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When Is Fiber Not Fiber?![]() Three British broadband providers have asked the nation's advertising authority to stop competitors from describing DSL and cable services as "fiber." Hyperoptic , Gigaclear and CityFibre are angry that BT, Virgin Media Inc. (Nasdaq: VMED), Sky and other communications service providers and cable operators describe their networks -- typically a combination of fiber to the cabinet and copper or coax for the last-mile connection to the home -- as fiber, according to ISP Preview UK. For nine years, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has allowed providers to use the term "fiber" to describe hybrid-fiber networks, including Virgin's hybrid fiber and coax solution, and the hybrid fiber optic and twisted pair copper infrastructure that Openreach uses. While many consumers may not know the underlying technologies powering their broadband connections, they connote fiber with enhanced service, according to responses by research groups conducted by Opinion Leader. "Participants typically understood that a full-fiber service represented a step-change in the quality of their broadband -- in speed, reliability and consistency -- and felt misled by products delivered over copper phone wires or cable being advertised as 'fiber,' " Opinion Leader Director Neil Samson told The Register. One research panelist compared fiber to a high-end car and alternatives to a bus. Yet even when researchers explained the different technologies in use, participants could not discern which products providers' advertisements promoted, the Register reported. Several Members of Parliament also consider widespread use of the term fiber to describe all broadband as misleading. ASA is reviewing Britain's Advertising Codes and expects to release an update this summer.
What Really Matters After all, if consumers use DOCSIS coax cable, they should attain 30 Mbit/s like their full-fiber neighbors, unless the cable is over-provisioned, ThinkBroadband wrote. And VDSL can reach the same speed, unless interference -- from lightning, perhaps -- forces a resynchronization. Service providers have a slew of other differentiating technologies, such as IPv4, IPv6 and Cat5e Ethernet cable. And a network's speed and latency can suffer tremendous damage if fiber is dirty or suffers from macrobending, cautioned Douglas Clague, Fiber Solutions marketing manager at Viavi Solutions Inc. during a webinar earlier today, "Tackling the Next Generation of PON." Regardless of what completes the last mile, newer technologies continue to push the speed and latency envelope as vendors seek to eliminate fiber's edge. Using "fiber" as a synonym for fast, low latency service to the detriment of other technologies could be equally misleading to the general public.Related posts:
— Alison Diana, Editor, UBB2020. Follow us on Twitter @UBB2020 or @alisoncdiana. |
In a flurry of activity throughout the week, Donald (DJ) LaVoy, Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development at the US Department of Agriculture, and his team spent about $145.8 million in the non-urban or suburban areas of seven states.
Calix reported revenue of $120.19 million – up 4% – in Q4 2019, putting a bounce in the step of company president and CEO Carl Russo and a shine to Calix's ongoing transition from hardware vendor to a provider of platforms enabled by cloud, APIs and subscriber experience.
Looking to curtail e-waste and improve the bottom line, BT will require customers to return routers and set-top boxes, although subscribers will not have to pay a fee when they receive regular broadband equipment.
The industry standards organization is looking to ease operator pain from residential WiFi, while it also sees initiatives in connected home and other projects bear fruit.
Deploying DOCSIS 3.1 across its entire footprint gave Rogers Communications the ability to offer speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s,
contributing to a broadband segement that generated about 60% of the Canadian operator's $3.05 billion (US) in Q4 cable earnings.
Industry Announcements
![]() Broadband World Forum Perspectives
![]() ![]() ![]() As the Senior Digital Experience Strategist at Canadian operator Rogers Communications, Lindsey Omelon build on her years of marketing experience to approach her strategy with a hybrid ...
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() There's certainly no shortage of hype around the use of AI in the telecoms sector, but fewer instances of real-world deployments. South Korean national operator KT is one of those ...
![]() ![]() ![]() Do a Google search of 'artificial intelligence broadband' and you'll get more than 9 million results in less than a second: The sheer volume of content out there shouldn't surprise anyone ...
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Comcast, like any other major communications service provider, is undergoing significant changes in the way it grows its business, how it runs its business and the technologies it uses to ...
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Five years ago, NOS board member Manuel Ramalho Eanes banked big on smart homes and smart cities.
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Thursday, December 17, 2020
12:00 p.m. New York / 5:00 p.m. London Today’s access network architecture is under mounting pressure due to a continued surge in the number of connected devices, a proliferation of bandwidth-intensive customer applications and dramatic shifts in usage patterns related to the pandemic, such as work-from-home and e-learning. Learn why now is the right time for cable operators to build greenfield networks or expand their existing networks with 10G PON, arming customers with high-speed symmetrical broadband. Gain a clear understanding of the drivers impacting the access network and the various approaches being considered to deliver higher speed services. Plus, find out the best practices that operators are employing as they leverage the latest in passive optical technology to future-proof their networks. Topics to be covered include:
Partner Perspectives - from our sponsors
The 'Agile Titan' – an Advanced Supplier Model to Meet the Needs of 21st Century Networks
By Josh Hirschey, General Manager, Amphenol Broadband Solutions and Mette Brink, General Manager, Amphenol Procom & Amphenol Antenna Solutions EMEA & APAC
What Service Providers Should Know About WiFi 6
By Greg Owens, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Calix |
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