CES: Verizon launches Vcast TV, FiOS 2.0
By: By Carol Wilson
In a major press event at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and in a Webcast, Verizon today announced the first live TV broadcast service for mobile phones as well as the next generation of its FiOS TV service – promising to leave cable “in the dust” with its new video prowess....
US Signal adds Milwaukee
By: By Carol Wilson
Competitive service provider US Signal today announced plans to extend its Midwest fiber optic backbone to Milwaukee, building a metro ring in that city, as well as to new access points in suburban Chicago...
AT&T launches U-verse in Conn.
By: By Dan O'Shea
AT&T today announced that it had launched its fiber-based U-verse TV service in some parts of the Connecticut markets of Hartford, Stamford, New Haven and surrounding communities....
CenturyTel enters new markets with Madison River acquisition
By: By Tim McElligott
Monroe, Louis.-based CenturyTel announced its intent today to acquired Madison River Communications for $830 million. The deal would add 176,000 access lines throughout Alabama, Georgia, Illinois and North Carolina...
Utah’s multicity FTTH project enters phase two
By: By Ed Gubbins
After several months of delays, Utah’s multicity municipal wholesale fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network, Utopia, is now entering its second phase of construction, according to Paul Morris, Utopia’s executive director...
Ciena rides optical sales to profitability
By: By Ed Gubbins
Ciena reported its return to profitability under generally accepted accounting practices today on both a quarterly and annual basis. And the company owed much of its success to sales of optical equipment—Ciena’s oldest business but one that it struggled to become less reliant on during the telecom downturn...
ADC bemoans AT&T merger limbo
By: By Ed Gubbins
ADC Telecom blamed uncertainty over the pending AT&T/BellSouth merger in part for some missed revenue in its recent quarter and low visibility in the current quarter...
AT&T races to launch 13 FTTN markets in 3 weeks
By: By Ed Gubbins
AT&T will begin launching more live markets for its Project Lightspeed fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) services next week, the company said today. Though the carrier has so far only launched those services in two cities (San Antonio in June, followed by Houston), it is still striving to use the last three weeks of the year to meet its goal of launching Lightspeed in 15 markets in 2006....
ITU: ECI showcases carrier Ethernet, optical
By: By Carol Wilson
HONG KONG--ECI Telecom is using the ITU Telecom World 2006 to showcase its multiple product lines, including its growing emphasis on carrier Ethernet and its optical transport line...
In the Spotlight: Sam Mathan, Matisse Networks
By: By Ed Gubbins
Just before Thanksgiving, Matisse’s chief executive officer Sam Mathan told Telephony’s Ed Gubbins where Matisse is headed next....
Report: Ericsson to buy Entrisphere
By: By Ed Gubbins
Ericsson is likely to acquire access equipment vendor Entrisphere for about $290 million in order to help win a contract to supply AT&T with passive optical networking gear, according to Swedish technology newspaper Ny Teknik...
Nortel to build Iraqi optical backbone
By: By Ed Gubbins
Nortel Networks has been awarded a contract to build a nationwide optical backbone network for Iraq’s only wireline telecom carrier...
Tellabs CEO: BPON to dominate GPON in 2007
By: By Ed Gubbins
Though Verizon Communications has pledged to start deploying gigabit passive optical networking (GPON) gear this year, most of the PON equipment it deploys next year will probably be lower speed broadband PON (BPON), according to Krish Prabhu, chief executive officer of Tellabs, Verizon’s primary BPON supplier...
Hawaiian Telcom struggles for independence
By: By Ed Gubbins
Hawaiian Telcom’s revenue grew and its net loss shrank in the third quarter, but the former Verizon subsidiary admitted it is struggling with efforts to adjust to life as a standalone company...
AT&T debuts optical bandwidth-on-demand
By: By Carol Wilson
AT&T today announced a new optical service that delivers bandwidth-on-demand, enabling customers to use AT&T’s self-service portal to administer their Sonet networks...
Tellabs’ sales of FTTP gear dip
By: By Ed Gubbins
Sales of Tellabs’ fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) gear dipped in the third quarter as a major customer (most likely Verizon Communications) made an “inventory correction,” making more use of the gear it had already purchased, Tellabs said...
BellSouth partners on community portal
By: By Carol Wilson
BellSouth Community Technologies, a unit that deals with planned communities and multi-dwelling units, has partnered with Resident Interactive to jointly market a community portal that developers can offer to their residents. ...
Time Warner Telecom changes its name
By: By Ed Gubbins
Time Warner Telecom is changing its name. To what, exactly, isn’t completely certain...
AT&T’s FTTP, FTTN mix in question
By: By Ed Gubbins
AT&T’s mix of fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) and fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) has become the subject of increasing scrutiny among industry analysts of late. One analyst maintains the company isn’t doing as much FTTP as it promised. Another predicts the company will soon do more FTTP than previously indicated...
Report: Adtran wins AT&T’s wireless backhaul business
By: By Ed Gubbins
Adtran may have turned an anchor into a sail, winning a multimillion-dollar deal to supply AT&T with optical products that dragged down the vendor’s revenue expectations earlier this year...
Comptel: XO strengthens wholesale push
By: By Carol Wilson
XO Communications added two more pieces to its wholesale puzzle today, announcing completion of the 18,000-mile fiber optic network and a business realignment that separates its wholesale operation from its sales to large enterprise customers...
FTTH Con: Muni broadband advocate sees ‘rosy picture’
By: By Ed Gubbins
LAS VEGAS--After years of fighting to protect the rights of municipalities to provide broadband and other telecom services, Jim Baller, an attorney with the Baller-Herbst Law Group, has to admit he’s breathing a lot easier these days...
Optimum Lightpath: Growth ‘R’ Us
By: By Carol Wilson
Being over budget is not usually a good thing, but for Optimum Lightpath, the success of its Metro Ethernet service has led to a faster-than-expected buildout of fiber to businesses in the New York/New Jersey/Connecticut area that the Cablevision subsidiary serves. This month, the company expects to have “lit” 2000 buildings in the densely populated area...
FTTH Con: Fiber-connected homes top 1 million
By: By Ed Gubbins
LAS VEGAS--The number of North American homes connected directly to fiber has surpassed 1 million, according to a report released Thursday by Render Vanderslice & Associates...
FTTH Con: How the price of PON will fall
By: By Ed Gubbins
LAS VEGAS--Though optics make passive optical network (PON) gear--the most widely deployed fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology in the U.S.--significantly more expensive than DSL, PON costs will follow the path of DSL equipment costs downward, according to Dan Parsons, marketing director for chip maker Broadlight, who addressed a crowd at the Fiber-to-the-Home Conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday...
