Communications Technology Sample Issue

Verizon CTO Rallies FTTH Crowd

Verizon EVP and CTO Richard Lynch told Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Conference attendees that his company did right by deploying fiber to homes five years ago.

“From where we sit today, that decision made perfect sense, ” Lynch said in his keynote address at the Houston event, which this year drew 1,700 attendees and 100 exhibitors.

Lynch said Verizon is on track to pass 15 million homes by the end of 2009 and has achieved 28 percent sales penetration for its FiOS high-speed data service and 28 percent for TV service.

Verizon added 300,000 customers in both categories last quarter. Total numbers amount to 3.1 million Internet and 2.1 million video customers.

“We are the sixth largest ‘cable TV’ network,” Lynch said. “Closing fast on number five.”

The telecommunications giant, which

generated $96 billion in revenue in 2008, learned several lessons along its all-optical path. Lynch shared five:

“Lesson number one. Any change will be met with resistance.” Lynch focused on external detractors, those who doubted consumer demand, Verizon’s business model or the maturity of fiber technologies.

“When challenged by a technology innovation, competitors would comment that they already have it.” While Verizon’s competitors created “confusion and apathy, ” real customers “promoted FiOS by word of mouth.”

“Herding cats is possible, but only if you think like a cat.” Here Lynch indicated that Verizon went feline. “We had to change our culture….After all, there were people who still believed that copper was OK.”

“When faced with monumental changes, innovative companies need innovative sup-

J:COM Deploys “N” Gateway

Japanese MSO Jupiter Telecommunications (J:COM) has deployed a DOCSIS 3.0 802.11n cable gateway.

It’s the first customer for NETGEAR’s CG3200D, according to the vendor. The gateway enables the service provider to deliver up to 160 Mbps of data in the highly competitive Japanese residential broadband market.

J:COM provides cable television, high-speed Internet, fixed telephony, and mobile communications. The newly ratified 802.11n standard enables very fast wireless local area networking.

"We displayed the North American version at the CableLabs Summer Conference in August," said David James, director of product management for NETGEAR, in a statement.

The CG3200D supports DOCSIS 3.0
channel bonding, Internet Protocol version

6 (IPv6) and is backwards compatible with DOCSIS 2.0 and DOCSIS 1.1. It supports remote management and provisioning, simple plug-in installation, and manage-ability with SNMP.

The device also offers 802.11n wireless and Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports so users can use their high-speed WAN and LAN connections.

In July, Rogers launched a DOCSIS 3.0 801.11n router along with a 50 Mbps download Internet service.

In mid-September, after six years of drafting, the IEEE ratified the 802.11n amendment to the popular 802.11 WiFi standard. According to the IEEE, more than 1 million 802.11 units ship per day. Ratification of "n" is expected to accelerate the rollout of more scalable WLANs that deliver 10 times greater throughputs than were previously defined.

pliers to rise to the occasion.” Lynch listed a range of solutions, from plug-and-play installation components to customized ONTs.

“When you rally your employees and customers around a noble cause, great things can happen.” The noble cause here being the “massive undertaking” of FiOS.

Home and more to-dos

Lynch targeted his comments toward things happening within the emerging home, some of which may contain as many as 30 digital devices. “This makes a home network look like a business network."

Among other unfinished tasks, Lynch mentioned technical standards (“There are nearly a dozen different standards for 3-D video”), energy efficiency, IMS-based application-awareness and deeper deployment of fiber into rural settings (“PON loop lengths up to 40km and beyond.”)

Cable
Show
to LA

The NCTA announced that The

Cable Show 2010 will be held May

11-13, 2010, as part of “Cable Connection - Spring” in Los Angeles.

This is NCTA’s first return to L.A. since its 1996 convention.

The 59th annual convention and international exposition will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center and the neighboring Nokia Theater. The Theatre is the site of entertainment industry events, including the Emmy Awards.