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Cornwall’s new fiber-optic broadband network has now passed 206,000 homes and businesses – 82% of the total in the county – making it one of the best connected areas in Britain and the best connected rural region in Europe, according to BT. The UK operator is rolling out fiber-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) in a project jointly funded by BT, the EU, and Cornwall Council.

Meanwhile new research, commissioned by BT and published by SERIO at Plymouth University and Buckman Associates, shows that the network is already providing a major economic boost to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region.

Early indications from the study – which the operator claims is the first of its kind to explore the economic impact of fiber-optic broadband on British SMEs – found that after 12 months, 83% of businesses were saving time and money thanks to the faster speeds and innovative services that fiber-based broadband enables.

In fact, 6 out of every 10 (58%) SMEs surveyed said their business is growing because of the new technology, while more than a quarter (26%) said they have either created or safeguarded jobs as a direct result of the efficiency and innovation that superfast broadband encourages.

As well as the reported increase in jobs and revenues, over a third of businesses completing the survey (37.5%) reported that superfast broadband had helped their business to generate new sales, with a quarter (24%) of that group pointing to new trade overseas.

Vice president of the European Commission Neelie Kroes said, “This research has real international significance because it starts to vindicate what we’ve said all along – that fiber broadband will energize our economy, generate jobs, and save public money. With the help of major investment by the European Regional Development Fund, businesses can now take advantage of fiber broadband in Cornwall to become more competitive and more productive. For both businesses and the communities they serve, there can be no better investment in our future than superfast broadband.”

Liv Garfield, CEO, Openreach, said, “We’re very proud of the work BT is doing in Cornwall, and in many ways the region has become a perfect template for us in other rural areas of the UK. Cornwall Council has shown strong leadership and real commitment to this project. We’ve been able to go even further than originally planned and, thanks to the success and skill of our engineering team, we reached our original target of 80% coverage some 15 months ahead of schedule.”

BT says that the Superfast Cornwall project is on-track to get fiber broadband to 95% – extending its original target – of the region, as well as the Isles of Scilly by the end of 2014. Currently, more than 35,000 homes and businesses are taking advantage of faster fiber speeds, including an estimated 4130 SMEs. BT has plans to boost broadband speeds for the remaining 5% of premises (about 13,000) using alternative technologies.

CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) says that it will extend its 1-Gbps fiber to the premises (FTTP) pilot project to Las Vegas, NV. The U.S. Tier 1 carrier had previously announced its intention to test FTTP-enable gigabit services in Omaha, NE. CenturyLink says it expects to offer 1-Gbps services to homes and businesses in Vegas this fall – and may not be done with its expansion plans.

There were at least 26 “gigabit communities” in the United States as of last month, according to research conducted on behalf of the FTTH Council Americas by RVA LLC. Twenty of these use networks provided by the municipalities themselves or competitive service providers, with Google Fiber among the latter demographic. Major incumbent providers are beginning to react, as CenturyLink’s pilot and AT&T’s announcement that it will offer 1-Gbps services in Austin, TX, indicate.

“CenturyLink is pleased to announce that Las Vegas will be the next city to receive ultra-fast broadband speeds up to 1 Gbps,” said Matt Beal, CenturyLink chief technology officer. “We know our customers will embrace this new technology that will allow them to simultaneously use multiple devices in their homes and businesses without the burden of bandwidth constraints.”

Many of the communities that have moved to 1-Gbps services have used the availability of such high-speed connectivity as a way to increase their appeal to high-tech businesses looking for new homes. Las Vegas is no different.

“This is wonderful news for Las Vegas,” said U.S. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. “Advances like these will ensure that Las Vegas continues to cement its reputation as a high-tech hub. I support these efforts by CenturyLink, and welcome more investments in our local economy. I look forward to even more access to high-speed technology in Las Vegas and throughout Nevada.”

“An aspect of my efforts as Governor has been fostering the growth of Nevada’s technology industry throughout the state,” said Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval. “Las Vegas has always been one of America’s most connected cities and is quickly becoming a premier destination for launching tech-focused businesses. CenturyLink’s high-speed 1 Gbps fiber network pilot in Las Vegas adds another level of vital infrastructure to support our continued growth as a technology-driven city.”

CenturyLink says that it plans to launch 1-Gbps capabilities in other communities “into 2014.” Meanwhile, small business customers in “select locations” will also be offered the service early next year.

