Today's Top Stories EPB Fiber, the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based utility telco service provider known for its 1G Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) service, has realigned the structure of its speed and pricing regime. The latest speed and prices emerged during the recent Hackanooga event that ended Sunday where developers work on possible applications that use Gigabit FTTH speeds. EPB Fiber is bumping up speeds on three of its current levels: 30/30 will increase to 50/50 for $57.99; 50/50 climbs to 100/100 for $69.99; and 100/100 jumps to 250/250 for $139.99.
In addition, the price of its flagship symmetrical 1G tier has been reduced from $349.99 to $299.99.
While major cable MSOs, including local operator Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), have been responding to the higher speed FTTH offerings made by the likes of Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and their 300 Mbps tier, it's clear cable's best offerings don't come close to what EPB can offer.
Comcast's 105/20 tier is priced at $115 per month plus the price of the modem rental, while Chattanooga EPB customers can get 250 Mbps symmetric service for $139.
Even though there has been a fair share of municipal telco failures in recent years, EPB is a bit of an anomaly with over 40,000 customers subscribing to its services.
Danna Bailey, V.P. of Corporate Communications for EPB Fiber, said in a recent interview with FierceTelecom that many of its telecom customers are bundling services.
"Roughly 80 percent of our customers subscribe to two or more products," she said. "We don't have many customers subscribing to one product." For more:
- Broadband DSL Reports has this article Commentary: Why bother with fiber? Here's a few reasons
Commentary: Chattanooga's EPB Fiber defies tough telecom odds Related articles:
North American FTTH deployments grow 13%, drive economic growth
Chattanooga's municipal FTTP network surpasses subscriber projections Read more about: FTTH
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Spread Networks, a privately owned network provider known for its low latency and dark fiber networks, is adding a 100G flavor to its service portfolio, deploying the technology on its Chicago-to-New York fiber backbone and powering it with ADVA Optical's (XETRA: ADV.DE) FSP 3000 optical hardware. The high speed service is available to customers using Spread's Ultra-Low-Latency Wavelength Service, its Low-Latency Wavelengths (used for commodity-class trading) and its private dark fiber service, between Chicago and New York City. 100G is a key addition to Spread's available products in the fiercely competitive financial vertical. The technology was integrated into the provider's existing platform--which has a high number of in-service 10G wavelengths already deployed--without service interruption. "100G waves are coherent detected via transponder enablement with SD FEC (Soft Decision Forward Error Correction)," the company explained in its announcement. "Our 100G Core technology has been developed for some of the most advanced networks in the world," said Christoph Glingener, CTO at ADVA Optical Networking. "It's been specifically built for customers who need to transport data faster, farther and more securely than ever before. It's something the enterprise community, especially the financial sector has grown to depend on." For more:
- see the release Special Report: In detail: Tracking the 100G path Related articles:
XO incorporates Ciena into its 100G metro, regional network plans
Optical transport equipment market declines 5%
Exponential-e switches to 100G Read more about: dark fiber, low latency networking
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The Federal Communications Commission on Monday paved the way for cable operators to purchase CLECs to expand their business service footprints by granting forbearance from Section 652(b) of the Communications Act. By granting limited forbearance from Section 652(b) of the Communications Act, the FCC said it would "harmonize the rules that apply to transactions between competitive LECs and cable operators regardless of which entity acquires the other." Section 652(b) prevented a cable operator from acquiring more than a 10 percent stake in local exchange carriers that provide service in their franchised areas unless all impacted local franchising authorities agree to a waiver of the provision. Since section 652(a) only applies to acquisitions by LECs that were providing telephone exchange service as of January 1, 1993, the FCC said that the "definition effectively excludes acquisitions by most or all competitive LECs, as they were not providing such service by that date." In its order, the FCC said that "mergers between cable operators and competitive LECs, both of which usually are non-dominant providers of telecommunications services, potentially serve many pro-competitive goals and appear consistent with the purpose and history of section 652. Streamlining the regulatory approval process for such transactions--without eliminating the important safeguards of the Commission's review of such mergers--can enhance facilities-based competition and spur technological innovation and investment that will benefit consumers." Rumors of the FCC ruling to grant forbearance on 652(a) emerged last week in a Stifel Nicolaus report indicating that the FCC would approve the NCTA's request for forbearance request from Section 652. However, individual states and the FCC would still state regulators would examine deals to see if they are in the public interest. This ruling follows a petition that the National Telecommunications & Cable Association (NTCA) made last August with the FCC that said CLECs and cable operators should not be subject to the Telecom Act's cross-ownership prohibitions. The Broadband Coalition, a competitive telecom industry group, hailed the FCC ruling. "Everyone wins when there is more competition in the marketplace," said Chip Pickering, a former U.S. Congressman and spokesman for The Broadband Coalition, in a statement. "This decision today strengthens the position of broadband providers to compete with ILEC services. When competition thrives in the broadband marketplace, innovations occur benefiting businesses of all sizes. This is true for new innovations such as cloud technology." While cable operators haven't been as aggressive on the M&A side as some of the traditional ILECs, Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) have made a few notable deals in recent years to enhance their business services presence. Comcast, while still a relative newcomer in the business services arena, enhanced its ability to target larger businesses by purchasing both acquiring both Cimco and NGT Telecom. Coupled with their own aggressive build out of fiber facilities and Ethernet, the Cimco acquisition immediately gave it an entree into the medium-sized business market, while NGT Telecom acquisition gave it enhanced VoIP services. No less compelling was Time Warner Cable's acquisition of NaviSite, a provider of enterprise-class hosting, managed application, messaging and cloud services. Cable operators may lack the pull of a large telco, but one of the things they do have is an aggressive spirit and a lack of legacy services that, for example, telcos must cannibalize when they earn a new Ethernet customer.
