Fiber Optic Services to Canby Homes 

Canby Telcom began installation of Fiber to the Home in 2007 and took a more aggressive approach to the project in February of 2009. This included targeting entire neighborhoods to connect.  On the project's launch in 2007, Keith Galitz, Canby Telcom’s General Manager was quoted as saying, “Canby is ahead of the game in providing fiber optics to individual homes in the community.”

 

“Only about 3 percent of the world population has Fiber-to-the-Home – it’s a very new technology – but people want faster speed on their computers and that requires bandwidth.” [12 months later, less than 13% of the US population has fiber-available technology]

 

“Canby is getting service superior to the service most Portland residents – and residents in a lot of major cities – are getting,” he said in the 2009 article.

 

Galitz noted that with the multi-million dollar investment, Canby Telcom will “future-proof” the homes of Canby residents by increasing the bandwidth capacity for new data and entertainment services as they become available. See the entire article here: http://www.canbyherald.com/news/community.news/2009/february/5/all.about.bandwidth/news.aspx

 

As of February of 2010, Canby Telcom had converted a majority of homes within the Canby city limits – its target fiber installation area. Canby Telcom launched FOz - its fiber optic suite of services in mid-February. Learn more about this revolutionary product line at www.canbytel.com/FOz.

 

WHY FIBER?

Fiber optics is a superior product to the older, potentially problematic copper lines currently used. It is being installed to provide our members the best quality of experience and reliability over all communication and entertainment mediums. A Consumer Reports survey published January 7, 2010, found that the nation's fiber-optic service providers scored highest overall in terms of customer satisfaction for Internet, TV and phone service quality and clarity.

 

Connecting fiber increases the value of a home by as much as $4,000-7,000* as well as potentially aiding in future resale efforts. Fiber optic readies your home now for new and expanding entertainment capabilities as well as improving your current service clarity and speed. A fiber optic network directly to your home will provide you with access to our fastest high-speed Internet, digital television with features such as Video on Demand, CallerID on TV, Interactive Program Guide, DVR and our exceptional High Definition channel lineup.

 

 

 

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGES TO FIBER

 [The majority of this information taken from the FTTH (Fiber-to-the-Home) Council publications and website.]

 

According to the FTTH Council,

 

“FTTH is the only technology that will deliver enough bandwidth reliably and at a low enough cost, to meet the consumer demands of the next decade”

 

“FTTH is also the only technology that will meet the needs of the foreseeable future, when 3-D, “holographic” high-definition television and games (products already in use in the industry, and on the drawing boards at big consumer electronics firms) will be in everyday use.”

 

“One bundle of fiber cable not much thicker than a pencil can carry ALL of the world’s current communications traffic.”

 

 

FUTURE POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS ON FIBER

 

Telehealth will give instant access to medical specialists via videoconferencing from the home, fitness center or the community room. The videoconferencing may be integrated with Internet-enabled diagnostic devices (blood pressure cuffs, respiration measurement, etc.) electronic medical records systems, online prescription services and online appointment setting.

 

Community-based security systems consisting of linked IP video cameras and sensors stationed on light poles and buildings around a neighborhood. These systems identify and track intruders, and can automatically notify owners, security companies and sometimes police.  Community based systems may be more effective than individual home security systems because they trigger alarms even before a home intrusion occurs, and they are less invasive of residents’ privacy.  Fiber networks support the broadcast and recording of very-high-resolution photos that are more useful for deterring and apprehending intruders.

 

Social Applications use the fiber infrastructure to build a sense of community – an important function in a new development. They can range from social networking sites focused on the community to intranet sites featuring local news and events, to Web-based or IPTV video channels broadcasting local athletic contests, artistic productions and political discussions. Because they can be interactive, they easily trump conventional “public access” stations on cable.

 

Arts and educational applications use high-end video conferencing in community centers, outdoor areas or children’s play centers to bring live performances, virtual museum tours, music lessons, book readings and other interactive events into the community. Residents can experience the benefits of big-city life without its drawbacks.

 

Concierge and home-automation services take advantage of the local fiber network to make residents’ lives more comfortable and convenient. Cameras that recognize residents’ cars entering the community can alert parking attendants and security personnel, and then turn on lights and heating or air-conditioning at home. Residents can connect with a single click to community services and preferred providers, calling to schedule a dry-cleaning pickup, pizza delivery or home repair.

 

Mobility is easier to accommodate with a robust fiber-to-the-home network. Using the backhaul afforded by FTTH, providers can offer WiFi connections to residents in indoor and outdoor public spaces throughout the community. Residents can bring their laptops to the pool, check email from the laundry room, or listen to their Internet radio in the gym.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is Fiber to the Home?

Fiber to the home (FTTH) is the delivery of a communications signal over optical fiber from the operator’s switching equipment all the way to a home or business, thereby replacing existing copper infrastructure such as telephone wires and coaxial cable. Fiber to the home is a relatively new and fast growing method of providing vastly higher bandwidth to consumers and businesses, and thereby enabling more robust video, internet and voice services.        

