New Gigabit Networks Coming to Omaha and Vermont

"This January, I called on providers and community leaders to establish gigabit communities nationwide,” outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement. “Today’s announcement that CenturyLink will bring gigabit service to Omaha makes it the latest in a series of communities, including Austin, Chattanooga, Kansas City, Lafayette and Provo, to move us closer to meeting that challenge.” He described how these fast networks would help lead to new apps and services, more innovation and help the country’s economy and competitive edge.

These Omaha customers will have “a direct connection to the company’s recently upgraded 100 Gbps global network, designed to accommodate the bandwidth demand driven by cloud computing, mobile traffic, big data and video streaming,” CenturyLink added. The pricing will be $150 a month for standalone service and $80 a month for bundled service, a spokeswoman told us. CenturyLink views this as a pilot and will judge its Omaha results, “considering such factors as positive community support, competitive parity in the marketplace and the ability to earn a reasonable return on its investment,” before looking at broader deployment, it said. In a statement, CenturyLink’s Nebraska General Manager Danny Pate attributed its upgraded offerings “partly due to the good collaboration and partnership we have had with the City of Omaha and their support at the local level.” In Vermont, meanwhile, VTel said it’s connecting more than 200 homes a week, with expectations to reach all of its 17,500 customers by the middle of next year.

"We already had fiber infrastructure ’to the curb,’ so we are able to build upon that,” Pate told us by email. “We are replacing existing copper and coaxial drop from the pedestal to the curb with fiber via a buried micro duct where it terminates to an ONT (Optical Network Terminal) on the side of the home. At that point, we install a small battery backup inside the home and induce new Cat5E wiring the gateway. We continue to use the coax that is already provided within the home, but re-terminate with better connectors to ensure maximum throughput.” CenturyLink didn’t receive “tangible benefits” from the city of Omaha but did have a collaborative relationship throughout, he added. “Omaha was chosen because it already had a video franchise area that needed to be upgraded from a network perspective and the infrastructure had fiber to the curb so it was a natural selection to choose an area that only required minimal investment,” he said. “In addition, Omaha is a great test market when looking at Tier 2 cities while also comparing a GPON [gigabit-capable passive optical networks] product against a FTTN [fiber to the node] product in a growing tech city."

Industry executives discussed the challenges of moving toward a gig at a Federal Communications Bar Association lunch in Washington Wednesday afternoon. “I think it’s more of a marketing decision rather than a technology decision,” said Heather Gold, president of the Fiber to the Home Council Americas, at the event. “We feel the communities have a lot of control in making the economics work.” Several of the council’s members, such as in Bristol, Va., offer such speeds currently, she said.

AT&T and other companies see gigabit technology as “well understood,” said Hank Hultquist, AT&T vice president-regulatory affairs, at the same discussion. But “what’s the business model?” In the past, such as when Verizon was first deploying its FiOS technology, many municipalities looked at what they might be able to receive from deals with companies. “Google has totally flipped that,” Hultquist said of Google Fiber and its deals with municipalities. The change is generally positive but he emphasized that residents should make clear, when referring to the regulatory treatment of companies, that they want choices from their municipalities.

Companies see a future for faster speeds. Verizon FiOS was intended as “future proof” and currently offers speeds up to 300 Mbps, said Verizon Executive Director-Public Policy Development David Young. “The fiber we're deploying is capable of much higher speeds.” The telco has tested it for a gigabit and could potentially upgrade to that in time, although doesn’t “really see a consumer market demand for those types of speeds today,” Young said. Cable companies are investigating new ways to use their technologies that will allow for in excess of a gig to the home, said NCTA Senior Director-Broadband Technology Matt Tooley. Hultquist described AT&T’s work with different versions of DSL and the potential to offer up to 100 Mbps with what he called “last generation technology” that’s still going to have uses in the foreseeable future. “We've seen a shift over the last year or so,” said Verizon’s Young, referring to communities looking at fast speeds more through the lens of economic development. There’s no one “killer app” calling for gigabit speeds yet so much as many potential uses, Young said, though he'd welcome one.

"The asymmetry reflects the demand,” Hultquist said of network upload and download speeds. There’s “a lot more downstream traffic than upstream” in the market overall. Young said FiOS speeds remain asymmetrical but are still a good “distinguishing point” from competitors and reflective of the market, he said: “They still download more than they upload.” Gold noted, however, that the symmetry of these faster speeds will be key to economic development.