Comments (0)

By admin, February 7, 2012 11:42 pm

The Goat Whisperer posted a photo:

I documented the process for a training guide, but this is out first GPON unit. It’s the latest fiber to the home technology that we’re using. This process puts the modem/MTA outside of the customers’ residence connected to our CO with fiber, eliminating the modem/MTA inside the house as well as any RF conversion for internet or phone service. A CAT5 cable (going straight to the customers router), as well as the POTS lines for phone service and the coax for their TV all originate from here. It’s powered by 12VDC with an eight hour battery back-up.

Comments (0)

By cableunion, February 7, 2012 7:57 pm

Google (News – Alert) Fiber may sound a bit like a high-tech breakfast cereal, but it’s actually a multi-city experiment in super-fast Internet being conducted by the search giant.

Google announced the project not long ago in a blog post saying it had chosen Kansas City, Kansas as its first market, with plans to press into neighboring Kansas City, Missouri. The company began by first laying the down the “fiber backbone,” throughout the cities, and will proceed by beginning to connect homes to that backbone. This should allow some lucky customers to surf, stream, download and upload fast than the rest of us can think.

“As we build out Google Fiber, we’ll be taking thousands of miles of cables and stretching them across Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. Each cable contains many thin glass fibers, each about the width of a human hair. We’ll be taking these cables and weaving them into a fiber backbone—a completely new high speed infrastructure that will ultimately be carrying Kansas Citians’ data at speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have today.”

(No, I’m not sure “Kansas Citians” is a real word, either.)

While Google broadens the venture in the Midwest, it’s also broadening manpower on the project at its home office. Business Insider is reporting that the company is “hiring like crazy” for the Google Fiber experiment in its headquarters in Mountain View, California, job postings in LinkedIn (News – Alert) have shown. A spokesperson told Business Insider that these new engineers will be working on getting the Kansas City network up and running, rather than working on new cities.

So if you’re lucky enough to get an early connection to Google Fiber, what will you get out of it? In addition to super-fast Internet, there are rumors that Google intends to bring pay TV services to some customers with a mind toward providing badly needed competition for cable providers.

Google recently hired a former cable executive, Jeremy Stern, to talk to content providers, says Business Insider; its planned purchase of Motorola (News – Alert) Mobility could give it technology for use in TV set top boxes.

Tracey Schelmetic is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Tracey’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell

Comments (0)

By cableunion, February 7, 2012 11:27 am

ADVA Optical Networking (News – Alert) has launched a new User Network Interface (UNI) for its Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) control plane, RAYcontrol.

With the new functionality, users can seamlessly unite packet optical networks with optical transport technology. Thanks to this latest launch, RAYcontrol can now encapsulate the optical transport domain into a virtual topology and expose available resources to a packet domain, according to company officials.

Christoph Glingener, chief technology officer at ADVA Optical Networking, said that, with the addition of the GMPLS UNI, RAYcontrolTM answers one of the most critical needs in the industry, namely providing seamless integration between packet networks and optical domains.

“It’s a critical element for service providers as they seek to leverage their platforms to drive greater efficiency and automation,” Glingener said.

In addition to facilitating packet-optical integration, the new capability enables client equipment such as IP/MPLS routers to interoperate with the transport layer in a seamless manner, providing maximum service velocity and ease-of-use.

“For the first time the industry has a method to integrate packet networks and optical domains into one seamless network while retaining their traditional control and management mechanisms, Luc Ceuppens, vice president for product marketing at Juniper Networks (News – Alert), said, adding that this dramatically increases the service speed and reliability for operators.

The exchange of routing information between network layers and domains requires communication via a standardized interface. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has developed and standardized the GMPLS UNI to support the communication for on-demand creation and deletion of connections.

When the packet domain activates a service traversing the virtual topology describing the optical network, the optical network components required to realize that service are automatically configured to match the requested service.  The IP/MPLS routers and the optical transport layer interoperate and act in unison, eliminating the need for manual intervention, said company officials.

