February 1, 2006 Corning, NY -- Telewest Global (London, UK) announced that it will deploy Corning Cable Systems' NexCor singlemode fiber in the latest upgrade of its hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) networks. With the fiber, Telewest says it will be able to deliver more customer capacity for its broadband Internet and content-on-demand services.
According to a press release, Telewest, a broadband communications and media group, is progressively upgrading its network, which currently passes 4.7 million homes; the fiber expansion will support upgrades in the company's Preston and Liverpool networks in northwest England.
"We chose NexCor fiber because it has twice the power-handling performance of any other standard singlemode fiber and the tightest dispersion tolerance specification of any single-mode fiber," explains Chris Eccles, network architect at Telewest. "Both of these attributes will provide us with additional flexibility and future-proofing in the design and planning of our network."
Corning says its NexCor fiber has been engineered with attributes that address the unique needs of access networks, while maintaining total backward compatibility with legacy singlemode fibers. The company says the fully ITU-T G.652.D-compliant fiber delivers additional value for cable television and fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) networks, compared with earlier singlemode fibers.
"We are very pleased to be working with Telewest on this current network enhancement, and to provide them with NexCor optical fiber," concludes Eric Musser, vice president and general manager of Corning's Optical Fiber unit. "NexCor fiber gives Telewest the best of both worlds. This fiber has complete backward compatibility with any standard singlemode fiber, and has an innovative fiber design that maximizes access network performance."