fibertoday.com
| Volume 8, No. 43 |
March 9, 2005
|
Topic: Lucent to Rock Fiber Optics World with Key Announcements
NOTES: Gemfire Corporation says it has completed the acquisition of the assets of Newport Opticom, located in Irvine, California. The advanced switch technology from Newport, which can be manufactured using planar wafer-scale processes, enhances Gemfire's production capabilities, which include operations for passive silica Planar Light Circuits (PLC) and Si-polymer PLC waveguide fabrication, the company says.
C. David Chaffee
More Japanese to Use FTTH Than DSL by Next Year
A Day in The Sun For Corning's Don Keck
NOTES
Dear Friend:
Anaheim, Calif.-The news was good and the mood upbeat yesterday as OFC/NFOEC 2005 hit full stride here.
"2004 was significantly better than 2003 and 2005 will be significantly better than 2004," according to Paul Neuharth, president and COO of OFS Optics. "We expect that the second half of 2005 will be better than the first half and that 2006 will be much better than 2005," Neuharth told us in an exclusive interview at the OFS Optics booth.
Neuharth has reason to be optimistic. Major clients SBC and BellSouth have announced major fiber optic scale-ups over the next several years, although at this point those fiber additions are in the network and not to the home or premise.
Both Neuharth and Max Nelson, OFS vice president for public policy and strategic business planning, believe there is an excellent chance SBC at least will reconsider its fiber-to-the-node strategy and go full bore FTTP. "They are very happy to let Verizon take in all the pain to get the economies-of-scale necessary to move to FTTH," Nelson tells us. Both also believe the need for consumer bandwidth will come more quickly than the RBOCs anticipate.
"We will be profitable soon," said Iolon CEO John Clark, who observed that the company's widely tunable lasers and detectors/ filters are now operating in more than a dozen major networks around the world. Iolon's lasers also are gaining traction on the cable TV side as it partners with Scientific-Atlanta. "We have thousands of parts out in the public network, and will have 50 million hours of operating time by the end of the year," Clark told us yesterday. Revenues in 2004 were four times what they had been in 2003 for Iolon, according to Clark, and revenues in 2005 are expected to be twixe what they are in 2004.
Corning's Eric Musser, vice president and general manager for optical fiber, echoed the sunny forecast, noting at a briefing that some 55 million fiber kilometers was installed last year globally. For the second straight year, access led all other categories, garnering a 45 percent share to metro's 40 percent, despite a 15 percent growth in metro and cooling of NTT's FTTH build. LH and submarine accounted for 10 percent and premises five percent for the 2004 remainder.
With Corning as the lead fiber provider for Verizon, and Verizon planning a doubling of homes passed to 2 million this year, things are looking good for 2005, as well, for Corning.
Lucent to Rock Fiber Optics World with Key Announcements
Lucent today is unveiling a series of stunning announcements that will reenforce its enormous presence around the globe and the strides it is making in integrating new optical technologies into existing networks.
The vendor is announcing that the Yangtze Communications Bureau has selected its optical products to improve the communications system in the Yangtze Shipboard and Offshore Communications Network. Lucent also announced that it has signed an exclusive reseller agreement with Wantel to take an aggressive role in providing optical, data and VoIP to China's oil and gas industry. "We have more than 100 Lambda Unite systems operating in China and are the largest vendor in China for mesh networking," said Lucent's Ken Wirth, who was recently named president and general manager of multimedia and network solutions.
Lucent also announced that Deutsche Telekom's T-Com has named it to supply and install new technology to make high-speed Ethernet connections possible over copper.
The vendor says it has also received a multiyear agreement with Global Crossing to deploy new optical backbone network equipment in the United Kingdom. Under terms of the contract, Lucent is to provide LambdaUnite and its Navis Optical Management System, as well as network design, installation, technical support and network maintenance from Lucent Worldwide Services.
Lucent also has struck a deal with the COLT Telecom Group to provide product for COLT's packet-based services. COLT is to deploy infrastructure, software and services from Lucent's optical networking portfolio. "Lucent's level of commitment to our business, combined with its technical support and the company's market leadership in the development of Ethernet over SONET technology proved to us that Lucent is the vendor of choice for these solutions," according to Ignacio Irurita, COLT's vice president of engineering.
Lucent also has been selected by Czech Radio to expand the capacity of Cra's existing optical infrastructure. Lucent says Cra will be able to provide new services using a common transport network, thereby increasing network capacity, reducing equipment and power costs, and saving space in the central office environment. Lucent will provide the latest release of its Metropolis ADM MultiService Mux and LambdaUnite Multiservice switch.
Wirth also confirmed that Lucent was a major optical provider to Verizon's national build last year. One source indicated that Canada's Innovance initially had the contract but had issues, including the fact that it was going out of business. Various industry officials believe Verizon will continue to upgrade its network, whether that is on its own or by refurbishing the MCI network if it acquires the LH carrier.
Regarding the MCI network, several sources raised questions as to whether the network itself is now integrated and that there would be major challenges integrating it with the Verizon network if the two become one company, indicating that it might make more sense for Verizon to simply continue its own build. "The MCI network is based on fiber put in during the mid-1990s," said OFS's Nelson.
Lucent optical grew sequentially by 19 percent last quarter, and Wirth tells us it will grow by 5-6 percent in 2005 over 2004. He observes that some analysts believe that number is conservative.
Lucent sees an opportunity regarding replacing edge switches with DMX units, Wirth told us in an exclusive interview, observing that the edge switches Cisco offers "do not have five 9s reliability."
The vendor expects to formally bring its ROADMs to market shortly. A major advantage Lucent has compared to other vendors is it knows how to build these units into the network, Wirth said.
More Japanese to Use FTTH Than DSL by Next Year
More Japanese consumers will use services over FTTH than provided by DSL by next year, according to Hiromichi Shinohara, director of NTT access systems and a plenary session speaker yesterday. He estimates there will be 35 million Japanese FTTH users by the end of March 2006.
The carrier is moving to a GE-PON architecture, he said. Its competitors are offering B-PON, he noted. NTT now has a full IP backbone network, he told the audience.
"NTT service is evolving from single play to triple play," Shinohara said.
A Day in The Sun For Corning's Don Keck
Don Keck, who was a member of the Corning team that made the first commercial-grade optical fibers in 1970, had the rare opportunity to share his dreams as a grand old man of OFC yesterday.
After providing a stirring account of the history of fiber optics, Keck encouraged young people to make a contribution.
"Like the railroads, we are just at the beginning of innovation," he said. "It will be skyrocketing over the next 30 years. I believe we are entering our Golden Age."
Keck has received a wide variety of honors, from the John Tyndall award OFC provides to the National Medal of Technology.
NOTES
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