Recently, ADVA Optical Networking and Openreach, the infrastructure division of BT Group (News – Alert), teamed to launch a new optical spectrum access (OSA) service. Part of Openreach’s optical spectrum service (OSS) portfolio, OSA provides new levels of network connectivity.

Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anshu’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Rich Steeves

Comments (0)

By admin, February 6, 2012 1:39 pm

Thursday, Feb 02, 2012

Borealis and Borouge, the world’s leading providers of innovative, value-creating plastics solutions for the wire and cable industry, have organised their first Wire & Cable Academy in the Middle East. The launch will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on February 8, 2012.

A large number of participants from leading cable manufacturers and suppliers in the UAE and Middle East are expected to attend the launch of the Wire & Cable Academy. The event themed “Bringing energy all around” will discuss the scope of collaboration to provide the wire and cable industry markets in the Middle East with the best and latest innovative solutions in the industry. Technical experts and international speakers will share their knowledge and know-how with a special focus on energy cables, ranging from low and medium voltage to high and extra-high voltage cables.

The Wire & Cable Academy concept was initiated by Borealis and Borouge in 2008 to facilitate knowledge sharing between key value chain stakeholders as well as enhance industry standards and support future developments of innovative wire and cable solutions. Thus far, successful events have been held in Russia, Brazil, China, South Africa and the United States. A second event is being planned in Northern Africa later this year.

Building upon their strong connections with key stakeholders across the value chain, the academies provide Borealis and Borouge with an opportunity to reinforce their commitment to the industry. Feedback from participants at past Wire & Cable Academy events has been overwhelmingly positive and described as “world-class.” In particular, the speakers’ credentials and content of their messages were praised.

“The success of our customers is our main driver,” says Marc Hubert, Borealis’ Vice President for Wire and Cable. “The Wire & Cable Academy has proven itself to be extremely valuable in fostering an intensive dialogue with our value chain. This enables us all to think ahead in a clearer and better informed fashion and spot the latest trends at an early stage.”

Borealis has recently invested EUR 400 million in a new 350,000 tonne/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant and associated facilities in Stenungsund, Sweden as well as an additional EUR 42 million on the expansion of their crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) capacity at the same site. Marc Hubert continues, “It is essential that we continue a dialogue with our industry partners to ensure these investments are made for the benefit of the entire value chain.”

Source: Borealis

Comments (0)

By admin, February 6, 2012 1:39 pm

Thursday, Feb 02, 2012

Borealis and Borouge, the world’s leading providers of innovative, value-creating plastics solutions for the wire and cable industry, have organised their first Wire & Cable Academy in the Middle East. The launch will take place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on February 8, 2012.

A large number of participants from leading cable manufacturers and suppliers in the UAE and Middle East are expected to attend the launch of the Wire & Cable Academy. The event themed “Bringing energy all around” will discuss the scope of collaboration to provide the wire and cable industry markets in the Middle East with the best and latest innovative solutions in the industry. Technical experts and international speakers will share their knowledge and know-how with a special focus on energy cables, ranging from low and medium voltage to high and extra-high voltage cables.

The Wire & Cable Academy concept was initiated by Borealis and Borouge in 2008 to facilitate knowledge sharing between key value chain stakeholders as well as enhance industry standards and support future developments of innovative wire and cable solutions. Thus far, successful events have been held in Russia, Brazil, China, South Africa and the United States. A second event is being planned in Northern Africa later this year.

Building upon their strong connections with key stakeholders across the value chain, the academies provide Borealis and Borouge with an opportunity to reinforce their commitment to the industry. Feedback from participants at past Wire & Cable Academy events has been overwhelmingly positive and described as “world-class.” In particular, the speakers’ credentials and content of their messages were praised.

