Shortly before the FTTH Council Europe's 2013 conference in London February 19–21, Lightwave European correspondent Kurt Ruderman asked ...

After showing it off at last fall’s SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, CommScope has announced the official commercial launch of its E2O (Electrical to Optical) hybrid cabling system. The cabling system combines optical fiber with coax to meet the needs of cable MSOs who are still relying on coax, but know they’ll need fiber deeper in their networks in the future.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. launched what it claims is the industry's first intelligent optical splitter for passive optical networks (PON) at the FTTH Conference in London last week. With this new optical splitter, operators can automatically identify and generation topological maps of the optical distribution network (ODN) for fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks, the company says.

ZyXEL Communications Corp., a provider of secure broadband connectivity products, has launched the SBG3300 business broadband gateway with 4G/LTE backup at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The high-speed VDSL2 router offers best-in-class security features, including certification from the Virtual Private Network Consortium (VPNC), making it an ideal option for telecommuters and satellite offices, the company claims.

Little more than a week and a half after the European Union voted February 8 to slash funding to support broadband networks across the continent (see “European Union slashes broadband funding”), France has stepped up to help fill the gap. French President Francois Hollande outlined a program that will see 20 billion euros ($27 billion) spent over the next 10 years to install new broadband networks – potentially including fiber to the home (FTTH) or fiber to the cabinet (FTTC) – in his country.

Zhone Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ZHNE) has expanded its indoor GPON optical network terminal (ONT) line to include the zNid 2301, which was released at the FTTH Conference 2013 in London last week. Created for residential and small business services, the zNID 2301 GPON ONT provides many features, including high quality voice and data services and multicast video support, in what the company claims is the smallest available form factor on the market.

Swiss company Huber+Suhner AG says its new fiber-optic connector will double the density of optical fibers per rack and improve fiber handling in central offices and data centers. Launched at the FTTH Conference 2013 in London, the new connector is designed to significantly reduce space requirements, helping to control costs and improve efficiency.

Prysmian Group has introduced RetractaNetXS, a direct buried retractable fiber-optic cable. The new fiber cable is particularly well suited to fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments, Prysmian says.

The number of fiber-to-the-home/building (FTTH/FTTB) connections in Europe is expected to double in the next five years, according to the latest market forecast commissioned by the FTTH Council Europe.

Norwegian company Polewall AS has introduced the LH-100, a 100/100-Mbps symmetrical optical wireless bridge targeting the price-sensitive broadband access market.

OFS has unveiled its AllWave FLEX and AllWave FLEX+ Bend-Optimized Single-Mode Fiber that features a 200-μm coating. The coating enables a narrower fiber than those using conventional 250- μm coatings. OFS will use the fiber in fiber-optic cables with higher fiber counts and in microcables, beginning with its new MiDia 2FX microcables.

Jiangsu Sterlite Tongguang Fiber Co. Ltd. (JSTFCL), a joint venture of Indian fiber manufacturer Sterlite Technologies Ltd. and Chinese fiber-optic cable provider Jiangsu Tongguang Communication Co. Ltd. (TGCl), has begun to produce optical fiber itself at its facility in Haimen, Jiangsu Province, China.

TE Connectivity (NYSE: TEL) will present its new Rapid fiber portfolio at the FTTH Council Conference in London on February 20–21. With applications ranging from central offices and data centers, to cell sites and customer premises, Rapid fiber products offer extensive features and benefits, the company claims.

BT says that it plans to pass an additional 1.2 million premises in the upcoming phase of its fiber-optic broadband network deployment. When the phase is completed, BT says its fiber-optic network footprint will encompass approximately 19 million premises.

Swisscom has outlined plans to provide 80% of all the households in Switzerland with ultra-high-speed Internet access by no later than 2020 (see “Swisscom plans fiber to the street expansion”). Its plan includes a mix of technologies. While fiber-optic cables are being rolled out directly to homes and businesses in many towns and larger municipalities, Swisscom is focusing on fiber-to-the-street (FTTS) in areas away from major urban centers. Swisscom says it has now selected Huawei as its strategic partner and supplier for the FTTS expansion.

Does the industry really need another FTTx network architecture? Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. seems to think so. The Chinese vendor has released what it calls the industry's first “fiber-to-the-door” (FTTD) portfolio, which provides broadband as fast as 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps by reusing existing twisted pairs or coaxial cables in the final drop.

Glandorf Telephone Co. has picked the Total Access 5000 broadband platform from ADTRAN, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADTN) to bring high-speed broadband and video services to households in Northwest Ohio. Glandorf is using the flexibility of the Total Access 5000 to deliver both fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and ultra broadband services to both residential and business customers.

Calix, Inc. (NYSE:CALX) says that its E7-2 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) is being used to support a community fiber access project in the residential and farming villages of Overbury and Conderton in the UK. The villages are part of the Overbury Estate in the Cotswolds region. The project will create a fiber to the premises (FTTP) fiber broadband network capable of support speeds up to 1 Gbps.

In response to the region’s ongoing fiscal difficulties, officials of the European Union February 8 created a Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the years 2014 through 2020 that is approximately 80 billion euros smaller than the European Commission (EC) requested. About 10% of that savings will come from gutting the Connecting Europe Facility project that EC Vice President Neelie Kroes had hoped would fund broadband infrastructure deployment.

Rala Infratech AB is introducing buildfibre.com, which it describes as a user-friendly online guide to planning and delivering a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) project.

Telecom New Zealand will use optical transport equipment from Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) to create a converged 100-Gbps fiber-optic network that will connect more than 30 cities nationwide. Among other uses, the new capabilities will support the introduction of a retail fiber product under the New Zealand government’s “ Ultra-Fast Broadband” initiative.

Ireland’s national regulator ComReg says Eircom will have to offer competitors access to its fiber-optic broadband networks on a wholesale basis. ComReg ruled that Eircom, the national carrier, has significant market power (SMP) in the markets for Wholesale Physical Network Infrastructure Access (WPNIA) and Wholesale Broadband Access (WBA) in ComReg Decision No. D05/10 and ComReg Decision No. D06/11, respectively.

A little more than three months after Superstorm Sandy, Verizon (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ) says it has completed installation of a backbone fiber-optic network in lower Manhattan and has restored voice and high-speed data services in more than 90% of affected office and commercial space. Meanwhile, the company says it is working with building management companies to increase the number of buildings connected with fiber-optic cable.

As the industry gears up for the FTTH Council Europe’s 2013 conference in London February 19-21, Lightwave European Correspondent Kurt Ruderman asked fiber-optics analyst Richard Mack of CRU International to evaluate the European scene in 2012 and to discuss his outlook for fiber and cable in 2013, particularly as it relates to FTTx in Europe.