Marine survey mapping of the underwater route is complete, permits are being gathered and the mix of public and private funding is in place for a fiber-optic cable to Kodiak Island, Ik Icard of the Kodiak Kenai Cable Company (KKCC) told a Kodiak Chamber of Commerce forum Thursday.

Placing the fiber-optic cable should begin this summer and service is expected to be ready in Kodiak by the end of 2005, Icard said.

The $42.5 million communication upgrade over current satellite technology will support economic development, education, telemedicine, marketing and research. It will also support activities at the Coast Guard Base and the Kodiak Launch Complex. Story Continues

The Baby Bells want to enter cable's market -- without paying the same fees

The Baby Bells have been making headlines lately with bold plans to take on the cable industry. SBC Communications Inc.

Regulation victories lead SBC and others toward expansion

By Bruce Meyerson, Associated Press

NEW YORK -- For at least a decade, phone companies have been promising to rewire America with fiber-optic cables. Now, with a romp of regulatory victories in hand, the regional Bells say they're free to make good on that ambitious plan to bring lightning-fast Web and TV services to all the nation's homes.

Washington (Bloomberg) -- Verizon Communications Inc., the largest U.S. telephone company, has won a government ruling that may speed construction of its fiber-optic network to carry video, phone calls and Internet traffic.

The Federal Communications Commission voted to grant Verizon's request to deny competitors access to new fiber installations at homes, the agency said in a statement distributed via e-mail.

Verizon Vice Chairman Lawrence Babbio said in August such rulings may lead the company to install fiber-optic cable in as many as 4 million homes next year, up from a plan of 2 million.

Verizon said Thursday it will hire 3,000 to 5,000 employees by the end of the next year to build the network and reiterated plans to bring fiber optics to 2 million homes in 2005.

»www.indystar.com/articles/2/1885···223.html

``Thursday October 21, 11:00 am ET
Fiber Deployment and FiOS Sales Continue in California, Florida and Texas; Verizon to Hire 3,000 to 5,000 New Employees Over the Next 14 Months.

»www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.W···astnews/

``LONG BEACH — In a matter of a few weeks, Huntington Beach residents and businesses will be the envy of much of the downloading world, an executive said.
"Transformation has become our watchword," Tim McCallion, president of Verizon's Pacific region, said during a Long Beach Rotary Club speech Wednesday at the Queen Mary, where the telecommunications executive lashed out at an initiative to tax phone users to help pay for more emergency rooms.

Continued here: »www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,···,00.html

Students tinkering with the SUNET (Swedish University Computer Network) last month transferred around 1831 Gigabytes of data in an hour (124.935 Pbmps) via a single TCP stream, and around 492 Gigabytes of data in about 16.5 minutes (122.367 Pbmps) using multiple TCP streams. The students used NetBSD for their tests, due to the scalability of the TCP code.

Two existing fiber optic lines may connect Fishers police officers from their satellite office at Hamilton Southeastern High School to police headquarters and save the town up to $800 per month in connection costs.

The town would use lines at Harrison Parkway Elementary that are leased by the school district and connect to the high school, Technology Director Walter Morales told School Board members Monday night.

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Continued here.

Sunday, August 29, 2004
FOR THE SAGINAW NEWS
MIDLAND -- Work continues on a countywide fiber-optic network that will begin operating in January.

Phase I features linking school districts, educational institutions, museums, townships and the Road Commission in Midland County. The network assists with Internet access, telephones and long-distance learning.
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Continued here.

By John Gartner 02:00 AM Aug. 17, 2004 PT
Source wired.com

``A new nanotechnology that eliminates network bottlenecks could help create a web surfers' paradise that is 100 times faster than today's internet.

Fiber-optic networks capable of sending information at 10 Gbps or 40 Gbps are being rolled out around the world and under the oceans to connect everyone to everything. But getting information to pass from one high-speed network to another can be slowed by electronic switching technology."

Story continues

By Declan McCullagh
CNET News.com
August 3, 2004, 4:11 PM PT

The FBI wants to force Verizon Communications to make sure that its broadband-over-fiber service can be easily wiretapped by police and spy agencies.
In a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission last month, the FBI said that Verizon's 30mbps (megabits per second) Fios service must be required to abide by a 1994 law that levied complex and expensive eavesdropping requirements on traditional phone companies. The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Justice Department joined the request.

Story continues

By Marguerite Reardon
CNET News.com
July 29, 2004, 1:42 PM PT

The first phase of a project to build a fiber network in 11 cities in Utah is set to begin, as organizers secured the needed cash to break ground.
The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, or Utopia, announced Thursday that is has closed $85 million in revenue bonds to finance the first phase of the project. Utopia, which plans to provide a fiber network to homes and businesses, is one of the largest fiber-to-the-premises projects in the country.

Story continues

By Ben Charny
CNET News.com
July 19, 2004, 12:13 PM PT

Verizon Communications has stepped up its battle against cable operators with plans to debut a broadband-over-fiber service later this summer.

The service, called Fios, will be launched in Keller, Texas, and later parts of southern California and Florida, the company said Monday. At up to 30mbps (megabits per second), Fios is a quantum leap compared with Verizon's DSL (digital subscriber line) service, which runs at a maximum of 1.5mbps.


Story

Union Pacific Railroad signed its first contracts 20 years ago with four major telecommunication companies to permit installation of fiber optic cable in its right-of-way.

Today, more than 33,000 miles of this high-capacity cable carries voice and data transmissions along Union Pacific track.

SAN ANTONIO -- SBC Communications Inc. today announced a four-year primary supplier agreement with Alcatel for the SBC Fiber-to-the-Premises initiative. The agreement will enable SBC Communications to move forward with further lab testing and field trials, which are the next steps in developing and finalizing potential use for this next-generation network technology. Ultimately, FTTP deployment will depend on results of the final lab testing and field trials, as well as clarification of any regulatory guidelines that would apply to FTTP networks.

Full story here.

Research efforts aimed at reducing the power needed to send light signals over long stretches of optical fiber are focused on making fiber lines from photonic crystal, an artificial, patterned structure made from a mix of materials or a material and air.

The challenge is making photonic crystal fiber structures that are consistent enough to efficiently channel light over useful distances.

Integrated communications provider SureWest Communications (Nasdaq:SURW) announced today it has reached the 10,000 subscriber milestone for its triple-play bundling of digital television, high-speed Internet and telephony service over fiberoptics in Sacramento.
"Reaching this milestone indicates that consumers in Sacramento clearly see the value in the triple-play.

What began as a cheerleading session for fiber-to-the-home this week looks to have wedged Alcatel SA and Corning Inc. into an awkward space.