United Technologists Europe Ltd (UTEL), a research and development laboratory in the UK, plans to launch a new product aimed at minimizing network down time on passive optical networks (PONs) at ECOC 2012. Called Fast Light, it provides a complete system for automating the fault-finding process and carrying out protection switching of optical line terminal (OLT) ports.

CommScope, Inc. says it plans to expand its existing fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) offerings with a line of PON equipment that will support both EPON and GPON architectures.

Ovum says in its new “Market Share Alert: 2Q12 FTTx, DSL, and CMTS” report that sales of PON and VDSL2 gear grew strongly in the second quarter of 2012. Within the PON space, a general shift from passing customers to connecting them means that OLT shipments are losing steam, however.

Irish Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte, T.D., has launched “Delivering a Connected Society – A National Broadband Plan for Ireland” which outlines the Irish government’s commitment to provide high-speed broadband to every home and business in the country.

Fiber to the home or premises (FTTH or FTTP) deployments have now reached every continent and represent the premier wireline broadband access technology.

Three elements should be considered to determine the best way to cable a multi-dwelling unit.

Work has already begun to move beyond the 10-Tbps capacity that 100-Gbps transmission over EDFA-enabled networks provides.

Fiber management and connectivity platform vendor Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLFD) says that Country Cablevision is using its FieldSmart Fiber Scalability Center (FSC) in a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployment. The FTTH roll out, funded via $25.3 million from the ARRA broadband stimulus program, targets the rural counties of Mitchell and Yancey in western North Carolina.

Claiming that fiber to the home (FTTH) is now accepted by “a wider audience than just the techies,” Dutch communications service provider Tele2 announced that it has begun to market FTTH-enabled broadband services in select markets.

The Iliad Group has secured a loan of EUR 200 million from the European Investment Bank (EIB) to fund Iliad’s next round of fixed broadband network deployments. The EIB previously had loaned EUR 150 million loan to bankroll previous infrastructure roll outs.

The second quarter of 2012 saw a 5% growth in revenues for the broadband aggregation equipment market, according to Infonetics Research. In its new 2Q12 PON, FTTH, and DSL Aggregation Equipment and Subscribers report, the market research firm says that it was a particularly good quarter for PON in general and GPON in particular.

Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) has agreed to buy the FTTH product line of Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) for an undisclosed sum. The two companies also agreed that Ericsson would resell Calix’s newly beefed up access equipment portfolio worldwide.

Cable & Wireless Seychelles, a Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) company, says it has completed deployment of a nationwide fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) network. The carrier will support services over the FTTC network using the country’s first subsea cable network.

Canadian carrier Bell Aliant (TSX: BA) has boosted the data rates and number of TV apps its FibreOP fiber to the home (FTTH) customers can expect. It also has made the service available to five new communities.

China Mobile Shangdong Branch (Shangdong Mobile) deploy Huawei’s GPON FTTW offering in 17 cities of Shandong province to backhaul wireless local area network (WLAN) data streams and help Shangdong Mobile provide 54-Mbps Internet access for 50,000 WLAN hotspots in schools, offices, transport hubs, hotels, leisure places, downtown areas, and residences.

JT Global, formerly known as Jersey Telecom, is rolling out Netadmin System’s FTTH open access network management software as part of a deployment that aims to reach 42,000 premises on Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands. Following a pilot scheme that has been in place since December 2011, the software tool will now be applied across the entire project to automate the service fulfillment and assurance processes, including a user-friendly platform from which JT and other service providers on and off the island can launch services.

A new five-year forecast by Dell’Oro Group predicts increased sales of GPON optical line terminals (OLTs), DOCSIS 3.0 CMTS and VDSL infrastructure equipment through 2016. Driven by growing bandwidth requirements, the report say that GPON will show the fastest growth, followed by CMTS and VDSL, offsetting a trend of declining revenue for slower-speed ADSL equipment.

Southeast Oklahoma ILEC Cherokee Communications has decided to deploy the MXK platform from Zhone Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZHNE) to support delivery of triple-play services, initially via VDSL2.

Scottsdale, AZ-based incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) Saddleback Communications has deployed the E7-20 Ethernet Service Access Platform (ESAP) from Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX) in a point-to-point Gigabit Ethernet network that serves businesses and residents in the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

Prysmian Group says it has won a contract from Telecom Argentina for the supply and installation of cable for Telecom Argentina’s GPON fiber to the home (FTTH) build out. Telecom Argentina expects the GPON FTTH network to serve 4000 homes with an initial take-up rate of just under 40%.

Fiber to the home (FTTH) has taken another step forward in Canada as SaskTel has begun rolling out its infiNET fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) network. SaskTel says it will use the infiNET FTTP network to support Internet download speeds of up to 200 Mbps and upload rates of 60 Mbps in its home province of Saskatchewan.

The Government of Scotland has unveiled Community Broadband Scotland, a program backed by £5 million in funding that is designed to help rural community groups attract broadband services to their areas.

The Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council Americas has filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging the regulatory body not to impose a fee on broadband Internet access services as part of the FCC’s Universal Service Fund restructuring efforts.

The deployment of New Zealand’s fiber-based Ultra-fast Broadband (UFB) network is ahead of schedule. Getting customers to sign up is not.