they’d prefer not to do. Whether it’s the also the first step in a national roll out remains to be seen.

There’s no actual promise to build, as Google makes very clear…

We hope to bring Google Fiber to every city on this list, but there are a few circumstances that might make it tough and even impossible to build our Fiber network in a city…If a city doesn’t want to proceed with us and chooses not to complete their checklist, we won’t be able to bring them Google Fiber.

… More

Speeding up VDSL eases pressure for fiber

18 February 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, ftth, geek stuff, vdsl

Building up from VDSL.

There’s an ongoing debate over whether fiber to the home technology is necessary, given recent progress in boosting speeds over copper wires. In particular, advanced DSL technologies – VDSL2 vectoring and pair bonding – has developed to the point where routine 50 Mbps service is possible for many telco-served homes, and commercially feasible speeds of 100 Mbps or better are on the horizon. I’m not counting market stunts as general examples.

Some analysts are blurring the distinction, lumping pure FTTH in with fiber to the node (FTTN) or fiber to the last amplified (FTTLA).… More

FCC rural broadband experiment explained, for now

13 February 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, community networks, fcc, ftth, public policy, rural broadband experiment

Seeking logical expressions of interest.

The details of a federal initiative to fund high speed broadband trials in rural areas of the U.S. are becoming clearer. The chief of the FCC’s office of strategic planning and policy analysis, Jonathan Chambers, offered some insight about the initial phase of the program during a webinar this morning, organised by the National Rural Assembly.

“Can we do better for rural Americans than is currently being contemplated?” Chambers asked.… More

CenturyLink stokes fiber demand in Utah

6 February 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, centurylink, community networks, fiber to the basement, ftth, google fiber, utah

Picking the Utah state fruit.

Salt Lake City businesses will be getting gigabit service from CenturyLink soon, according to a company press release. It’s a follow-on to its fiber-to-the-home experiment in Omaha and its gigabit business service push in Las Vegas. Although CenturyLink doesn’t seem to be running quite as scared as AT&T, which is rushing to roll out FTTH service in Austin, it’s a fair bet that it’s feeling the heat from Google Fiber in Provo and the recently refinanced Utopia system, both just a short drive down Interstate 15.… More

Wanaka speeds ahead in New Zealand Gigatown contest

31 January 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, community networks, ftth, gigatownwka

Jumping on board the Gigatown Wanaka bus.

New Zealand communities are slugging it out to become the country’s first “Gigatown”. It’s part of a national government sponsored effort to build out a fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) network to something like two-thirds of New Zealand homes and businesses.

Would-be Gigatowns are competing via social media to be “the first town in the Southern hemisphere to access a one gigabit per second (1Gbps) internet connection”. The more mentions on Facebook, Twitter and other designated social media sites, the higher a community ranks.… More

Motorola sale sets a benchmark for judging Google's fiber strategy

30 January 2014 by Steve Blum
broadband, ftth, google, lenovo, motorola

As long as it takes, but no longer.

There’re two ways to look at Google’s decision to unload its Motorola handset business to Lenovo for $2.9 billion. It’s either a long overdue retreat and admission of failure, or it’s a model for gauging what Google will do with other hardware projects and acquisitions.

Getting past the “they shoulda done it sooner” carping, what Google did was snap up Motorola and chew on it a bit, before digesting what it craves – patents, expertise and operational experience – and spitting out the rest.… More