FiberGeneration

Google #Fiber : For The Record.

Almost everybody in the IT/Telecoms medias/blogosphere/social networks space seems to be excited by the recent unveiling of Google's commercial plan in Kansas City.

To me, this plan is a simple bait to lure customers on the forthcoming (?) Google TV' offering. It misses to address a couple of fundamental points : Open Neutral Access (meaning the possibility for any operator to come on the platform and deliver its own services to its own customers), and Usages (how about non-telecommunications apps, such as Energy Management, Personal Care, etc. ?).

Since the very begining of the Kansas City project 2 years ago, I keep saying that Google doesn't have a clue about the real stuff re. Fiber-To-The-Home, and is doing this only to test some subtle ways to make money on Search-related things through a closed-environment disguised as a open infrastructure.

Ryan Lawler has posted an extensive, accurate, and undisputable description of the actual capabilities of Google in the FTTH space. I strongly recommend you to read Ryan's article here.

I agree 100% with everything Ryan says, including of course the lack of real, "physical" presence of Google at the customer. 

Also, I'm extremely satisfied to read from someone else the fact that Google hasn't connected a single strand of fiber to a house as of today.

 

Now, guess what : back in late 2008, I invited Google to discuss with us here in France, to set up a lab on the Pau Broadband Country ultrafast, open, neutral, muni network. Four years later, I keep thinking it would have saved the company time & money. Knowing what's happening (or better, not happening) in Kansas City, I'm convinced it would have also saved Google from an inevitable failure.

Here is the transcript of my email to the Google Exec here in France, sent on Jan. 14, 2009. Of course, we never got a reply.

Google Lab @ Pau Broadband Country ?

Hello X.,

First of all, I wish you and your loved ones a happy and peaceful new year. I sincerely hope 2009 will see lots of your dreams come true.

It is time for me to follow-up on our short discussion at the XYZ' breakfast last december in Paris. I would like to discuss with you and the Google France management team the opportunity for you Google to set up an R&D Lab in Pau-Pyrénées: it is a given that Google could leverage on the capabilities of the Pau Broadband Country' FTTH network...

I have shared a couple of documents with you, for your to get a better picture of what we are doing in Pau. That includes the "Campus THD3" Training & Demo Center, which could be a fantastic opportunity for Google to demonstrate and implement its numerous solutions in a true "open neutral" environment.

Let's discuss all those possibilities, at your convenience. You can reach me anytime anywhere, on my cell: +33 681 xxx xxx (no Android-powered, sorry ;-) and email: [email protected]

Looking forward hearing from you soon,

All the best,

_Marc

 

Now, if a Google Exec wants to talk with me on that, feel free : you know how to reach me Guys !

[Fiber To The Fun] Episode 11 : Malaysian Dream

You're tech-savvy, you're curious, you've always wanted to see what's inside a FTTH' street cabinet ? 

Here's a video that will make your dream come true. Sort of.

[Fiber To The Fun] Episode 10 : That's Why FTTH Don't Go Mass Adoption

Imagine this in your town ? Scary, huh ?!

The Groupon for Broadband looks nationwide

A startup offering Groupon-style group discounts for Broadband open neutral connections is now looking to connect with potential Broadband customers nationwide. On Monday Ulix 361 plans to expand access to its group Broadband discounts, installer recommendations and Broadband information services to another set of almost two dozen regions across France.

Ulix 361 works by using the power of the group to leverage a low-cost Broadband deal in certain areas. Similar to Groupon, Ulix 361 collects a critical mass of interested Broadband customers in a given area and uses the volume of people to make deals with Telecom operators. Think of the service as a way for entire neighborhoods to go Broadband in one fell swoop.

CEO and founder Olivier Zablocki explained to me in an interview that the idea of the service is to use the power of the group to shield consumers from lack of interest of the Telcos and to connect customers with reputable Broadband service providers. Broadband open neutral connections are a relatively new market in France, and prices, quality and delivery can vary wildly.

However, the bulk of Ulix 361’s deals have been delivered in regions with strong Broadband subsidies like Auvergne and Aquitaine. Ulix 361 has led to about 1,500 Broadband connections being installed since its first pilot projects were done in the summer of 2009.

The new nationwide plan launched this week provides a software tool for customers in regions that don’t necessarily have Open Access Broadband-friendly incentives to attempt to organize group deals and to see approved local Broadband services providers. But the catch is that customers in regions with weak Broadband subsidies probably won’t be able to finagle a group deal as low as ones in Broadband-friendly regions. In those instances, the software tool alerts the potential customers to how much they would have been able to save in a Broadband-friendly region and educates the potential customers about how they can connect with local legislators to ask for Broadband subsidies in their area.

It’s a smart bit of marketing, and it enables Ulix 361 to get involved with changing the unfortunate situation that the bulk of Broadband connections are done in a select number of regions. Ulix 361 says 20 out of 27 regions don’t have adequate Broadband subsidies that can generate economic connections deals. Ulix 361 generates revenue by charging Telecom operators a referral fee of 25 cents per megabit/second of contracted subscription.

Broadband and big data

The nationwide Broadband program is the latest example of an innovative startup turning to web analytics, big-data tools and smart algorithms to try to deliver more Broadband installations in France. The company has launched a Facebook app that shows how much savings a home Broadband connection is producing. Ulix 361, though, uses a monitoring device called the Spoutnik that a Broadband installer deploys at the home and that can track the current status of all the connected devices, their individual and overall power consumption, as well as the electricity eventually generated by renewable energy systems, e.g. photovoltaic solar panels.

Ulix 361 isn’t just using an idea that’s similar to Groupon; Ulix 361 also shares Groupon’s will to stay independent of the Big Guys. Recently, Olivier and his shareholders turned down an offer from Google, who is definitely seeking for field-proven, customer-focused, expertise in the Broadband area.

 

Editor Note : original article here.

Fiber-To-The-Home : Triple-e versus TriplePlay

Preceding its annual conference to be held Wednesday and Thursday this week in Delhi, India, the FTTH Council Asia-Pacific has released an appealing video about the Fiber-To-The-Home technology. Although it focuses IMHO a bit too much on the "Consumer" aspects, such as HD/3D-TV, and not enough on the "UGC" side, I love it.

