In This Issue:

President's Letter:
Our Global Report Brings It All Home
By Scott DeGarmo, President & CEO
The Broadband Beat - Dubai to Winona.

Editor's Note:
What Can We Learn from Europe and Asia?
By Steve S. Ross, Editor-in Chief
We can learn plenty! Europe and Asia offer useful technical lessons, especially for overbuilding broadband in dense areas. They offer financing lessons, especially in the management of large public-private joint ventures. And they offer regulatory lessons - Asia on what to do, and Europe on what not to.

Provider's Perspective:
Good Logistics Saves Money and Customers
By Bryan Rader, Media Works
An obvious question: If FedEx can deliver packages on time from across the country, why can't the cable guys deliver a technician from a few miles away when promised? Rader goes further, however, to show that providing quality service actually saves money.

The Law:
Who Owns the Inside Wiring?
By Carl Kandutsch, Esq.
In part, it depends on what state you're in. There's also the state of confusion on this issue, but you'll leave it once you read this detailed and informative discussion by a former FCC attorney.

SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL ISSUE

International Broadband: Guide to Content
Start of our clip-and-save section.

Statistical Overview:
The International Picture
A BBP Staff Report
Sixteen pictures, actually - custom charts and graphs summarizing the amazing story of broadband's advance into world commerce. There's special emphasis on fiber, and on comparing Europe and Asia with North America experience. And yes, there's a lot of text, too, explaining how the numbers were put together.

FTTH Council Europe:
Public Investment Predominates
By Steven S. Ross, Editor-in-Chief
The second annual FTTH Council meeting in Europe provided 400 attendees with new insights on their own market and how it compares with others around the globe. In the absence of enough incumbent fear, and in the presence of heavy regulation, public investment is saving the day for European fiber deployments.

International Broadband Leaders:
A Close Look at Key Companies' Strategies
A BBP Staff Report
We culled eight companies from among two-dozen worthy candidates, as fine examples of what it takes to compete globally in broadband - and in fiber deployments in particular. You'll find good lessons from their experience in active and passive network components, systems integration, management software, and the pulling together of international partnerships.

Tokyo Electric Power:
Japan's FTTH Powerhouse
By Hideo Hayashi, Hikari Network Company and Kent Brown, AFL Telecommunications
TEPCO is building a large open-access fiber network in Japan; it expects a million customers by 2008 thanks to great technology and content partners. Here's how they intend to get there.

Technology:
Edmonton EDC Installs Optical Link
A BBP Staff Report
Edmonton's Economic Development Corporation was held up by the incumbent, so it made an end-run with Canon's Canobeam system to connect its two sites. We watched to see if the system would survive the harsh near-arctic winter. It came through.

DEPARTMENTS

News