An Informa Telecoms & Media study conducted on behalf of the Broadband Forum indicates that a majority of carriers view interoperability and certification of GPON gear will prove essential for the fiber to the home (FTTH) technology’s future prospects.

Perhaps not coincidentally, the Broadband Forum offers both an interoperability test plan and a GPON interoperability certification program.

Informa released the study results last week in a report entitled “Optimizing the Fiber Business Case.” The market research and consultancy firm surveyed 237 broadband industry “stakeholders” and interviewed senior executives at Orange, BT, Chunghwa Telecom, PCCW, Alcatel-Lucent, Calix, Huawei, and PT Inovacao. The report includes case studies culled from these interviews.

Both Informa and the Broadband Forum expect GPON will become the dominant FTTx access technology in 2016, passing 200 million connections in 2018 to account for three out of five FTTx connections worldwide. However, interoperability issues between different vendors’ OLT and ONU equipment has caused an array of problems for many service providers and need to be addressed if GPON is to fulfil its promise, the report suggests.

Key findings of the report include:

More than half of GPON operator respondents (53%) said that interoperability issues increased their internal testing burden, while 44% reported issues with network performance issues and 41% with greater management overhead.

Interoperability is the second most important ONU selection criteria behind price (31% versus 41%), with maintenance costs (10%), software features (8%), hardware features (7%), and number of ports (5%) considerably less influential.

Certification is emerging as a catalyst to drive the transition to multivendor GPON networks, with “many” service providers and vendors confident of deriving benefits, according to Informa and the Broadband Forum. For example, survey respondents said that, on average, certification could help, or has helped, shorten the time spent selecting and testing GPON ONUs by around 40%.

Next year will see increased activity around GPON interoperability as several major operators move towards deploying multivendor networks, a host of smaller operator RFPs hit the market, and challenger vendors look to shake up the market.

“These findings affirm the importance of the Broadband Forum BBF.247 certification program and TR-255 ONU/OLT interoperability test plan,” said the Broadband Forum’s CEO Robin Mersh. “Establishing interoperability of GPON equipment is a key building block to simplifying the deployment of fiber networks, but as noted in the case studies, there is much to be done around NG-PON2, and the biggest challenges may well be ahead of us. This work has begun and got a good jump-start at a recently held workshop between the BBF, FSAN (Full Service Access Network), and the ITU-T.”

Looking at the wireline segment, consumer revenues were $3.7 billion, up 4.3% versus the year-ago quarter. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter of 4% year-on-year growth, Verizon says. Consumer ARPU for wireline services rose to $112.86, up 8.7% year-on-year. Wireline operating income margin was 1.6%, up 120 basis points over third-quarter 2012.

FiOS revenues increased 13.4% to $2.8 billion, versus $2.5 billion in 3Q12. Verizon said it added 173,000 net new FiOS Internet connections, up 27.2% from third-quarter 2012, and 135,000 net new FiOS Video connections, up 13.4 percent. Verizon had a total of 5.9 million FiOS Internet and 5.2 million FiOS Video connections at the end of the quarter, representing year-over-year increases of 12.6% for each.

Meanwhile, FiOS Internet penetration reached 39.2% at the end of the recent quarter, versus 37.0% at the end of third quarter 2012. FiOS Video penetration was 34.9%, compared with 32.9% in the year ago quarter. The FiOS network passed 18.3 million premises by the end of third quarter 2013, Verizon said.

More than 40% of FiOS Internet customers subscribed to FiOS Quantum, which provides speeds ranging from 50 to 500 Mbps, up from 35% at the end of 2Q12.

Total broadband connections reached nearly 9.0 million at the end of the quarter, up 2.6% year-over-year. Overall, net broadband customers increased 56,000 in the third quarter, as FiOS Internet net customer additions more than offset a decline in DSL subscribers. Along these lines, Verizon reported that through the first nine months of 2013 it had migrated nearly 250,000 homes to from copper to fiber to the home (FTTH) and is on track to exceed its target of 300,000 migrations within FiOS markets in 2013. By year-end 2013, Verizon projects it will have less than 1 million remaining customers served by copper in FiOS markets.

"These strong third-quarter results reflect Verizon’s long-term investment in reliable, high-quality networks to deliver value to customers," said Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO. "Our unwavering focus on wireless, FiOS and strategic enterprise services has produced consistent performance, and we've delivered double-digit earnings growth in six of the past seven quarters. Verizon's strategic networks form a powerful distribution platform for future growth and innovation."

