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According to a new survey by the Fiber to the Home Council, running a fiber to the home network isn't just great for consumers and businesses looking for more bandwidth, but it can save a medium or small scale telco up to 20% in savings annually. "On average, respondents estimated those savings to be 20.4 percent, largely because of a decrease in ongoing repair and maintenance," says the group. According to the Council (which is comprised of companies selling fiber gear), the number of homes that can access FTTH networks has jumped 17.6 percent over the last year to 22.7 million. Granted most small to mid-sized telcos aren't installing fiber -- not because they don't realize potential cost savings, but because they either don't have the funds to do so, or there's such pathetic competition across their footprint there's simply nothing driving them to. 
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Researchers at the University of Southampton in England say they've developed a new type of optical fiber that smashes all previously held bandwidth transmission records. The fibers are more hollow than traditional fiber, yet significantly faster at transmitting data; specifically they can transmit bandwidth at 73.7 terabits per second — roughly 1,000 times faster than today’s 40-gigabit fiber optic links -- and at lower latency: The researchers overcame these issues by fundamentally improving the hollow core design, using an ultra-thin photonic-bandgap rim. This new design enables low loss (3.5 dB/km), wide bandwidth (160nm), and latency that blows the doors off normal optic fiber — light, and thus the data, really is travelling 31% faster down this new hollow fiber. To achieve the transmission rate of 73.7 terabits per second, the researchers used wave division multiplexing (WDM) to transmit 37 40-gigabit signals down the hollow fiber. The downside? The cable's still see 3.5 dB/km loss and are only really ideal for shorter range runs. 53 comments
For several years now the city of Baltimore has been asking Verizon why they, and several other significant cities like Buffalo, Boston, and Alexandria weren't seen fit to receive FiOS upgrades. Despite half a decade of asking the same question, they still don't seem to be getting any answers.  story continues..76 comments
The folks over at the Google Fiber blog have announced that the company's 1 Gbps fiber service is expanding into some additional markets -- just probably not yours. Google Fiber community manager Rachel Hack states that the Olathe, Kansas city council has given the green light for Google Fiber to be expanded to that city, about twenty minutes away from Kansas City. "We think that Fiber and widespread Internet access will help to create jobs, grow local businesses, and make Olathe even stronger as it grows," insists the search giant. The Kansas City Star notes that the agreement involves providing free 1 Gbps connections to four public facilities for up to 10 years. 78 comments
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Mirroring comments made this week by Time Warner Cable executives, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo argues that the company would offer 1 Gbps connections -- if any of you actually wanted one. According to Shammo, a 50 Mbps connection is the "sweet spot" right now for consumers, and though Verizon does offer speeds up to 300 Mbps, anything more than 50 Mbps is overkill for most households. The company reiterated that they've tested 1 Gbps connections, and unlike Time Warner Cable are actually in a position to really offer those speeds, but claim there's no need to offer that kind of bandwidth yet: "FiOS brings a very different perspective to the household with Fiber to the Home," he said. "We actually tested a 1 Gig circuit in New York three years ago so our FiOS product can deliver that but we just don't see the need yet from a household to have that much of a pipe into their home." , Verizon would prefer you focus on whether or not you need a 1 Gbps connection, instead of focusing on the value and consumer excitement Google is bringing to the market, or the fact Verizon has been relentlessly raising FiOS rates over the last year. 109 comments
Verizon is dialing up a new FiOS promotion that nudges users toward the company's new 50 Mbps "Quantum" FiOS tier. Both Cablevision and FiOS have been throttling back on previous deals, slashing promotional offers and raising rates as their competitive ambitions cool off. 48 comments
Responding to all the attention being given to Google Fiber, Gigabit Squared, and the FCC's rather hollow recent 1 Gbps challenge," Verizon's top policy man Link Hoewing proclaims that Verizon is ready and willing to offer 1 Gbps connections -- as soon as consumer demand warrants. Kind of amusingly, a company that has historically placed all their marketing emphasis on speed, is now trying to argue speed doesn't really tell the whole story. 106 comments
