BUENOS AIRES – Colombian state-owned broadband provider Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogota (ETB) is planning to roll out a fiber-optic network covering 85 percent of homes in Bogota by 2015, according to TeleSemana, a Latin American telecom analyst firm. Citing ETB chairman Saul Kattan, TeleSemana reports that ETB is investing funds raised by the issuance of bonds to finance a ten-year strategy, which will eventually connect all domiciles in the capital to the company’s FTTH [...]

QUEBEC CITY, CANADA — EXFO Inc., a provider of test and service assurance solutions announced today that it has signed a partnership agreement with Sumitomo Electric Industries (SEI), a global manufacturer of fiber-optic components and subsystems, whereby its recently launched FG-750 Node iOLM, an OTDR-based remote test unit for automated FTTH fault management, is now fully qualified with Sumitomo’s reflective termination filter technology. Through this partnership, both companies will leverage their respective FTTH test and [...]

TULSA, OK – Direct investment in North American fiber to the home (FTTH) deployment will grow to $4.7 billion annually by 2017, or a total of $18 billion during the next five years, according to the market research firm RVA LLC. The firm, which has tracked the deployment of all-fiber networks for more than a decade, predicts that annual revenues derived by FTTH providers from ultra high bandwidth applications and services beyond the “triple play” [...]

BEIJING — China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has announced a new set of regulations intended to drive fiber to the home (FTTH) construction and provide an equal playing field for China’s broadband operators, according to Marbridge Consulting, a China-focused market research and business consulting firm specializing in the telecommunications and IT sectors. The two new national construction regulations, “FTTH Equipment Regulations for Housing and Residential Development Projects” and “FTTH Construction and Inspection [...]

LONDON — Forthnet, a Greek broadband provider, is implementing the first FTTH pilot network in the metropolitan area of Athens, Greece. The network is enabled by a GPON platform from ADTRAN, a provider of next-generation networking solutions. This platform will enable delivery of high-bandwidth, triple-play services to residential and business subscribers. With over 2,000 homes initially served in the municipality of Nea, Forthnet will be able to deliver FTTH-based services that place Athens alongside other [...]

Eindhoven, The Netherlands – JT Group Ltd (JT), a communications enabler based in the Channel Islands, has selected active equipment provider Genexis for the delivery of optical home gateways. JT has commenced with the rollout FTTH to all 42,000 premises on Jersey in the Channel Islands southwest of England. JT said it chose Genexis’s FiberXport product family for its ability to deliver high-quality services up to a 1 Gbps speed. The flexible character of this [...]

CHICAGO — Rogers Communications Inc., the largest cable operator in Canada, has introduced a high-speed FTTH Internet service with upload and download speeds of 250 Mbps, as reported by Zacks Equity Research. Calls to Rogers to confirm were not answered as of press time. According to Zachs’ report, the FTTH offering from Rogers is currently the fastest broadband service in Canada. The 250 Mbps offers a 500 GB usage limit and is available only in [...]

Fiber to the home providers in Japan are having to lower their rates to compete with fast, cheap and reliable LTE services in the country. “Fixed-broadband giants NTT East and NTT West have been forced to slash their FTTH prices for new subscribers by an eye-watering 34 percent from 5,460 (US $66.70) to 3,600 ($34) per month to try and re-ignite their subscriber growth and stop the outflow of subscribers to cheaper LTE mobile broadband [...]

OXFORD, ENGLAND — Gigaclear Limited announced that it has secured the necessary financing to substantially accelerate the pace of its roll-out of ultrafast FTTH broadband networks in rural UK communities. Gigaclear, founded in 2010 by Mathew Hare, designs, builds and operates fiber broadband networks in rural UK communities that deliver ultrafast Internet access at 1 Gbps. In the last 12 months, Gigaclear has built two FTTH networks in the communities of Hambleton in Rutland and [...]

VANCOUVER — Alpha Technologies Ltd., a provider of powering solution for communications networks, announced the release of two new line power products: The Cordex HP LPS36 and the Alpha SR-12190. Cordex HP LPS36 The next generation Cordex HP LPS36 is a compact, modular DC-to-DC up-converter system designed for powering distributed communication networks using +/-190Vdc (RFT-V circuit) over an existing copper network. It features modular, high-efficiency, quad-output converter modules along with an intelligent controller. Applications include [...]