“The success of our customers is our main driver,” says Marc Hubert, Borealis’ Vice President for Wire and Cable. “The Wire & Cable Academy has proven itself to be extremely valuable in fostering an intensive dialogue with our value chain. This enables us all to think ahead in a clearer and better informed fashion and spot the latest trends at an early stage.”

Borealis has recently invested EUR 400 million in a new 350,000 tonne/year low density polyethylene (LDPE) plant and associated facilities in Stenungsund, Sweden as well as an additional EUR 42 million on the expansion of their crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) capacity at the same site. Marc Hubert continues, “It is essential that we continue a dialogue with our industry partners to ensure these investments are made for the benefit of the entire value chain.”

Source: Borealis

Comments (0)

By cableunion, February 4, 2012 5:45 am

Much has been made recently of the agency agreements signed between Verizon Wireless (News – Alert) and Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks, allowing each of the partners to sell the other parties’ products.

So far, the practical result has been that Verizon Wireless is selling Comcast products in the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, Ore. and Seattle, where Verizon has no fixed network assets.

The companies do not deny that, at some point, they might find themselves offering each others’ products in areas where both Verizon and each of the cable operators have fixed network assets.

Some believe that would not happen for five years or so, in part because the cable companies do not gain the right to rebrand the Verizon Wireless services for that period of time.

Many worry about the potential impact on competition between Verizon and each of the cable operators in areas where they do compete head to head. The fear is that Verizon will simply wind up reselling cable fixed broadband “in territory,” where Verizon competes directly with a cable operator.

That obviously would not provide incentives for Verizon to invest in its own fixed facilities, but only in areas where FiOS (News – Alert) does not already exist. As a practical matter, that means Boston, Baltimore and Alexandria, Va.

Whether the halt in FiOS deployment is permanent or not is hard to say. Slow FTTH construction in Europe has been intentional. There, instead of building out a full city all at once, FTTH projects have targeted only parts of a city, followed by intense and targeted marketing, to get penetration as high as possible.

In the United States, where Verizon does build a neighborhood and then a market, penetration rates rarely have topped 20 percent. That’s a tough way to earn a payback, since it means 80 percent of potential customers do not buy. And payback is a serious issue.

France Telecom (News – Alert) will double its investment in fiber to home networks in 2012 to 300 million to 350 million Euros, Reuters reports. There’s both good and bad news in that announcement.

The good news is that the heavy spending is likely crucial for the survival of France Telecom’s fixed network business. The bad news is the huge risk.

France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard said fiber-to-the-home investments were key to the firm’s future competitiveness as a fixed line provider and France Telecom has pledged to spend two billion Euros by 2015 on rolling out a national fiber network.

Keep in mind that France Telecom expects a payback time of 30 years to 40 years, far exceeding the three-year to five-year payback expected of application investments.

That indicates the risk France Telecom and other providers are facing. Those time frames are so long they typically only can be considered by very capital intensive utility firms that operate in monopoly style markets, as fixed network providers used to assume was the case.

These days, the fixed network business faces competition from other facilities-based suppliers, mobile and satellite networks. That limits the potential base of customers, as no single supplier can hope to achieve penetration much greater than 20 to 30 percent.

And that’s the financial issue. If you assume 20 percent customer uptake, the payback can take 20 to 30 years.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, happening NOW in Miami, FL. ITEXPO (News – Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It’s also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.

Gary Kim (News – Alert) is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Gary’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Rich Steeves

Comments (0)

By cableunion, February 4, 2012 5:45 am

Much has been made recently of the agency agreements signed between Verizon Wireless (News – Alert) and Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Bright House Networks, allowing each of the partners to sell the other parties’ products.

So far, the practical result has been that Verizon Wireless is selling Comcast products in the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, Ore. and Seattle, where Verizon has no fixed network assets.

The companies do not deny that, at some point, they might find themselves offering each others’ products in areas where both Verizon and each of the cable operators have fixed network assets.

Some believe that would not happen for five years or so, in part because the cable companies do not gain the right to rebrand the Verizon Wireless services for that period of time.