The number of homes in North America connected to a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network has exceeded 10 million for the first time, reported Michael Render, owner and chief analyst at RVA LLC, at last week’s FTTH Conference. RVA is a market research firm that frequently provides research services to the FTTH Council Americas.

The number of FTTH connections on the continent has grown steadily since 2004, RVA reports, and reached 9 million in September 2012 (see “FTTH Council Americas releases FTTH market numbers”). The U.S. accounts for 90% of the current North American connections, Render said. The latest figures, which illustrate the state of play as of September 2013, also show the number of homes passed has reached 27.7 million (versus 24.3 million in September 2012), while homes marketed have reached 25.5 million.

In the U.S., Tier 1 ILECs, led by Verizon, account for 76.7 of the country’s 9.6 million FTTH connections. Other ILECs have connected 10.4% of the country’s total FTTH subscribers, with municipalities and public utilities combining for another 4.2%. This last group has nearly half of the country’s gigabit networks, 11 of the 26 RVA have identified. Competitive access providers, including Google, account for another nine such networks.

Render also reported that take rates for FTTH networks in the U.S. continue to grow. The average take rate for FTTH networks in the country reached 45.8% last month, he said

AT&T (NYSE: T) has started to deploy its fiber to the home (FTTH) network in Austin over which it will offer its 1 Gbps “GigaPower” data service and U-verse TV beginning in December.

Initially, the service provider will offer symmetrical speeds of up to 300 Mbps. Eligible customers that subscribe to the 300 Mbps tier in December will be able to upgrade to the 1 Gbps speeds when they become available in mid-2014.

Current AT&T mobile customers that sign up for a GigaPower plan will also get 50 GB of free cloud storage.

The service provider said that U-verse with GigaPower service will be rolled out to tens of thousands of customer locations throughout Austin and surrounding areas this year, with additional expansion planned for some time next year.

As part of the FTTH rollout in Austin, AT&T created a new executive position to lead the GigaPower initiative, naming Dahna Hull vice president and general manager, Austin, for AT&T Services Inc.

By announcing specific dates for its 1 Gbps launch, AT&T is showing that it’s serious about competing with upstart providers like Google Fiber (Nasdaq: GOOG), which named Austin as one of its service targets.

Today, the majority of AT&T’s FTTH deployments have been in new housing developments with property owners, including Dewhirst Properties in Knoxville, Tenn., via its Connected Communities unit.

Stopping short of revealing any specific future plans, it appears that the telco sees potential for FTTH in other areas besides Austin.

Randall Stephenson, AT&T's chairman, CEO and president, said during the recent Goldman Sachs 22nd Annual Communacopia Conference that improvements in deployment costs and more cooperation from local municipalities is making it easier for them to consider equipping other communities with FTTH.

Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) has revealed that it has supplied its E7-2 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) and 700GE family of optical network terminals (ONTs) to CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) for the carrier's gigabit fiber to the home (FTTH) pilot in Omaha, NE.

CenturyLink announced the trial this past May. The U.S. Tier 1 carrier hopes to serve as many as 48,000 homes and businesses in Omaha with symmetrical 1-Gbps services by the end of next month. The network will be based on GPON technology.

"Providing our customers with gigabit services 100 times faster than the average American download speed gives them the freedom to leverage the power of the Internet without bandwidth constraints," said Danny Pate, vice president and general manager of CenturyLink – Nebraska. "We are excited about the opportunities this Calix-enabled network has introduced to Omaha."

"The gigabit trial in Omaha is a great opportunity for CenturyLink to provide the businesses and residents in the pilot area a leap forward in broadband technology," added Matt Beal, CenturyLink CTO and executive vice president of corporate strategy and product development. "With the help of Calix, we look forward to seeing what our customers will do with their gig and how it provides us a competitive advantage."

In addition to the FTTH systems, CenturyLink will use the Calix Compass Flow Analyze software as a service application to both measure usage trends as well as to optimize service performance. Ericsson will provide professional services expertise to the project as well.

"We have seen gigabit deployments capture the attention of service providers around the world, as they examine the impacts and opportunities that these super-charged networks bring to the communities in which they are deployed, and to the service providers that deploy them," said John Colvin, senior vice president of North America sales and marketing at Calix. "With CenturyLink's bold gigabit network pilot in Omaha, we are seeing the promise of broadband unfold before our eyes. We are excited to be working with CenturyLink in Omaha as they leverage this gigabit network to deliver an entirely new level of broadband experience."