Connecting homes directly to fiber optic cable enables enormous improvements in the bandwidth that can be provided to consumers. Current fiber optic technology can provide two-way transmission speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. Further, as cable modem and DSL providers are struggling to squeeze increments of higher bandwidth out of their technologies, ongoing improvements in fiber optic equipment are constantly increasing available bandwidth without having to change the fiber. That’s why fiber networks are said to be “future proof.”

 

 

Why is fiber preferred to copper? After all, copper has been around a long time.

 

Optical fiber is unique, in that it can carry a high-bandwidth signal enormous distances. Copper can support high bandwidth, 20 Mbps or more – but only for a few hundred yards. The longer the distance the signal travels on copper, the lower the bandwidth.

 

Fiber uses laser light to carry the signal. Under most circumstances, the signal can travel 15 miles (more than 25km) without degrading enough to keep it from being received.

 

 

 

Isn’t fiber too new to trust?

 

Fiber has actually been used in communications networks for more than 30 years. But until 2002, it was rarely used to deliver a signal directly to a home. Instead, it was – and is – relied upon to carry communications traffic from city to city or country to country. Almost every country on Earth has some fiber, delivering services reliably and inexpensively.

 

 

 

How much bandwidth – or information – do we need?

 

A standard-definition television signal requires a bandwidth of about 2 Mbps – two million bits (zeros and ones) per second. HDTV requires as little as 4 Mbps if the image is rather static – a person being interviewed, for instance. But fast action, such as some sporting events, requires more – as much as 8 Mbps, even with new compression technology already being used in some academic and industrial settings – will require 100 to 300 Mbps when it is widely sold to individual consumers, six or seven years from now.

 

 

 

What about data?

 

Bandwidth requirements are exploding for many kinds of data. Most new digital cameras create images that contain 2 to 15 megabytes. At the upload speeds generally available to people using a cable modem or DSL, it takes well over a minute to transmit a 10-megabyte picture. That is, 10 megabytes = 80 megabits, which at 1 megabit per second (Mbps) equals 80 seconds. It normally takes even longer because the network sends extra bits to help route the network traffic and to provide security. At dialup speeds, it would take at least 20 minutes.

 

 

 

Why do we need all that bandwidth?

If all you want to do is surf web pages, download a few songs, send and receive some photographs, or watch streaming video at current picture quality levels, then the bandwidth provided by today’s cable modems and DSL services is probably good enough for you. But the world is moving toward vastly higher bandwidth applications.

 

Companies like Netflix, Amazon and Wal-Mart are offering feature-length movies for download. More people are looking to upload their own home movies into emails or web pages. Consumer electronics companies are coming out with devices that connect televisions to the Internet. High-definition video is fast becoming the state-of-the-art, and one high definition movie takes up as much bandwidth as 35,000 web pages.

 

In the meantime, a growing number of companies are offering “software as service” – meaning you subscribe to applications on the net rather than install them on your own computer. These “cloud computing” applications are now available for word processing, emailing, automated remote file backup, and a host of business and personal services. All of these applications – and many others we haven’t even dreamed of yet – are going to require much greater bandwidth than what is generally available today, even from “broadband” providers.

 

All this adds up to consumer bandwidth demands that are growing at an enormously high rate, and are projected to grow for years to come.  Can our current last-mile bandwidth capabilities handle this?  Consider the following....

•  In 2013, Internet video will be nearly 700 times the U.S. Internet backbone in 2000. It would take well over half a million years to watch all the online video that will cross the network each month in 2013. Internet video will generate over 18 exabytes per month in 2013.
• Internet video is now approximately one-third of all consumer Internet traffic, not including the amount of video exchanged through P2P file sharing. In 2010, Internet video will surpass P2P in volume. This will be the first time since 2000 that any application has displaced P2P as the top traffic driver.
• The sum of all forms of video (TV, video on demand, Internet, and P2P) will account for over 91 percent of global consumer traffic by 2013. Internet video alone will account for over 60 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2013.
• Video communications traffic growth is accelerating. Though still a small fraction of overall Internet traffic, video over instant messaging and video calling are experiencing high growth. Video communications traffic will increase ten-fold from 2008 to 2013.
• Real-time video is growing in importance. Internet TV, video communications, and ambient video are all high-growth application categories. By 2013, Internet TV will be over 4 percent of consumer Internet traffic, and ambient video will be 8 percent of consumer Internet traffic. Live TV has gained substantial ground in the past few years: globally, P2P TV is now slightly over 7 percent of overall P2P traffic at over 200 petabytes per month.
• Video-on-demand (VoD) traffic will double every two years through 2013. The twin trends of on-demand viewing and high-definition video are generating very rapid growth in cable video and IPTV traffic transported over IP in the metro. Consumer IPTV and CATV traffic will grow at a 53 percent CAGR between 2008 and 2013, compared to a CAGR of 40 percent for consumer Internet traffic.

 

Most statistics reflected on this page were obtained from research and studies obtained and conducted by the National Fiber to the Home Council (FTTH Council), if not otherwise cited.

 

*http://catalog2.corning.com/CorningCableSystems/media/NAFTA/White_Papers/EVO-687-EN.pdf