Fierce

CenturyLink is replacing its aging copper-based wireline facilities in seven cities, potentially setting itself up for a wave of protests from consumers and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) that use existing facilities -- similar to those faced by Verizon and AT&T as they transition their legacy networks.
Two of the states where it will replace copper with fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) facilities are Minnesota and Washington, which are part of a broader initiative CenturyLink has taken to support 1 Gbps speed services for residential and business customers. In 2014, CenturyLink announced that it will extend its FTTH service footprint to residential and business customers in select locations in 16 cities. As part of replacement strategy, CenturyLink is deploying a FTTH overlay architecture that the company says will enable it to support more of its customers transitioning to broadband services. "Growth in the area requires CenturyLink to install Fiber Based Access to its customer," CenturyLink said in a Federal Communications Commission filing. "The copper loops will be replaced by fiber loops as customers migrate to higher speed Broadband Internet Access (BIA)." CenturyLink added that unbundled copper loops "may not be available to an individual address after the planned completion/retirement date." Outside of Minnesota and Washington, CenturyLink filed separate copper retirement notices in six other states: Alabama, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

AT&T and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) have begun the negotiation process for a new contract covering 2,000 of the telecommunication's Internet workers nationwide.

Lisa Bolton, VP of CWA telecommunications and technologies in Bedminster (NJ) said that similar to other contract negotiations, workers covered under the contract are looking for a contract that provides job security, affordable health care and retirement benefits. "AT&T is a very successful company, leading the telecommunications and video industry. Our members have helped build that success," Bolton said. "It's our turn, and it's time for AT&T to deliver a contract that gives workers at NIC our fair share." AT&T Internet is just one of several contracts the telecommunication company is in the process of negotiating with the CWA.

Two law enforcement officials are hoping for reappointment to the board of the First Responder Network Authority, which is charged with planning, building and operating the LTE-based, 700 MHz nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN).

Chuck Dowd, now retired from the New York Police Department (NYPD), is seeking reappointment to the FirstNet board, as is Paul Fitzgerald, the sheriff of Story County, Iowa.

Including the appointments of Dowd and Fitzgerald, a total of four of the 12 appointments of non-permanent members to the FirstNet Board are expiring this month. The Secretary of Commerce may reappoint individuals to serve on the FirstNet board provided they have not served two consecutive full three-year terms.

Former board Chairman Sam Ginn, a long-time telecom executive, is not seeking reappointment to the board, so that vacancy must be filled.

CableLabs' recently developed DOCSIS 3.1 spec is more than capable of delivering average downstream speeds far above 1 Gbps, but its ubiquitous deployment is still several years away. That means cable companies will have to rely on the current DOCSIS 3.0 parameters in what amounts to a marketing arms race with Google and AT&T's fast-proliferating fiber networks. Is this even possible? Do these guys have something else up their sleeve, like maybe offering FTTP to the finite number of subscribers who do order 1 Gbps service?

Comcast's and Level 3's pending acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and TW Telecom could have a major effect on the status of the top US Ethernet providers, reports Vertical Systems Group in its Mid-2014 US Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard.

When the deals are completed, these service providers will immediately enhance their Ethernet footprints and service sets.

Canby Telcom, a regional telecommunications company serving the northern Willamette Valley of Oregon, is the latest service provider to launch a 1 Gbps-based fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service, providing service to more than 2,500 local residents and businesses.

To deliver the FTTH service, Canby is using Adtran's Gigabit hardware portfolio, including the Total Access 5004 platform.

"This development is a tremendous asset to existing businesses, education and the overall community economic health by retaining local jobs and attracting even more industries and new job opportunities to our town," said Renate Mengelberg, economic-development director with the city of Canby.

Syracuse (NY) is tired of waiting for its two local service providers Verizon and Time Warner Cable to give it better broadband service so Mayor Stephanie Miner (D) is investigating how the city could build its own fiber-based broadband network.

Mayor Miner said that high-speed Internet is "the modern day equivalent of infrastructure," adding: "It's clear that broadband is going to be a foundation of our new economy."

Verizon is reportedly planning to use its 4G LTE mobile wireless network to deliver cable TV programming within a year.

While Verizon maintains it can do video over wireless with its existing network, things will improve noticeably if the carrier gets a big share of broadcast spectrum being put up for auction in late 2014. "To do over-the-top you have to have a rich spectrum portfolio," broadband analyst Scott McClelland said.

Charlotte (NC) Chief Information Officier Jeff Stovall said concerns about sustainability of the city's planned public-safety network ultimately led to a suspension of negotiations that could have enabled Charlotte to lease 700 MHz spectrum from the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet).

Charlotte was one of seven National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program (BTOP) public-safety entities whose funding was halted during spring 2012 by NTIA due to concerns the BTOP projects might be incompatible with the national public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) being planned by FirstNet.

The only way BTOPs could get their programs going again was if they completed a spectrum manager lease agreement (SMLA) with FirstNet to access its 700 MHz spectrum and had their rollout plan approved by NTIA.

Stovall said several changes during the funding freeze period -- including stricter building codes and a lowering of cellular service rate by commercial mobile network operators -- impacted the business plan for the Charlotte public-safety network, potentially leading to funding shortfalls for both deployment and operations.

Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen said he remains open to a partnership with T-Mobile US or another wireless carrier.

He also said that Sprint's decision to abandon merger talks with T-Mobile increases Dish's options for entering the wireless market. Ergen also reiterated that it is "relatively unlikely" that Dish will try to build out its spectrum by itself or just sell its spectrum.