President's Letter
Our Expo Is A First: April 30 – May 2, 2007
By Scott DeGarmo, President & CEO
Experience the broadband revolution firsthand. Our Killer App Conference & Expo this spring will be the first event of its kind – a milestone for the high-bandwidth era.

Editor's Note
Second-Class Broadband for BT Customers in the UK
By Steven S. Ross, Editor-in-Chief
The UK is on the way to becoming a third-rate economic power. BT (formerly British Telecom) is foregoing fiber to the home in favor of fiber to the neighborhood. ADSL2+ over copper will carry the signal for as much as 3,000 feet to home-based customers.

Provider Perspective
Paul Savoldelli: The Man Behind DirecPath
By Bryan Rader, DirecPath
Last month, Bryan described the sale of the company he founded, MediaWorks, to DirecPath; here's more detail on DirecPath's business plan and man behind it.

First Mile
Our Monthly Summary of Marketing Information
This month's focus: Verizon's FiOS investment pays off; high-speed access lines will grow strongly for the next two years and then the market will reach saturation; U.S. twelfth in the number of broadband subscribers; OECD shows importance of government policies; telcos and cable companies juggle bandwidth versus costs; fiber penetration growing worldwide; worldwide sales of EPON, GPON, and BPON equipment will surge to $3 billion in 2009.

Fiber Communities Seek Killer Apps
By Geoff Daily, Assistant Editor
If anyone knows what applications fiber-to-the-home customers are looking for, it's Glen Lang, CEO of Connexion Technologies. Connexion has built and operated fiber networks in nearly 30 housing developments in the Southeast.

The Power of Portals
By Masha Zager, Editor
Email. Web hosting. Maybe news headlines and the local weather. Until recently, customers couldn't expect much more than broadband itself from their broadband providers.

The Telepresence Revolution
By Howard S. Lichtman, Human Productivity Lab
Business is all about face-to-face relationships. Effective communication, whether between board members and corporate officers, salespeople and clients, or partners in joint ventures, requires the understanding and trust nourished by eye contact.

COVER STORY

Building a Fiber Network in a Rural Community
By Ashley Phillips – EATEL
Advice on technology, marketing and overall business strategy from one who's done it. Ten years ago, Ascension Parish in southern Louisiana began to change. What was once a predominantly farming area developed into an attractive bedroom community for Baton Rouge, Louisiana's state capital.

A Bumper Crop of Rural Broadband Loans… and More
By Masha Zager – Telecommunications Editor
New Rural Development agency loans: Cooperative Telephone Exchange; Fiber 520-522 LLC; McClure Telephone Company; Monticello-Wayne County Telecommunications Board. Deployments: Ben Lomand Telephone Co-op; En-Touch Systems; Ridgeville Telephone Company; Rochester Telephone; Topsham Telephone; Venture Communications Cooperative. Vendors: Embarq; Nortel; Occam Networks; TANDBERG; Wave7 Optics.

In-building Cellular: Architectures and Options
By John Spindler – LGC Wireless
Broadband suppliers are racing to add mobile services, making in-building reception a service bottleneck. Solutions include using fiber to carry mobile signals indoors.

BUYER'S GUIDE

Buying for Ultra-Broadband Properties
The best places to buy equipment, software, construction, and design services for cable, telcos, and government. This year's guide is our biggest yet, 161 companies – more than doubles last year's. Are you a developer seeking a Fiber-to-the-Home network provider? Are you at an independent telephone company, investigating ideas for serving your customers with quadruple-play fiber? Are you a municipal official or private cable operator having trouble with VoIP? Are you searching for content, or for a merger partner? Are you a contractor thinking about blown fiber or directional drilling to avoid digging up streets for a fiber overbuild? This Buyer's Guide is for you.

THE LAW

Own the Pipe and Make Them Bid to Use It: A Fable
By W. James MacNaughton, Attorney
Truth of the matter is, cable companies don't really “own” the inside wiring even when a contract says they do. Here's how to convince them of that.

FTTH Network Regulation in Master-Planned Communities
By Michael L. Glaser, Shughart Thomson & Kilroy, P.C.
There are significant new revenue opportunities for real estate developers through the construction of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks in master-planned communities. Developers have ignored these opportunities, leaving them to traditional video and telecommunications providers' networks without receiving appropriate compensation. Here's how to change that.

Are Exclusive MDU Access Agreements on Thin Regulatory Ice?
By Carl E. Kandutsch, Ph.D., J.D
Good arguments can be made for and against exclusive, perpetual access. Will the use of exclusive access agreements between owners of multi-dwelling unit (MDU) properties and communications providers be banned or restricted in the foreseeable future?

TECHNOLOGY

Outside Plant Technology
Improved and Craft-Friendly: New Fiber Distribution Hubs
A BBP Staff Report
The discerning eye sees big improvements for once-mundane fiber “street furniture.” Fiber distribution hubs are perhaps the most obvious sign that fiber is coming to a neighborhood. The boxes, usually pole-or pad-mounted, may serve a few households or more than 800. Because in a passive optical network the boxes have no electronics inside, they can be put almost anywhere.

DEPARTMENTS

News

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