Many worry about the potential impact on competition between Verizon and each of the cable operators in areas where they do compete head to head. The fear is that Verizon will simply wind up reselling cable fixed broadband “in territory,” where Verizon competes directly with a cable operator.

That obviously would not provide incentives for Verizon to invest in its own fixed facilities, but only in areas where FiOS (News – Alert) does not already exist. As a practical matter, that means Boston, Baltimore and Alexandria, Va.

Whether the halt in FiOS deployment is permanent or not is hard to say. Slow FTTH construction in Europe has been intentional. There, instead of building out a full city all at once, FTTH projects have targeted only parts of a city, followed by intense and targeted marketing, to get penetration as high as possible.

In the United States, where Verizon does build a neighborhood and then a market, penetration rates rarely have topped 20 percent. That’s a tough way to earn a payback, since it means 80 percent of potential customers do not buy. And payback is a serious issue.

France Telecom (News – Alert) will double its investment in fiber to home networks in 2012 to 300 million to 350 million Euros, Reuters reports. There’s both good and bad news in that announcement.

The good news is that the heavy spending is likely crucial for the survival of France Telecom’s fixed network business. The bad news is the huge risk.

France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard said fiber-to-the-home investments were key to the firm’s future competitiveness as a fixed line provider and France Telecom has pledged to spend two billion Euros by 2015 on rolling out a national fiber network.

Keep in mind that France Telecom expects a payback time of 30 years to 40 years, far exceeding the three-year to five-year payback expected of application investments.

That indicates the risk France Telecom and other providers are facing. Those time frames are so long they typically only can be considered by very capital intensive utility firms that operate in monopoly style markets, as fixed network providers used to assume was the case.

These days, the fixed network business faces competition from other facilities-based suppliers, mobile and satellite networks. That limits the potential base of customers, as no single supplier can hope to achieve penetration much greater than 20 to 30 percent.

And that’s the financial issue. If you assume 20 percent customer uptake, the payback can take 20 to 30 years.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, happening NOW in Miami, FL. ITEXPO (News – Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It’s also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.

Gary Kim (News – Alert) is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Gary’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Rich Steeves

Comments (0)

By cableunion, February 4, 2012 3:49 am

Polish network operator Sitel has reportedly selected Sorrento Networks’ GigaMux 3200 DWDM platform to deliver broadband services throughout the south of Poland. Denver, CO-based Sorrento Networks said it has now partnered with Solutions for Technology (S4 Tech) for the purpose of carrying out the deal it landed with Sitel.

Sorrento’s GigaMux optical transport product adds bandwidth to Sitel’s network enabling the telecom carrier to offer more services to the customers and earn more revenue.

For Sorrento, the deal helps to expand its footprint in Poland. And the deal with Sitel includes installation and long-term maintenance.

As part of the project, Sorrento and S4Tech have started constructing a 575km long backbone fiber-optic network from Warsaw to Ostrava to provide backhaul broadband services and connectivity to telecommunications carriers and internet service providers.

“This partnership is exciting because Sorrento is expanding into Poland, and we’re also thrilled to work with S4Tech to deliver cost-effective WDM solutions to Sitel and its customers,” said Jim Nevelle, CEO of Sorrento Networks.

Sorrento’s platform will enable Sitel to increase the network range from SDH to GigaBit Ethernet to 10G circuits. Sitel is also offering alien wavelengths to allow customers to manage their own wavelength division multiplexing networks.

“Sorrento’s solution provides the flexibility we need to deliver a broad range of cost-effective services to our customers,” said Artur Paruzel, director of Sitel. “The GigaMux 3200 will allow us to expand our customer base and grow our company into new European markets.”

“In implementing the system and with the easy and flexible way to integrate our customers we can become more competitive in the Polish market. Our sale of services has increased by 10 percent in the first three offering months,” said Marcin Gocejna, sales director of Sitel.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, happening now, in Miami, FL. ITEXPO (News – Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It’s also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration, click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.

