While Mark Cuban talks of bandwidth demand not keeping up with bandwidth growth, it seems there is still capacity to enable service providers to roll out new services on available dark fibre.

In my opinion, the offer of such new services and higher bandwith is influenced more by the infrastructure model than the infreastructure availability. The structure where a network operater owns the fibre network, and a separate entity provides services is the better model. This model is more common in Europe. A good example is Stokab, the citywide fibre network in Stockholm.

A recent example of the opportunities afforded by this model is reported by Irish Dev who write that service provider Strencom is leveraging e-net’s availability of dark fibre in their MAN’s. Strencom have been able to expand their offering to 27 towns around Ireland, in a 3 year deal announced last week. This deal is taking high speed access to towns as small as 1500 people. In a similar unrelated news article, The Post reports that the agency that runs Dublin’s Luas tram system has intentions to lease out excess fibre-optic capacity on its lines.

The other common infrastructure model is where a telco/carrier owns the infrastructure and provides services. Then they sell excess capacity to other service providers at a wholesale rate. This second model is more common in countries such as the US and Australia. Having a structure where the entity who owns and manages the network competes with the service providers using their network access is always going to result in a conflict of interest, as seen in the USA and Australia. This structure stifles new offerings, because the incumbent carrier has a vested interest in holding onto their legacy services and market share.

Is it time to have the electrodes replaced in your fusion splicer?

Electrode cleaning is part of the essential maintenence of your fusion splicer. Electrodes need cleaning due to the buildup of silica oxide. Cleaning splicer electrodes can be done through the menu on the splicer.

As the electrodes wear from use, eventually cleaning the electrodes will not restore the performance of the splicer, and they will need to be replaced. Worn electrodes lead to weaker splices and higher splice losses. Fujikura, FITEL, Sumitomo, Corning, and Ericsson all specify differing lengths of time between replacing splicer electrodes. Electrodes used in Yamasaki fusion splicers should be replaced after around 1500 arcs. You can see the ‘Arc Counter’ within the menu, under ‘Other’.

Always replace electrodes as a pair. For optimal performance, electrodes should also be aligned when they are replaced. This is a tuning process to maximise the performance of your splicer. For this reason, it is recommended that you have your fusion splicer electrodes replaced by a trained Yamasaki technician.

Fiber To The Home installations continue to accelerate. In Japan NTT have just released figures showing signups for FTTH overtook ADSL in Q1 of 2005. You can read the full report at Nyquist Capital

This is a trend the western world is likely to follow in the coming years. In the US, Capital Broadband is working with residential developers and has plans to deploy FTTH to more than 200,000 homes.

In Australia, commercial availability is getting closer, with trials in several states, despite some delays

Meanwhile, the FTTH Council Europe reports that municipalities are taking a shareholding of FTTH deployments in Amsterdam.