Joint venture calls Oroll ?em? over fiber
Lynn Haber
Residents of the Greater Boston area will be among the first communities in the nation to reap the benefits of the Open Video System (ovs) provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. rcn Corp., Princeton, NJ, in a joint venture with Boston Edison Co., will vie for a piece of the local cable-TV market, as well as the markets for local and long-distance telephone and data communications, using a fiber-rich network.
The local Boston cable-TV market is served primarily by large franchise providers such as Media One and Time Warner. However, the ovs was designed to break up such local cable-TV monopolies and expand the number of players who can offer programming by eliminating the need to obtain a cable-TV franchise.
rcn, which hopes to become a national facilities-based telecommunications company offering competitive local telephone, cable TV, and Internet access, is one such player. It currently serves a small Boston customer base of 2000. As the company rolls out its fiber network with Boston Edison, however, there is the potential to reach 700,000 business and residential customers in 48 cities and towns. On the voice- and data-communications front, rcn will go head-to-head with providers such as nynex, at&t, mci, Sprint, and mfs Telecom.
To get its foot into the Boston market, the company teamed with Boston Edison, which currently owns 200 mi of fiber-optic backbone in eastern Massachusetts.
OThe drivers for us to enter the communications market are industry deregulation and the Telecom Act of 1996,O says Dick Hahn, vice president of technology, research, and development at Boston Edison.
With fiber-optic networks already in place, utility companies are well-positioned to partner with communications industry players to offer an ? la carte menu of multimedia services. Boston Edison is one of many electrical companies in the nation entering into communications joint ventures.
ODuke Power, peco [Philadelphia Electric Co.], and Southern California Edison are examples of other utility companies offering some communications service. But I believe we?re the first company in the nation to bundle such a comprehensive services package,O says Hahn.
Construction of the Boston Edison fiber backbone began in the early 1990s. The state-of-the-art communications system is used for internal applications such as protective relaying and system control and data acquisition.
OWith spare capacity on the system, we saw the opportunity to play in the telecommunications market,O says Hahn.
With a $300 million infusion of funds, Boston Edison and rcn plan to expand the network to several times its current capacity. The singlemode, fiber-rich network will deliver the complete bundle of telecommunications services to the Greater Boston area.
The existing 200-mi network will serve as a backbone trunk to the potential customer base. The next phase of fiber implementation is to take the communications medium into the community.
The current cable deployment plan is to take fiber to some, but not all, neighborhoods. The Boston Edison spokesman would not reveal specifics of the company?s plan, citing competitive concerns.
However, there are several options for last-mile wiring: a hybrid fiber/coaxial-cable solution that brings fiber off the backbone and into the neighborhood and then, from a neighborhood node, runs coaxial cable to the home or business; a high-speed/high-capacity wireless solution; or fiber-to-the-building.
OAs the cost of fiber and optical equipment declines, it?s more feasible to bring it deeper into the neighborhood,O says Hahn.
While fiber?s superior performance makes it the medium of choice for last-mile deployment, it?s an economically unfeasible proposition at this point for most players in the industry. Boston?s local cable-TV providers are busy upgrading their coaxial-cable networks to fiber as well and are faced with the same last-mile technology choice as rcn.
rcn fiber will be run underground as well as on poles. With the vast majority of the network in the public way, the company must approach each community on an individual basis to get permission for construction or excavation such as street openings. The Boston Edison spokesman said network expansion is under way but refused to reveal a timetable for project completion. OOur plan is to roll out the network and services as soon as possible,O he says.
The rcn/Boston Edison joint venture operates as an unregulated subsidiary and is distinct from Boston Edison?s rate payer system. q
Lynn Haber writes on communications issues from Norwell, MA.