When most people talk about Google's Kansas City deployment, they don't realize that Google is deploying to both Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri. In a blog post, Google today noted that the company is now taking orders from Missouri customers, who must place their orders before deadlines or be left waiting until the next round. According to Google, residents of Crown Center, Midtown, Sunset Hill, South Plaza West, Countryside, Greenway Fields, Wornall Homestead, and Crossroads, Missouri have order deadlines from March 21 to April 25 if they're interested in getting service when it arrives this Spring. 28 comments
Google continues to be incredibly vague about if or when they'll expand Google Fiber outside of Kansas City, though the company insists the effort is no passing fad. Speaking on their earnings call, Google CEO Larry Page this week remarked on the success they've seen so far on offering symmetrical 1 Gbps connections for $70 a month. story continues..46 comments
With the entertainment industry's oft-delayed "six strikes" anti-piracy plan finally very close to launch, some ISPs have been willing to talk a little about the new steps they'll be taking to thwart pirates on their networks. Time Warner Cable gave us the details on their plan last November, including on-screen click-through warnings and the pushing of "educational" anti-piracy materials. 128 comments
The New York Times has a little more detail on Verizon's complaints that New York City landlords aren't letting them gain access to buildings in order to replace copper with fiber (FiOS) post Sandy. As we noted last week, in some instances landlords are going so far as to try and charge Verizon for building access. 54 comments
Speaking at CES yesterday in his first keynote, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam hinted at 1 Gbps FiOS and suggested the company would be speeding up the transfer of "troubled" copper customers to FiOS. Verizon in 2012 made getting users on problematic copper lines onto FiOS a priority, and it's something the CEO says will speed up this year. 76 comments
The FTC today announced that they've closed a two-year investigation into Google for anti-trust violations, resulting in only minor changes to the search giant's business practices. The agency found that Google's search engine has succeeded because it's simply good, not because Google acted anti-competitively. 17 comments
One Kansas City local wants to use the national interest in Google Fiber to make an extra buck. According to a report in the Kansas City Business Journal, local software developer Benjamin Barreth, who has been cultivating developer interest in the city's new symmetrical 1 Gbps connections, is now charging out of town visitors who want to experience Google Fiber. For $49 a night, visitors can spend a night at the "homes for hackers" developed by Barreth and tinker with the connection. The problem? Very few people are interested. "Despite the publicity — including last week’s plug from Wired.com — Barreth is disappointed at the lack of bookings and is considering lowering the nightly rate," says the story. 23 comments
Time Warner Cable continues to downplay the need for faster speeds to compete with Google's symmetrical 1 Gbps offering in Kansas City. "We’re really comfortable where our speeds are," Time Warner Cable spokesman Mike Pedelty said in an interview with the Kansas City Business Journal, which notes that some of the speed increases we've been seeing in numerous other markets have arrived in Kansas City. 34 comments
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt this week spoke at The New York Times Dealbook Conference, where he insisted that Google Fiber "isn't just an experiment, it's a real business and we're trying to decide where to expand next." Google Fiber has been widely criticized by incumbent ISPs (and their employees) for being an impractical business model, largely to justify a decade of anti-competitive behavior, sky-high prices and sub-par services and support. Earlier this week a Goldman Sachs analyst estimated that building out Google Fiber nationally would cost somewhere around $140 billion, with just half of the country costing somewhere around $70 billion. 125 comments
If you've been paying attention you know that Google Fiber was never intended to be a nationwide effort, and Google has no intention of becoming a national ISP.
Google Fiber is simply intended to light a fire under the public relation posterior of un-competitive and lagging United States carriers, while Google tests next generation ad services and assorted technologies, and collects data on real-world broadband usage for future products. story continues..174 comments
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