For more:
- see the FCC document
- here's the Broadband Coalition release On the Hot Seat: Powell: Cable is on cusp of innovation that will revolutionize the industry Related articles:
Report: FCC to relax rules for cable-CLEC M&A
Cable industry wants more freedom to buy CLECs
Comcast wraps acquisition of Cimco
Comcast's Bill Stemper leads journey into the enterprise market Read more about: FCC
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Sonus Networks (Nasdaq: SONS) on Thursday announced that two of its main executives, Todd A. Abbott and Jeffrey M. Snider, are assuming new duties, one of the latest moves made by CEO Ray Dolan since taking the reins of the company in 2010.  |  | | (Left) Abbott and (right) Snider. (Image source: Sonus) | Abbott has become the Executive Vice President of Strategy & Go-To-Market while Snider will take on the added role as Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel. These roles went into effect immediately on Sept. 13. Abbott, who has been with the company since May 2011, will now oversee business unit planning and execution in addition to driving sales, marketing and business development. Two of the main initiatives Abbot has led since coming to the vendor was its move into the enterprise segment and its first channel activation program, Sonus Partner Assure. Having served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Sonus since June 2009, Snider will now oversee human resources as well as facilities management. As Sonus moved to take advantage of enterprise network opportunities, Snider was one of the members of management who drove Sonus' acquisition of Network Equipment Technologies (NET). "These appointments reflect another step in the transformation of Sonus to become an enabler of Cloud-based Unified Communications," said Ray Dolan, president and CEO of Sonus Networks. For more:
- see the release On the Hot Seat: Sonus Networks CEO Ray Dolan sets sights on lucrative SBC, enterprise markets Related articles:
Sonus wraps acquisition of Network Equipment Technologies
Embracing VoIP amid a regulatory minefield
Business IP telephony, unified communications spending expected to skyrocket
Sonus Networks positions platform for UC Read more about: Sonus Networks, personnel changes
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Telecom Italia (NYSE: TI) COO Marco Patuano said on Friday that spinning out wireline network is an "interesting" idea, while confirming that it is conducting discussions with a state-backed financing body to collaborate on new broadband projects.  | | Patuano (Image source: Telecom Italia) | "There is a dialogue that continues," Patuano said in a Reuters article. "The possible separation of the access network into another company is an option that both (Telecom and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti) are looking at with interest." News of a potential spinoff should be of no surprise as Franco Bernabe, Telecom Italia's CEO, who said in April it was considering spinning off its wireline network as a way to pay down debt and expand its investments in its own nationwide FTTH network. TI's network, according to the Reuters report, is worth about €9-€15 billion ($11.6-$19.4 billion). Patuano's statement comes on the heels of an agreement Telecom Italia signed with Swisscom's Fastweb just last week to build a hybrid fiber/copper Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC) network to bring higher speed broadband services to more premises throughout Italy. Fastweb's Swisscom dedicated €400 million ($516.8 million) to fund the FTTC project, which it said will bring broadband services 20 percent of Italian homes. Under the terms of the agreement, Fastweb will build out fiber connections to each cabinet and then use VDSL to deliver services to homes and businesses via Telecom Italia's copper network infrastructure. Because the new FTTC network is being built as an open access network, other interested service providers could participate. For more:
- Reuters has this article Related articles:
FastWeb, Telecom Italia strike fiber network alliance
Telecom Italia gets conditional regulatory approval for its 100 Mbps FTTH service
Swisscom introduces new enterprise managed service offering
Italy: FTTH reaches 348,000 subscriber mark
Italian providers create new company to build out nationwide FTTH network Read more about: Telecom Italia
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VoIP quality standards can't wait
Sam Koetter, XO, on navigating new waters to get more out of existing copper
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