FiberGeneration

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.