President’s Letter
Why The Summit Will Be A Landmark Conference
By Scott DeGarmo, President & CEO
Mark your plans now to be part of the action in Dallas in April.

Editor’s Note
Overbuilders Have To Connect
By Steven S. Ross, Editor-in-Chief
Do you really have enough backhaul bandwidth? The question is haunting cable companies and smaller telcos, and the smartest property owners and developers as well. That may seem a bit odd. The backhaul is fiber, isn't it?

BROADBAND AND PUBLIC POLICY

Special Report
California’s Comprehensive Broadband Plan Proposes Public-Private Partnerships
We've summarized the advice other states and localities might use for their own broadband policy. The FCC and Congress should take note as well.

Exclusive Interview
From Radio to Fiber: Alabama Seeks to Guide Providers
By Steven S. Ross, Editor-in-Chief
Down-to-earth suggestions from Net Butler, a major force behind his state’s broadband policy. Working with private broadband providers is the key, he says.

First Mile
Expect 90 Million FTTH Homes in Four Years
Worldwide, there seems to be no stopping fiber. Different vendors tout different strengths to customers. IPTV use it growing apace, too, but China's numbers disappoint.

Why We Need More Fiber
Video Is the Keystone to the Internet
Surging demand for bandwidth will force cable operators to upgrade their networks with new technologies.

Fiber Deployment Roundup
It Takes a Brave Decision to Invest Ahead of Demand
By Masha Zager, Broadband Properties
But there seems to be little shortage of that vision, even in the face of economic stress. Bandwidth looks like one of the surest bets around.

MDU TECHNOLOGY

From CTTH to FTTX: Solving for “X”
By Kermit L. Ross, Millennium Marketing
Fiber fixes more than raw bandwidth needs: Customers use the coax and phone lines they have far more intensively than they used old copper to make voice calls. Thus, the networks telcos created fall short on backhaul as well as first-mile bandwidth.

Perfecting Fiber for FTTH Deployments
By Gerad Kuyt, Piet Matthijsse, Laurent Gasca, Louis-Anne de Montmorillon, Arnie Berkers, Mijndert Doorn, Klaus Nothofer, and Alexander Weiss, Draka Comteq
The ‘trench-assisted’ fiber fabrication technique offers significantly higher benefits over other bend-insensitive single-mode fibers when it comes to FTTH applications.

BROADBAND APPS

Exclusive International Consumer Electronic Show Coverage
The Perspective You Missed in the Newspapers

The Video Flood
By Sandy Teger and David Waks, System Dynamics Inc.
Consumers seem to get the issues better than some providers.

Consumer Electronic and The Networked Home
By Masha Zager, Broadband Properties
Interactive video, home automation, telehealth, music, structured wiring and more – it all adds up to a wired nation.

TV is at the Heart of Connected CE Strategies
By Kurt Scherf, Parks Associates
With and without dedicated services and set-top boxes, consumers are groping for non-text content on the Internet.

DEPARTMENTS

February News and Views
More flexible, easier-to-deploy and easier-to-manage network technology was in evidence this month; broadband pioneer WWP acquired.

Here's a glimpse of who made the news:

Centillium Communications
USDA’s Rural Development Telecommunications Program
Enablence Technologies / ANDevices, Inc.
eTelemetry
ALPS Electric Europa
Calix
Ciena Corporation / World Wide Packets
EMBARQ Logistics
Imba Networks
Alloptic
Zhone Technologies
TXP Corporation
Corning