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FTTH Council Europe Annual Conference in Lisbon

8 Feb 2010 14:02 No comments
Like I do every year, I will be attending the FTTH Council Europe Annual Conference in Lisbon on February 24-25th. This is a really special event for me as it's the greatest gathering of minds and matter on the topic of FTTx, and it's a great opportunity to meet with all those who count in this field and hear from all those who will count.

In case you are still undecided about attending the event (or if you just didn't know about it), I have asked the good folks at the FTTH Council Europe to hand me over a couple of free registrations to give away on www.fiberevolution.com and twitter. These registrations are worth 453 €, so it's not a little gift we are proposing here!

If you wish to win one of these registrations, you need to do something very simple: More...

Definitive Views on GPON vs EP2P...

5 Feb 2010 09:00 No comments

If you were one of the early followers of Fiberevolution, you know that one of the first "visible" posts explored the issue of incumbent GPON deployment.I did not know it back then (although I found out real fast!), but I had stumbled upon one of the great religious wars of the NGA world (the other being cable vs. fiber.) I revisited the issue several times on this blog, and over the course of 18 months, I talked on this issue to numerous service providers and vendors.

Last November, I started to write a report that would summarize my views. This report, entitled GPON or EP2P: Choosing an FTTH Architecture is the result of these discussions and a string of specific interviews. More...

Martin Geddes: Goodbye Minutes, Hello Moments...

1 Feb 2010 13:00 No comments

When it comes to rethinking the telco paradigm, if there's one guy you can trust to do the job it's Martin Geddes. His presentation at ecomm in October was one of the most insightful, and it's now available online. Look at how common sense thinking could turn frustrating voice services into really useful tools... If you want to check out his slides they are here.

There Will Continue To Be Suicides In The Company...

27 Jan 2010 17:12 No comments

Fr_dp I'm sure you all remember the media furore in France and elsewhere about the wave of suicides at France Telecom in the last 18 months. Back then I wrote a piece entitled Of Dinosaurs, Evolution and Suicides trying to explore the issue, it's causes and it's consequences.

Part of the political aftermath of the "suicide scandal" was that FT's number 2 Louis-Pierre Wenes was forced to resigned and was quickly replaced by Stéphane Richard, who is to take over from Didier Lombard as CEO in the coming months. Richard has surprised many since he joined France Telecom by his candid style of communication and the fact that he did not hesitate to question some of the strategic choices made in the past including content exclusivity. More...

FTTH Council North America against Open Access

27 Jan 2010 12:00 No comments

Us_dp Tim points out a tidbit of interesting news that I had missed: The FTTH Council North America and TIA came out vocally against open access for Fiber in filing to the FCC. As Tim points out, they oppose it mostly on principle and try to discredit the Berkman Study on telecom policy which quite convincingly shows how open access policies in European and Asian countries have spurred on competition and contributed to the development of telecom markets in these countries.

This is not a new discourse in the US and as such does not really surprise me. I've heard or read similar arguments (especially the attempts to poke holes in the Berkman Study) in the last few months. More...

KDDI takes control of JCOM

26 Jan 2010 10:36 No comments

Jp_dp Despite the fact that Japan is the world leader in fiber coverage (although not in fiber adoption, that's Korea) it's a market that is so dominated by incumbent NTT that it often seems not much happens there. Well this morning, something major happened! KDDI, the number two FTTH and broadband provider in Japan acquired a controlling stake in JCOM, the leading cable operator.

As mentioned in this article the consolidation makes a whole lot of sense for KDDI, even though it comes at a steep price. And while it reinforces KDDI's overall position in the wireline market, it still leaves them trailing behind NTT. More...

Orange's Exclusive Content Strategy in Question?

22 Jan 2010 14:42 1 comment

Fr_dp According to a short article in Les Echos (France Telecom Doit s'Interroger sur sa Gouvernance, Selon Richard), France Telecom's #2 Stéphane Richard has expressed doubts around Orange's Exclusive Content strategy. The exact quote is as follows:

<< Stéphane Richard - who is to take over from current CEO Didier Lombard in spring 2011 - added that the group needed to question its policies in terms of contents considering the issues it faced in its exclusivity strategies. >>

According to 2009 Q3 results, Orange has 596 000 subscribers to its exclusive content channels. End of 2009 numbers will be announced in February 25th. More...

Fiberevolution Meet: Boston, February 3rd

21 Jan 2010 16:31 No comments

I will be in Boston the first week of February and would love to meet fiber minded individuals! I would suggest the evening of February 3rd, maybe around 7 PM. I'm suggesting the Parish Café as a good meeting place, but am open to alternative suggestions!

(For musical minded people, I will also most likely be checking out the Elastic Waste Band in Cambridge later that evening, you're welcome to join!)

Are Street Cabinets Such a Good Idea ?

21 Jan 2010 14:07 No comments

Numericable Cabinets As you will know, I have been skeptical about the potential of Fiber to the Cabinet, mostly due to what I perceive as a lack of future-proofness (yeah, I know such a word doesn't exist...) of the deployment. One aspect that I honestly haven't investigated much is the impact of having cabinets in the streets. After all, I thought, cable operators have had them forever...

I guess I should have looked more closely at some of the posts James put up on eurotelcoblog. The photo on the right is a photo of one of Numéricable's cabinets in Marseille. Last year, a group of people went through several districts of Marseille and tracked down cabinets to photograph them. More...

France Accelerates Fiber Deployment... or Does It?

20 Jan 2010 17:02 No comments

Fr_dp On Monday, French prime minister François was due to make a speech that would, some journalists thought, give a kick in the butt to FTTH deployment in France. The fact is that three years after the first FTTH deployment announcements, France as a whole doesn't have a lot to show for it. ARCEP recently announced 250k NGA subscribers, 200k of which are Numéricable's HFC.

Needless to say that Mr. Fillon's speech was eagerly expected... and did not fail to dissapoint. The Prime Minister reaffirmed that €2bn had been earmarked as public contributions to FTTH deployment in zones 2 and 3 (ie. More...

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