Dave Newbold, CTO of JT Global is speaking in the Access Evolution track on Day Three of the Broadband World Forum, taking place on the 22nd – 24th October 2013 at the RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre, Amsterdam. Ahead of the show we find out more about JT Global’s Channel Island based network and the challenges involved in deploying it.

You are based in the Channel Islands? Why here particularly and do you have plans to grow to other markets?

JT are the incumbent, full service telecoms operator on Jersey with an alternate operator in the other Channel Islands. JT are wholly owned by the States of Jersey. We operate a global business through acquisition and business development. We have offices in Jersey, Guernsey, London, Boston and Melbourne and we operate under the channel brands of JT, Worldstone, ekit, Telestial and GO-SIM.

You plan to have a ubiquitous FTTH network across the island of Jersey by 2015. What do you believe will be the biggest challenges in achieving this?

JT are in year two of a five-year programme to switchover all broadband lines from copper to fibre.

We have encountered many challenges with the concept, from development of the business case through to choice of technologies, but have overcome many of.

The most significant were:

• Selecting the right price point to create the right demand, whilst achieving a decent return.
• Engaging and agreeing the wholesale product for other licensed operators.
• Engaging with the customer base to create excitement and easy adoption and walking through the process of switchover and how we keep customers informed.
• Ensuring accuracy of legacy data built up over many years.
• Selection and training sufficient numbers of local people to deliver the switchover.
• Wiring into premises and then ensuring good Wi-Fi performance within the premise.
• Choosing the right partners, for both technology and delivery.

How do you think full fibre will change things for the Channel Island businesses and residential customers?

For residential customers is will enable them to work from home, and bring unfettered access to a superior internet experience. They will gain access to OTT services such as video including the adoption of smart home technologies, which includes everything from smart metering to home security, and ‘home based’ education and health services.

Additionally, the symmetrical service and the guaranteed high-speed bandwidth will open up a new horizon for residential users, such as personal media hosting/sharing and augmented reality, that was previously only for the privileged from corporate leased line users or science labs.

For businesses is will mean make global cloud services a possibility either for consumption or to provide the service.

FTTH is excessive for most businesses and residential customers. How would you argue against this statement?

Simple. Today the copper experience even at the highest available speeds is variable, susceptible to failure (for example we get lots of lightning strikes), and expensive to operate. However, data usage continues to grow in high double digits, closely following the predicted capacity that was created by Moore’s (computing) or Nielsen’s law (bandwidth). The average bandwidth need is currently around 8-10MB, so it is easy to calculate that bandwidth demand will supersede theoretical limits of current ADSL and VDSL in the next 5-10 years unless users start to seriously compromise on the time it requires to access the data.

With fibre, what you buy is what you get, which is hardly ever possible over copper and alternatives such as VDSL or mobile broadband do not offer a future proofed route and just delay the inevitable.

Where will the investment to make FTTH go mainstream come from? What will be the catalyst for an inflection point for full FTTH growth?

There will be a few and a combination of them. Early entrants will pick off the high density high value customers onto fibre networks, which forces the hand of the incumbents. Eventually governments will take action to subsidise growth.

The current set-up of the commercial broadband operators with wholesale regulation and capped bandwidth bundles are anti-FTTH investment. However, the increasing demand for more bandwidth will create the opportunity to gear up the product mix to higher value tiers and provide the opportunity to introduce new premium features (speed boosters, symmetrical service, residential hotspot sharing, data charging etc.) that will reintroduce the monetary incentives for old (mainly incumbents) and new players (content/service owners as Google, Sky etc.) to invest into fibre networks.

What are the biggest challenges holding FTTH from becoming a reality in most markets?

I would say predicable RoCE and access to funds. There is also:

• Regulation; by not appreciating the risk premiums of private investors for building new infrastructure.
• Governments not realising the social/economic benefits of a ubiquitous FTTH programme and enforcing regulatory changes and government funding/support (greenfield taxation, community programs etc.)
• Capital markets not perceiving fibre deployment as the next big thing for steady “utility-type” return.
• End-User perception with the broadband industry who keep referencing/relying on downlink speed benefits for mostly buffered services (content streaming, internet browsing etc.) instead of next-generation “fibre-only” applications as real time HD (multilink videoconferencing, home surveillance, social gaming etc.), virtualised home and work environments and permanent interactive community services.