Simply because it summarizes extremely well the true benefits of FTTH : non-TriplePlay services and usages. Efficient, Entertainment, Eco-Friendly : those are the arguments highlighted by the FTTH CAP to promote the concept.

Three "E", that makes an easy baseline for all of us Fiber Evangelists : "FTTH : Triple-E Services at Your Home".

Go to the 3:01 time tag to understand the power of Triple-E.

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 9: Troubleshooting Nightmare

Digital Nomad Evangelist and TED Bangkok presenter Chris Smith, aka Shamblesguru in Second Life, has posted a quite interesting video on YouTube:  "Internet Infrastructure (East vs West)".

This video demonstrates why Fiber Install & Maintenance tasks are so, well, hum, "easy" in Asia...

 

Fiber-To-The-Home, The Arabian Touch

This is a commercial aimed at converting consumers to Ultra-Broadband. Not from a US or European telco: from STC, aka Saudi Telecom. Enjoy, and think of Fiber as not only a game changer but a World changer...

Here's Why You Need Fiber-To-The-Home [episode 2]

Here's Why You Need Fiber-To-The-Home [episode 1]

Chattanooga: The Role Model For Rural Fiber Broadband

If you are a Muni looking for efficient ways to deploy your own Fiber-To-The-Premises network, there are a couple of examples to follow on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In Europe, Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Pau in France. In the US, there is Chattanooga, Tennessee.

This video highlights the numerous obstacles faced by EPB, Chattanooga's Muni Power Utility, against the Cable TV operators. Provided that EPB is currently offering 1Gbit/s access to Residential customers simply because they can do it, there's plenty of lessons to be learned from this part of the beautiful land of Tennessee. 

Among many others, the way the Municipality succeeded in mixing Energy and Communications services onto a single network is a perfect example of how the Smart Grid can facilitate ultra-broadband infrastructures' deployments. 

Also, the responses EPB and the city of Chattanooga gave to opponents, CATV operators first, might be part of 'The Perfect Open Neutral Access Network Salesman Guide'. Watch those answers starting at 2'02" time tag.

Post-Scriptum : I already published a video about Chattanooga, back in September 2007 (yes, 3.5 years ago). To avoid you a boring search, you'll find the post here.

Fiber Through The Air: The Perfect Solution For Fiber To The Rural Homes ?

French startup Bluwan has finally launched two weeks ago in Milano. Founded in 2005 by former Thomson/Thales executives, the company was kind of acting in stealth mode until the FTTH Council Europe' Conference recently held in the Fashion' s european capital city.

Here's the promotional video of their unique solution, so-called FTTA Fiber-Through-The-Air. Don't be confused: there's no fiber here but the trunk network. There's even no laser beam as the video may suggest - remember FSO Free Space Optics ? Actually, Bluwan has developped a quite interesting multiplexing technology that allows "the aggregation of multiple independent channels (modems) through [our] wideband radios and antennas onto a single air interface."

Being involved with Ultra-Broadband deployment in Rural areas, I'm convinced such a solution must be part of the portfolio of networks operators : faster and cheaper to install than wireline/optics, Radio fits well with mainstream needs in most parts of the country but dense areas. What mainstream needs ? TriplePlay. Telephone, Internet, Television. Downstream apps, actually. Because the only yet radically crippling limit of this FTTA technology is the rather impossible symmetrical mode - as with most of the Wireless Access technologies to date.

Post-scriptum : Among all the ultra-broadband wireless technologies available today for access networks, I do prefer Free-Space Optics. Simply because it's way safier than Radio in regards of signals' s confidentiality. Of course, one may be able to tap in the laser beam to "listen" the actual communications. However, such a hack is much more difficult to achieve, compare to pure radio comms. In the case of BluWan, the interesting thing is the fact that its founders come from one of the key suppliers of the Defense/Military sector. Hence I would rather double-check the security issues with BluWan' engineers before deploying my first FTTA link... 

Looking For The Ultimate Killer App To Boost Fiber To Your Home ?

Look no further. It's here, and it's coming on a fiber near you. Faster than you might think. Hey, we're humans, after all.

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 7: Que Viva El Telepresence !

For those of you who still wonder why Cisco' s Telepresence and Apple' s FaceTime are such big deals, here is the answer. Enjoy, and have a nice landing.

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 6: That's Why I Don't Blog Those Days

As FTTH Network Deployment Director somewhere here in France, my days since the last twelve months have been pretty busy. Here's why. Enjoy.

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 4: Fibermercial

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 3: Home Cabling Made Real

Have Fiber-To-The-Home ? Want high-speed home network cabling ? Better choose the right contractor...

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 2: Buried Cable The US Way

Thought America is 100% aerial cabling? Watch this, and think again.

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 1: How To Deploy Fiber (un)Safely

Deploying Fiber-To-The-Home ? Think you need to block the streets ? Watch this, and think twice !

Google Fiber : How To Think Small With A Geek

 
On Friday, Google closed its call on its initiative on ultra-broadband open access networks. According to James Kelly, Google Fiber Product Manager (what a cool job title !), more than 1,100 communities and 194,000 individuals have submitted a response to the bid. James doesn't tell much about the applicants, giving just a couple of links to fancy stuff on YouTube or Facebook. We'll have to wait a little bit to get all the names, and, more importantly, the happy few cities who'll get the chance to experiment Google Fiber.

For the time being, we must dig the Net to find out some concrete data. As such, Martin of Zettaphile.com has put together an exhaustive list of those communities, which contains some well known cities, e.g. Anchorage, AK, Tempe, AZ, Berkeley, CA, etc. Also, Tim Poulus built his own list where we can see that Palo Alto has apparently decided to apply to Google Fiber as well.

The list of small communities in Rural America who applied to Google' s RFI is just impressive. Asheville, North Carolina, has launched a viral marketing campaign here, including a useful blog which tracks the news about the collectivities seeking for Google's help. Also in NC, Greensboro is looking for its House M.D. Their Googlegrensboro website is just gorgeous. 

Nevertheless, two elements in James's blog post are of concern to me. First, this sentence about the responses : "all with the goal of bringing ultra high-speed broadband to their communities": no word on open neutral access here. Then, the map at the end of the post : beside the fact that it's not an interactive one (ever heard of Google Maps, James ? ;-), there's something which rings a bell to me.  

When you look at this map, the evidence is that people don't want Google Fiber per se. They want Broadband, full stop. As everybody knows, the US Government has publicly announced it National Broadband Plan last week. See the official video here, and download the full document here (dear Wisconsin's readers, be patient : 11.50MB ;-). Just compare the actual maps listing the current pending or granted awards (thanks to Rob Powell of Telecoms Ramblings for the heads up) with the Google Fiber's one : it's almost the same. That means most of the people consider the Mountain View giant as another communications services provider, at the same level than a Verizon or an AT&T or a ComCast.

The problem is : Google doesn't position itself as a services provider. To better understand my point, let's read Google Fiber statement again - full text here :

Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better, and faster for everyone. Here are some specific things that we have in mind:

• Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it's creating new bandwidth-intensive "killer apps" and services, or other uses we can't yet imagine.
• New deployment techniques: We'll test new ways to build fiber networks; to help inform, and support deployments elsewhere, we'll share key lessons learned with the world.
• Openness and choice: We'll operate an "open access" network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we'll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory, and transparent way.

Google will be a operators' s operator, of the same kind than what we already enjoy here in Europe with the Reggefibers type of Open Neutral Access providers. When you see this flash mob organized by some hungry guys in Columbia, Missouri, you doubt they've got it right.

My guess is that the majority of the individuals who have called on Google Fiber have done it for the very same reasons people here in France called on their local govs some years ago: they live in a Broadband deadzone, as those French peers were living in a DSL black hole ("ADSL White Zone" as we call it ). No matter who provides the service and how, people just want their broadband connection at home, to watch HDTV without glitches and upload their family's photos faster.

The best example of this quest comes from the city of Peoria, Illinois. Their call is all about speed. Nothing on the benefits on the local economy through the creation of new services thus new jobs, nothing on the benefits of Open Neutral Access at large.

"Think big with a gig" is Google Fiber's motto. I'm afraid 80% of the 1,100 communities actually think small thanks to their geeks. I sincerely wish James and his team good luck with the review of the responses, hoping they will come up with one or two truly groundbreaking projects.

post-scriptum : since Fibergeneration is well indexed by Google' s engines, I know this post is set to appear quickly on top of James' s alerts. So, here's my advice, dear James : you may want to investigate what a few furious guys have achieved somewhere in South-West of France with the Pau Broadband Country FTTH muni network. To get started, click here.

note : you can read my previous posts asking for a Google Fiber world here, here, and this last one, date Feb.7, 2010.

Coming Soon: Private Fiber Optics to the Home (but not from Google. Maybe.)

I got that video in my "Must-Share" list since months. Fact is, almost a year after this presentation, the situation has never been so accurately described by Derek Slater, Policy Analyst at Google.

When it's about Fiber-To-The-Home, the Last-Mile is still THE issue. Which can't be solved without the involvement of the customers into the loop : we must talk Fiber-FROM-The-Home, not "To".

The question is: who else, beside Google, could make such paradigm shift become a reality ? Maybe the answer will come from... France, later this year. Stay tuned.

France Goes Fiber-To-The-Mess

Yesterday, french telcos Orange and SFR announced their co-investment on two suburban towns in the "Greater Paris" (french joke) area, to roll-out FTTH Fiber-To-The-Home. They also announced the possible creation of an open joint-venture that would serve as operators' s operator for medium dense areas.

Of course, this is a smart move, considering the Fiber-Broadband plan to be unveiled by the government on Monday the 18th of January. No need to sport an MBA to understand that France Telecom and SFR have set up a nice trick to get public funding in order to build their own next-gen access networks.

Now, it may be useful to get back a few months ago, and read this post and this one written by Jean-Michel Soulier, CEO of french-canadian operators' operator Covage. Here's what Jean-Michel proposed before the whole attendance at the yearly forum held by Regulator ARCEP last September.

- the territory could be split in 4-5 segments representing approximately 1m households each in semi-dense areas (this assumes that private initiative will cover dense areas, which according to operator Free is easier said than done).

- a national consortium would be set up with the largest operators and the French national bank CDC. The consortium would in turn establish a subsidiary in each of the territorial segments.

- In each segment, a neutral operator would be selected for the deployment and operation of the FTTH network, in association with the local communities willing to participate in exchange for some ownership in the network.

- the large operators, as members of the national consortium, would commit to use the consortium's FTTH lines in order to guaranty the business case and the ability to raise additional financing.

That is a simple plan, quite easy to implement, and above all: it ensures Open Neutral Access. 

Which Orange-SFR public-money-vacuum-cleaner new venture surely won't.

Introducing Fiber To The Church, Take Three

The FTTH Forum organized earlier this week in Lisbon by HanseCom has been quite a nice success, with a large audience, mostly coming from Portugal of course.

I was the only French, together with Roland Montagne of IDATE, to speak at the conference, which was pretty much held by the "Dutch Connection" ! A piece of evidence that the Open Neutral Access approach is still not a standard thinking here in France...

Actually, I was supposed to be part of two panels : the one on Muni Fiber, and the one on new cabling techniques. I must admit : due to my hectic agenda over the last few weeks and my current focus on Rural Broadband, I totally forgot the second point and did only prepare the first. I realized my mistake... the morning before the panels, scheduled in late afternoon !

By chance, Hassan Clausen, Managing Director of HanseCom and organizer of the event understood pretty well the situation, and let me withdraw from the New Cabling stuff, which gave him the opportunity to get 3 speakers at each panel. I'm glad my mistake finally allowed Uffe Mogensen, CEO of GM Plast, to deliver a fantastic presentation on micro-trenching techniques.

 So, as planned, I did present the Bottom-Up approach for deploying Fiber in Rural areas. To start with, I explained why the usual way of deploying municipal Fiber-To-The-Home networks in France is never satisfying for the citizens - see Pau Broadband Country or Gonfreville-l'Orcher : as the people were not involved in the project at the very beginning, they are to reject it quickly as soon as something goes wrong.

That's where the "Top-Down" strategy fails. Enters the "Bottom-Up" approach : help the people solve a real problem in their daily life - what we B2B marketeers call "the customer' s pain", and go a step beyond by offering them something else on top of the solution used to fix this problem. Work with them to define the solution, work with them to test and implement it. Doing so, you will get the citizens adopt the solution, as they are part of its design' process.

The first question is: is there an Open Neutral Access Fiber nearby ? If the answer is "No", then... well, look for alternatives (which are not part of this discussion, sorry !). If the answer is "Yes", then the next question is: can Fiber help solving the problem ?. If the answer is "No", bad luck for me (and you, BTW ;-). If the answer is "Yes", then let's work it out with the customer, er., the Citizens.

 That's the Bottom-Up approach for deploying FTTH Fiber-To-The-Home, starting by the Church. Why the church ? Simply because in each and every small city or village out there, there's a church - or a synagog, or a mosque, or a temple, whatever religious construction that is (or was...) the heart of your town, with active social life around, e.g. a pub, a grocery store, a book store... The idea is that simple : get the Fiber to the very heart of your village, and get the people build a community around it. They will adopt the project, because they will be part of it, playing an active role.

Actually, that's nothing new. Think of the Web 2.0 stuff: how did all those famous startups which we all know today, the Facebooks, the Twitters, the YouTubes, proceed at the beginning ? Got an idea, test it among a bunch of buddies, then once the idea went polished enough, extend the testing phase to a larger audience, who will help fixing the bugs and adding new features, then launch the product publicly. And still keep their users onboard by creating a true community spirit. There's no difference with what Seth Godin, the iconic Marketing guru of the Blogosphere, calls the Tribe. 

In the business, how do you get customers to use your product ? You do evangelize them, right ? Here, with Municipal Fiber-To-The-Home networks, all we need to do is the same. Hence the Church.

Let me evangelize you. Here is the presentation, available for download on Slideshare. I give three examples of actual projects based on this bottom-up approach.

Disclaimer :  I'm currently working as a consultant for two of those municipalities: Montmirail and La Grande Paroisse. The two projects are ongoing, both in the preliminary phase of network design and definition of the first targets (low-investments, boot-strapping...). The project concerning Val d'Isere has not been approved yet - we just started the discussions a couple of weeks ago.

Fiber-To-The-Church

View more documents from Marc Duchesne.

Post-scriptum : this idea of bringing Fiber Broadband to a community is pretty well spread in the Anglo-Saxon part of Europe, not speaking of the US of course. See what fellow Guy Jarvis is doing in the UK with his FibreStream organization, or Frans-Anton Vermast of i-NEC in the Netherlands and elsewhere (interview by Costas Troulos of Broadband Prime here). Although this kind of spirit is not that common here in France, I'm convinced that involving the people right from the beginning of a project as big as bringing fiber to their home is the only way to go when public money (means your taxes and mine) is at stake. Frans Anton has found a nice tweak to the FTTH acronym in the Municipalities environment : FFTH, Fiber FROM The Home...

Amen, and Carpe Diem ;-)

Talking Rural Broadband at the FTTH Forum

Tomorrow Wednesday, I will be in Lisbon, Portugal, for the first time ever. Never been there before, even when I was Business Dev EMEA at Agilent Technologies. Maybe that's why I lost a quite big tender with a new entrant back in the Bubble Era. I shall come back to this story someday, because it's a typical example of the Bid2Win fundamentals.

Anyway, the point of this post is: I've been invited by HanseCom to speak about "Fiber in the Municipalities" at the FTTH Forum conference, to be held November 4. 

I'll present three examples of the bottom-up approach here in Rural France. Fiber-To-The-Church, that is !...

The conference takes place at the VIP Arts Hotel in Lisbon. As I'll fly back home on Thursday morning, feel free to send me a tweet @mduchesn if you're in town. We'll discuss Fiber To The Marina ;-)

THD92: Sarkozy' s First Step Into The All-Digital Economy

Brussels finally gave its "Go" to the THD92 project held by the department of Hauts de Seine, west of Paris. With 850,000 homes and enterprises to be connected to Fiber, THD92 is the largest FTTH Fiber-To-The-Home project in Europe to date.

It's also by far the most critical project for the whole Telecoms circle here in France: The Hauts de Seine department is the home of President Sarkozy, who will certainly keep an eye on the construction of the network until completion, and watch carefully the outcomes.

By 2012, the Hauts de Seine will offer ultra-broadband connectivity to all its citizens and businesses. Provided this territory is the richest of France, THD92 is to serve as THE Model for the rest of the country. Maybe the enormous reservoir of talents there will help developing the long-awaited Next-Generation Apps. Perhaps France will lead the Digital Economy then...

ps : for more info on THD92, read this post by Buddy Benoit Felten, and follow the links.

"Fiber Camp" @ Odebit 2009: Not The Camp You Think

I recently wrote a disclaimer about the upcoming "Fiber Camp", to be held in Paris next week during the Odebit tradeshow and conference (trade show first, as you need to be exhibitor to speak at the conference...).

I finally got a chance to read the program, on paper (the one published online don't give details on the so-called Fiber Camp): it has absolutely nothing to do with a BarCamp type of workshop. Participants will attend a Vendors session, with a fixed agenda and fixed speakers, er., vendors.

I wonder if that's the reason why the organizer inserted a "space" between "Fiber" and "Camp"...

Anyhow, you guys who were expecting to participate to the first real workshop on FTTH deployments, better stay home.

Or attend this one.

Rural Ultra-Broadband: En Route To The FTTCh (Fiber-To-The-Church)

Yesterday in Paris, the French Government gathered the ICT community for the first seminar of the series on the Stimulus plan (link in french). The agenda of the day: where, when and how to invest into the Digital Economy.

Of course, Fiber Broadband was one of *the* topics of the day. The opening session has been quite interesting, with several key actors - the Prime Minister, two former Prime Ministers, Ministers, Senators, operators - claiming that if France is to be "fibered", than it must be the whole country, meaning Rural areas as well.

Mr. Yves Le Mouël, President of the French Telcos Federation (comprising all of them but Illiad-Free), used an expression which I find pretty accurate: "in the villages, we must bring Fiber up to the Church."

Starting today, I declare " FTTCh  Fiber-To-The-Church " to be the new motto of us Rural Broadband activists.

Photo Credit: Famara.

French Broadband Stimulus Plan: Announcements On Their Way

I will participate to the Governmental Seminar "Digital: Invest Today For Tomorrow's Growth", to be held in Paris tomorrow Thursday the 10th of September.

I hope that live-tweeting will be allowed... and technically feasible ;-)

Ultra-Broadband On Copper ?

At the Broadband World Forum Europe, which opened its doors yesterday in Paris, a small Canadian firm is making the buzz. Genesis (what a cool name ;-) Technical Systems (slightly less appealing ;-), aka GenesisTechSys, is unveiling its Bonded DSL Rings™ (BDR) solution. A patent-pending access technology, BDR re-uses the existing copper plant to deliver up to 400Mbps of bandwidth.

As Stephen Cooke, President & CTO, describes it, BDR uses each house as an regenerator for the next connected one. So to speak, as with Skype: more users means more bandwidth available for the community.

According to Stephen, Bonded DSL Rings™ is to leave the labs early next year, for the first field trials by mid-2010. For the time being, the only data at our disposal is available on GenesisTechSys website, with the FAQs here.

BDR seems to be an interesting option for Rural Broadband: able to provide Peer-to-Peer, Open Neutral Access on existing infrastructure, for an investment way lower than Fiber - Genesis claims 1/100th the cost of fiber in rural areas, so let's be conservative and say BDR costs 1/10th of FTTH : I know lots of local authorities in France who would sign the tender right now...

Anyhow, this announcement should ring two bells in a Telecoms veteran' s mind (like me, got it ? ;-). First, BDR proves once again that Copper is not dead, although Fiber is going further each day everywhere around the Planet. Copper-based access networks are here for the next 20 years, thanks to some big surprises coming from newcomers like Genesis.

Second, speaking of newcomers : let's hope we are not witnessing a new Silk Road type of adventure. This time, there are people at the other end of the line...

IRL @ Dark Fibre Convention 2009

I have been invited to participate to the 2nd Dark Fibre Convention by the Broad Group in London, UK, next November.

I will run the half day pre-conference workshop on 4th November: "Dark Fibre essentials: introductory guide".

I will  also contribute, either as a speaker or a panelist, to the "Trends in Dark Fibre deployment in Rural areas" session on Day One, and to the "Technical maturity status and economics of 40 and 100 Gigabit deployment" session on Day Two. Lots of things to share there...

Shall you be attending as well or in town at this period of time, feel free to drop me a tweet. I'd love to discuss with you Fiber Broadband matters ;-)

Registration for the Dark Fibre Convention here.

post-scriptum : The Broad Group is one of the few events organizers I know who's really looking after Climate changes. That makes the DF Convention even more interesting to follow.

IRL @ FTTH Council Europe Press Conference

Thanks to buddy Alain Baritault, with whom I'm working on some exciting new ventures in the Green & ICT space(s), I'll attend the FTTH Council Europe press conference next Monday in Paris.

Hopefully the format will ease live blogging. Since I'm not sure there's free WiFi available at the CNIT Paris La Defense' conference center, better follow me on Twitter for the instant coverage.

post-scriptum: I won't attend the Broadband World Forum. Too far away of the real world: you and me !

"FiberCamp" @ Odebit 2009: Disclaimer

The forthcoming Odebit 2009 tradeshow and conference, to be held Sept 22-23 in Paris, will apparently feature a so-called Fiber Camp.

It appears that I'm the one who suggested such a brainstorming workshop to the organizer, last year after the third edition of Odebit which has been quite a disaster in terms of attendance.

I even been part of the organization committee for some months, until the organizer decided to kick me out because I was suggesting her people for the conferences' cycle. Unfortunately, I haven't got the point: to speak at Odebit, you have to register as exhibitor first. A strange policy, for me who's more used to the US/UK way of building a conference' agenda...

So, this post is aimed to make it clear : I 'm not involved with this so-called Fiber Camp stuff.

Shall it be a success, fair enough: I'll be happy for the french FTTx community. Shall it be a failure, fine: it will give me a little bit more time to setup and launch the truly first european CampFiber, with fellow FTTH Evangelists Guy Jarvis and Costas Troulos.

France: Towards Ultra Broadband For Everyone!

This morning in Aurillac, in the very hardcore of Rural France, Mr Michel Mercier, the new Minister of Rural Areas and Regional Planning, has simply made the most exciting announcement I've heard this year so far about Fiber Broadband' matters: by the end of September this year, the French Government will unveil its plan for ultra-broadband access to everyone. The plan is held by the Prime Minister, and will involved the collectivities / local authorities as well as the telecoms operators.

More in the days to come...

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UPDATE 08/28/09 : Buddy Blogger Benoit Felten, aka "François" on the other side of the Ocean, has posted a link to the pretty interesting note published by Mr. Jean-Michel Soulier, the new head of french-canadian operators' s operator Covage.

In his note, Jean-Michel unveils the call he received from the french government for participation to the future "Ultra-Broadband To Everyone" Public consortium which will deploy FTTH in medium density areas. Pushing the idea of Open Access, Jean-Michel also discloses to us his response :

•  It should be an open access consortium. That is the only way to combine efforts from leading operators without being seen as an anti-competitive vehicle by the European Union lawyers.
• An independent entity should manage it. Once the funds have been committed and the strategic objectives defined by the shareholders, the Board should be able to independently decide where and when to start. This guaranties that no shareholder will try to block the consortium to protect its market share in a specific area. 
• Consortium members who are also retail operators should commit to buy FTTH lines from the consortium. Quotas could be defined according to market shares. This would ensure that the FTTH deployments are effectively used to provide services to the end users and generate cash flows that, in turn, enable leverage with bank loans. 
• A significant share of the Consortium’s resources should be reserved for partnership with local authorities, between 30% and 50%. This would leverage the funds that the local governments are ready to dedicate to FTTH while guarantying them a framework for their investments.

I like the first criteria: Open Access must be guaranteed. That's exactly what I tweeted (in french, sorry) when I heard the announcement by Mr. Mercier: if Telcos are to fund this initiative, how about Open Neutral Access ? That is the main number one top most critical issue on this "Ultra-Broadband To Everyone" matter: we as citizens and consumers can't afford suffering the same situation than with DSL (when you have access to it...): being tied up with a services provider.

Think out of the TriplePlay box. I don't want Orange to sell me Personal Care services, simply because they are not suited for that: to start with, they don't have the right Technical Support structure for such mission-critical services. Anyone asking Orange for an ADSL line or using their Call Center those days will agree with me: it's a pure nightmare, proving that France Telecom is not really looking after the satisfaction of its customers. Therefore, I would never ever give them the ability to deliver me services such as e-Health or Tele-surveillance: questionable reliability, hence a lack of 100% trust & confidence. This is FT-Orange, so you can imagine what's about its rivals, the SFRs and Frees: no better.

FTTH doesn't mean HD/3D-TV. It's means a dumb pipe able to carry any type of data at any rate comprised between 1bps to 1Gbps and even higher. Think Sustainable Development for one: data sent by remote/dispatched sensors, SmartGrid, renewable energies sources 's monitoring, etc. Do you think your Telco is really able to provide you with such services ?...

The Truth About FTTH In France, Take 2

Heard yesterday from one of the most active tenants of FTTH Fiber-To-The-Home in France : "I'm to send back my 'xyz' Box, because I don't watch TV".

The Truth About FTTH In France

Over the french Culture & Medias magazine "Telerama", journalist Samuel Gontier has published last week the apparently true story of his encounter with FTTH Fiber To The Home.

This story is the exact reflect of the actual situation in the country with FTTH install :

- the contractors, coming from the Enterprise world, are not used to deal with people like you and me, read the Residential market.

- budget constraints and obsolete technics make it difficult for the technicians to overcome material issues such as fiber layout.

The article being written in french, I will do my best to translate it within the next few days. However, you can try a Google Translate from there.

I will also elaborate on my personal view on the problem, which is, IMHO, the real reason why FTTH deployments are not so important at the moment in France : lack of skilled technicians and lack of state-of-the-art organizations are slowing down the whole stuff. Among a couple of other issues of course, such as the fact that private/listed Telcos make their profits on Copper and Cellular, not on Personal Care services...

FTTH Business Model, Or How Illegal Download Leads To New Jobs Creation

The Pau Broadband Country Fiber-To-The-Home network is truly *the* model for Muni FTTH. Here's one example, which I like to share with people in the Governmental sphere those days, in regards of the famous Hadopi law.

Just a few months after the launch of the network back in 2005, the 2.5Gbit/s high-speed links between Pau and Paris' Telehouse hubs became almost overloaded. In the upstream direction. Traffic analysis demonstrated that Gen Y fellows and geeks of all sorts were uploading gigabytes of more or less legal stuff: music, video, software, everything that makes Vuze and the likes so fun to use...

With the remarkable increase of fiber subscribers since begin 2008, an upgrade of these Pau-Paris links was mandatory. 10Gbit/s is now on its way. That makes the distance between the two cities totally transparent, allowing ultra-high speed communications for businesses who run operations in Pau, Paris, and elsewhere in the World, for instance... San Francisco and the Silicon Valley.

Guess what: since empty space is a scarce resource in Paris, new datacenters are popping up outside the capital city. One the very few towns out there able to host Green datacenters: Pau. Pau has all the know-how, skills and legitimacy to offer such high-tech facilities. Here's the beauty of the story: It is because of a band of young guys are playing with the law that Pau can host new businesses in a booming sector. If you are looking for a business model which works, here's one: let the Gen Y play at will.

The FTTH' s Ultimate Business Model

Every single speaker at every single conference where FTTH Fiber-To-The-Home is the core topic is talking about business model(s). Since years, they all look for *the* business model. The fact is: there is no business model at all. Surely not when you think about this question from the Telecommunications' industry perspective. Considering FTTH as any other Telecoms technology - DSL, WiMax, LTE, whatever - is a pure mistake. It should be considered as the Web 2.0: a breakthrough concept, allowing anyone to contribute to the community. Think Peer-To-Peer: I can directly provide you alone or the whole community on the network with the service you/she want, without any intermediate actor.

"FTTH = Web 2.0". Once you'll get that paradigm, you'll understand that there is no business model for FTTH at all. See Twitter.

Pau Broadband Country: Muni Fiber To Everyone At Ten Euros A Year

Pau Broadband Country FTTH by the numbers:

• more than 600 new jobs created since 2005 
• for a 140,000 inhabitants area
• with 10,000 active subscribers to date
• on 50,000 households passed
• out of 57,000 planned 
• over a 15-years leasing contract
• representing an investment of 35 Million euros
• including 15 Millions euro financed by the network infrastructure operator
• and 20 Millions financed by the Pau Greater Area collectivity

Which means a total investment by each and every citizen of the Pau Greater Area of 143.00 EUR over 15 years.

In other words: less than 10 euros per year over 15 years, to get the most advanced Fiber-To-The-Home network in Southern Europe (which starts south of Frankfurt ;-) and help the creation of hundreds of new jobs in new industries. Who said FTTH has to be expensive ?...

post-scriptum: The PBC Pau Broadband Country is the mother of all Muni FTTH network on the planet. Everyone interested or involved in this topic should study PBC carefully, and in depth. Learnings are just amazingly surprising. Positively surprising.

A Few (Disturbing) Things About FTTH Fiber-To-The-Home

I've been quite silent here over the last months, although I've been quite active on the FTTH front: training an installation & maintenance contractor, visiting key vendors, working on Muni Broadband projects, attending seminars and conferences.

Living  "Fiber Broadband" since two years, especially with the lovely Pau Broadband Country, I'm now convinced of a few things. Here are my points:

1. Installing fiber at the FTTH subscriber' s place is not a B2B job. It's B2C. We are the Consumer. You don't behave the same way when dealing with me aka the person than when dealing with me aka the enterprise. This is where everybody fails, from the Telco to the Contractor: the traditional "telecoms" technicians are not suited for installing fiber in our houses.
   They may have all the required technical skills, but they lack the social ones: customer relationships. Here in France, some big players recently realized the issue, due to the countless problems they have to face once entering the Subscriber's place. My take: in two years from now, the guy (or the girl) who will install FTTH in my house won't come from the Telecoms world: she will come from the Retail world.

2. The future of FTTH relies into Muni Networks. Telcos and CableTV operators have only one objective: make their company's stocks shine on the market. Therefore, no private Communications Services Provider will deliver non-TriplePlay services on their own networks, at least not until some new player comes with a disruptive business model à la Apple' s App Store. Just because they can't make money selling the peer-to-peer/local/kiosk services that are the true juice of Fiber-To-The-Home.
   Even e-Health and e-Education are not really in their true scope: ever seen a Telco providing Maths courses ? Here again, Apple could serve as the disruptive model with its iTunes U. IMHO, Telcos are set to stick with their TriplePlay stuff for a long while. In France for instance, when speaking FTTH in public, both rivals FT-Orange and SFR describe Fiber-To-The-Home as "the technology to get HD-TV and soon 3D-TV", and that pretty much it. At a recent conference in Paris, Swisscom even said that FTTH is no different from older technologies, relying on a 20 to 30 years ROI business model. I sincerely wish Apple to look after Broadband, in order to demonstrate to all those old-thinkers how they are wrong, keeping their old-fashioned way of building and operating access networks...
   Let's face it: only Open Neutral Access network infrastructures allow the so-called Next Generation Applications or Services, such as Tele-Medicine. Applications which must be operated by some Service(s) Provider(s) who are of a totally different type than the Telco and the CableTV guys. One must split the services from the infrastructure, to enable competition and service delivery. Allowing anyone to provide any service to anyone on the network is the key for innovation, hence jobs creation. Ever heard of a private telco with such an open mind ?
   Hence this fact: a) as existing Telecoms and CableTV operators will only deploy FTTH in dense urban areas, b) as Collectivities, e.g. City Councils, in the rest of the country, e.g. rural areas, will have to go Fiber Broadband in order to avoid the Digital Divide and keep their employment rate up, c) as those Collectivities will build public infrastructures which are open and neutral by nature, FTTH Muni networks will serve as the platform for innovation, new businesses and new jobs creations - like the Pau Greater Area do with its Pau Broadband Country network, by the way: more than 600 new jobs since 2005, for a 140,000 inhabitants area, with 50,000 households passed and 10,000 active subscribers to date, for a total investment by each and every citizen of 143.00 EUR over 15 years (or less than 10 euros per year over 15 years...).

3. There is not one business model for FTTH but two: Pau, and Twitter. Regarding Pau, see above: 10 euros per habitant per year over 15 years, to build and operate a FTTH/FTTB network with the highest penetration ratio in Europe to date, and hosting some of the most advanced high-tech research centers in the World.
   Now, think Twitter. A disruptive Web 2.0 service, launched 3 years ago without any business model, today the fastest growing communication tool on Earth. Still no proven, established business model, yet millions of users, daily. Hence this: get Munis and Collectivities to build open neutral 100 Mbps symmetrical access networks, and let the people create the killer app.
   Forget ARPU, CAPEX, OPEX. Go PEOPLE.

Fibering Twitterland

For those of you who seek informations and/or jobs in the Optical Communications sector, here are your new companions : FiberNews and FiberJobs, which you can follow on Twitter respectively here and here.

Of course, those are RSS feeds which I've put together thanks to Yahoo!Pipes and other cool Web 2.0 tools (BTW, have you noticed how the expression "Web 2.0" is old fashion those days ?). 

FiberNews delivers news on FTTH worldwide, and FiberJobs delivers job postings related to FTTH (US only for the time being). Simple, isn't ?

LUS Fiber: Launched !

Good news of the day: the folks in Louisiana have made their dream real. Read here.
Truly innovative applications still to come (as anywhere else, it seems). Or, maybe Americans think that HDTV is the Future (no pun intented).

Muni FTTH: Not An Easy Path To Go (or why Pau Broadband Country is a model)

John St. Julien of Lafayette, LA, has published an article titled "LUS Fiber delays start" on the LafayetteProFiber blog. Says John in his introduction : "LUS has missed its deadline to serve the first customers in January of this year. They point to uncompleted contracts for cable channels as the reason for the delay—contracts LUS has signed but the folks that control the channel packages have not returned."

For those of you who are not familiar with the LUS Fiber project, you may find relevant informations on the LUS Lafayette Utilities System website here. In summary, the city of Lafayette is building its own FTTH Fiber-To-The-Home network. Get all details and interactive maps here on the LUS Fiber website.

The first customers were supposed to be served "by early 2009", meaning now. Unfortunately, it seems that some issues with the services providers have lead to delay the network' turn up (hey dear readers of Gonfreville-l'Orcher, France: does it sound familiar to you ?...).

What is surprising to me, as someone who's deeply involved into FTTH' matters since 18 months now, is the fact that missing contracts for TV services do screw up the whole thing. How about Voice and Internet ? Or other services, outside of the TriplePlay arena ? Such as Tele-Medicine, Tele-Education, Tele-whatever-that-is-not-Vision...

According to the LUS Fiber FAQ' page, Voice and Internet are part of the package offered to subscribers. Hence the confirmation: in people's mind, FTTH means HDTV, full-stop. That's why it goes wry everywhere but in Asia. See in France, for instance : why would people ask for fiber, when they can get hundreds of TV channels in high-def with DSL ?...

Here comes the PBC Pau Broadband Country. Decided in 2002, right in the middle of the Dotcom crash' s long-tail effects. Signed up in 2003, when NO standard or recommendations even exist on Active Ethernet P2P FTTH networks. Opened in 2005, when VoIP and IPTV were just crossing the chasm toward mainstream. Today, PBC is a model. The mother of all Muni Fiber networks. It works, it attracts businesses, it helps creating the lifestyle that goes with ultra-broadband.

It's time to share the Pau Broadband Country' s experience(s). First workshop by the end of March. Stay tuned.

Twittering FTTH

Seems Asia is leading the way for FTTH Fiber-To-The-Home. See here.

FiberCamp @ Odebit '09, Paris

The official announcement just landed here. The 4th edition of the Ultra-Broadband Solutions & Applications 'Odebit' conference & tradeshow will be held on the 22d and 23d of September, in Paris-La Defense.
I do have the very privilege to be part of the organization, as I will manage and facilitate the very first 'Fiber Camp' unconference event ever organized in France - and in Europe, to date.

Actually, I've suggested the idea to the charming Sandrine Lagardere, founder and owner of Odebit, a few months ago. She immediately bought on the idea, as such of brainstorming workshop kind of event is a must in the current situation of everything 'Broadband' here in France and elsewhere in Europe.

Calling on a Fiber Camp since a year or so, I was delighted to learn from the folks in Lafayette, LA : they've put together the world-first CampFiber event back in October, with quite a nice success.

I will do my best to serve the Fiber-To-The-Home community down there in Lafayette's home country, hoping that the FiberCamp Paris will be a model for others in other parts of Europe.

More in the coming weeks, of course.

UPDATE Dec.3, 2008 : FiberCamp @ Odebit'09 wiki page here.

Here's Where You Can Invent The Life That Goes With Fiber Broadband

 

You're a young entrepreneur. You have a fantastic idea for a new Cloud Computing business. You need ultra-broadband. Bootstrap your ski shoes, grab your single-speed bike, put your surf board in the pick-up, and come to the Pau Broadband Country.

Pau Broadband Country : Ahead Of The Rest Of France

See this ? A fiber contractor working on some FTTH install, today around noon.
If you're looking for 100Mbps upstream/downstream connection, feel free to come.
Not sure you can enjoy the same environment in Amsterdam ;-)

Ultra-Broadband Fans, Forget Amsterdam : Come To Pau, It's Warmer ;-)

[updated 10/7/08 4:36PM CET] See this 1Gbit/s trial in Amsterdam ? Imagine the same type of apps (3D-HDTV for instance), right at the size of your district. A true field trial. That's what the Pau Greater Area and its Pau Broadband Country FTTH platform can offer to you Next Gen Apps vendors and to you Heavy Bandwidth Consumers.
Plus, Pau is a bit south of Amsterdam, which makes it a slightly better place for work and fun - as long as you prefer sports & nature lifestyle rather than nightlife in a city that never sleeps ;-)
If I were a NGA vendor, I would do the testing in Pau and the implementation in Amsterdam...

Finally, France May Lead The Path To Broadband For Everyone

This morning at the Ultra-Broadband Summit at the Odebit Conference in Paris, Mr Eric Besson, Minister of State to the Prime Minister, with responsibility for Forward Planning, Assessment of Public Policies and Development of the Digital Economy, introduced the draft plan for Digital Economy by 2012 - read the full text here (link in french).

The one thing that will change the game : France is going aerial cabling. Mr Besson cited Japan and South Korea as the most advanced countries for FTTH, emphasizing on the fact that those countries are deploying mostly aerial fiber. Also, Mr Besson cited USA, where 60% of the fiber cables are aerial. Last, Mr Besson said that aerial cabling reduces the cost of deployment by a factor of 2.

That is the best news I've heard from a member of the French Government since years. Finally, we are to join the "smart club" : aerial cabling is faster, easier, and cheaper than any other solution - buried, ducts...

The french cable manufacturer Acome has developed a solution for fiber deployment along low-voltage power lines which do inverse the traditional ratio Civil Engineering vs. The Rest (i.e. cables, hardware, network equipments, install, etc.) : 20/80 against 80/20 traditionally. Let's work on the 80%, by reducing some costs, such as hardware and/or commissioning for instance, and we will reach an even more attractive solution.

We have now the opportunity to develop truly innovative ways to deploy fiber to everyone faster and cheaper. That is a challenge I hope we at the Pau Broadband Country will be able to help solving.

Odebit 2008 : the Day of Broadband For Everyone (or ?)

On Tuesday, the Grenelle du Très Haut Débit will be held in Paris, during the fast-growing Odebit tradeshow & conference event. 

I'll attend, on behalf of my boss Jean-Pierre Jambes of the Pau Greater Area. Being a rep of the Pau Broadband Country is a fantastic honor to me, since I've started my career 25 years ago hearing people claiming that Fiber To The Home was the Future. The Future is now, and it takes place as well in Pau.

If you're looking for a city where you can help changing the World thanks to Broadband, don't hesitate to stop by. 

iPhone, Broadband Fiber, Web 2.0, and me

[updated 09/17/08, from a Mac ;-) ]

I'm typing this post on my iPhone 3G, whilst enjoying a delicious tartare at the "Berry", one of my favorite restaurants here in Pau. Connected to the Net via 3G, of course. The last couple of days have been quite busy, as my boss Jean-Pierre Jambes and I are preparing a series of strategic events over the next two weeks. Among those events, there's the presentation on Thursday of the "FTTH School" project that we've been working on since last winter. Shall the Gods of Broadband here us, it's going to be a sort of World Premiere, with a pretty intensive use of ultra-broadband to deliver training courses and stuff. The other event we're preparing : the Odebit'08 conference, to be held in Paris next week. I've been spending the afternoon creating and editing the Pau Broadband Country' presentation. A slideshow made with Keynote of course, made of photos and a video. And designed for... the iPhone : we won't use a laptop to run the slideshow on the booth, but an iPhone connected to the larger display with the wonderful Apple-made AV cable. There's many more than one thing to share with you : how I recently boosted my network and started some really intersting experience sharing thanks to Linkedin' a Discussions feature; or how I know twitt more than ever, thanks to the iPhone 3G and Twitterific. But I have to stop writing, as the tartare is getting cold (joke ;-).

The First FiberCamp Is Born, And It's Not In France

Whilst the french community is busy preparing the Grenelle du Très Haut Débit, where some members of the French Government will (hopefully) unveil its plans for fibering (hopefully) the country, others are working hard to make things real.

See the folks at Lafayette, who are calling for the very first BarCamp for the Fiber Community : it's called CampFiber, and it will be held in Lafayette, LA, on the 4th of October this year.

Congratulations and all the best to Geoff Daily, the organizer of this fantastic event for all of us evangelists of broadband, open neutral networks.

I've embedded the interview of Terry Huval, director of LUS Lafayette Utility Systems, by Geoff, for you to get a flavor of what's going on in the US those days.

Ed. note : I can't stop thinking about the situation if Napoleon didn't sold Louisiana to the US two hundred years ago. Maybe France would have been the true leader of the Broadband communities movement...

I personally have been calling for a FiberCamp since more than a year or so. Unfortunately, this country doesn't seem ready for the kind of * Community thinking * that's required for such a workshop.