Narayan Bhat is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Narayan’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell

Comments (0)

By cableunion, February 3, 2012 11:10 pm

3M (News – Alert) announced new high-speed products from its 3M Twin Axial Cable Assembly lineup and they were demonstrated at the DesignCon 2012. The new solutions are supposed to offer design engineers with low-profile foldable cabling options for internal and external electronics applications and also enhance the airflow and cable management in them.

3M explained that the new cable assemblies are based on 3M’s SL8800 Series, a flat foldable and longitudinally shielded high-performance twin axial cable ribbon cable. Users who need high data-rate applications, including servers, storage, switches and data center networks, can employ the 3M Cable Assemblies for SFP+, 3M Cable Assemblies for QSFP+ and the 3M High- Routability External MiniSAS Cable Assembly 8G26 Series. The assemblies are also compatible with InfiniBand, Ethernet, Fiber Channel and SAS (News – Alert) protocols.

The company added that the 3M SL8800 Series Cable is an optimal solution for space constrained systems. This cable is unjacketed, extremely thin and can even be folded with minimal loss or performance impact. SL8000 Series Cable can route along the sides of cabinets and through narrow openings in densely packaged equipment.

3M Twin (News – Alert) Axial Cable assemblies feature unparalleled flexibility, unique mechanical capabilities and optimal performance for high-speed applications not found in other cables.

Officials with 3M claimed that the 3M Twin Axial Cable Solutions they have made available are some of the most versatile cables currently on the market – from both a design and capability perspective. They believe that this is truly the cable of the future and are excited to offer this cable with a variety of assembly options for their customers. The new products are based on 3M Twin Axial Ribbon Cable, a recipient of R&D Magazine’s 49th Annual R&D 100 Awards that recognizes technological products across a variety of industries. 

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, happening now, in Miami, FL. ITEXPO (News – Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It’s also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration, click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.

Nathesh is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Nathesh’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell

Comments (0)

By cableunion, February 3, 2012 11:10 pm

3M (News – Alert) announced new high-speed products from its 3M Twin Axial Cable Assembly lineup and they were demonstrated at the DesignCon 2012. The new solutions are supposed to offer design engineers with low-profile foldable cabling options for internal and external electronics applications and also enhance the airflow and cable management in them.

3M explained that the new cable assemblies are based on 3M’s SL8800 Series, a flat foldable and longitudinally shielded high-performance twin axial cable ribbon cable. Users who need high data-rate applications, including servers, storage, switches and data center networks, can employ the 3M Cable Assemblies for SFP+, 3M Cable Assemblies for QSFP+ and the 3M High- Routability External MiniSAS Cable Assembly 8G26 Series. The assemblies are also compatible with InfiniBand, Ethernet, Fiber Channel and SAS (News – Alert) protocols.

The company added that the 3M SL8800 Series Cable is an optimal solution for space constrained systems. This cable is unjacketed, extremely thin and can even be folded with minimal loss or performance impact. SL8000 Series Cable can route along the sides of cabinets and through narrow openings in densely packaged equipment.

3M Twin (News – Alert) Axial Cable assemblies feature unparalleled flexibility, unique mechanical capabilities and optimal performance for high-speed applications not found in other cables.

Officials with 3M claimed that the 3M Twin Axial Cable Solutions they have made available are some of the most versatile cables currently on the market – from both a design and capability perspective. They believe that this is truly the cable of the future and are excited to offer this cable with a variety of assembly options for their customers. The new products are based on 3M Twin Axial Ribbon Cable, a recipient of R&D Magazine’s 49th Annual R&D 100 Awards that recognizes technological products across a variety of industries. 

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO East 2012, happening now, in Miami, FL. ITEXPO (News – Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It’s also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO registration, click here.

Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO. Follow us on Twitter.

Nathesh is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Nathesh’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell