June 2008 Archives

Oliver Ax, owner of Amsterdam's first connected houseboat

If you thought FTTB meant fibre-to-the-building, then you're right, but you're also wrong. Yesterday I was in Amsterdam to get up close and personal with the city's fibre-to-the-home project (more on that to follow), and along certain canalsides in Amsterdam it means fibre-to-the-boat. Yes, Glasvezelnet Amsterdam (GNA), the company that owns the CityNet infrastructure, has connected houseboats to the city's high-speed fibre network, which it reckons — not surprisingly — is a world's first.

A new kind of robust optical connector allows houseboats to physically connect to the network upon mooring, and disconnect when necessary. "I now have ultra-fast internet, TV and telephone connection through one single cable," says Oliver Ax, owner of Amsterdam's first connected houseboat (pictured).

80% of Amsterdam residents live in apartments, and since I didn't see any houses when I was there, does that mean that 20% of them live on houseboats? With all those canals it's certainly possible.

But that's not the most weird and wacky FTTx I heard on my trip. That would have to be fibre-to-the-ice hotel.

Fibre doesn't only get put in the ground, it goes to some interesting places. Here are some short, sharp statistics given to me by cable-maker Draka.

For instance did you know that every Airbus 350 has 500km of Draka cable inside it? Or that the BMW 5 Series has over 3.5km of Draka cable circling its innards. What's more, 52 out of 55 of the world's tallest buildings have Draka fibre inside, the company claims, including the Burj Dubai, which took over from Tapei 101 as the ultimate skyscraper in July 2007 — even though it isn't finished yet.

Draka says it produces enough fibre-optic cable every day to circle the globe. When you consider that Draka is only one of a number of large cable making firms, it all adds up to a mind-boggling amount of fibre being manufactured every day.

Here's hoping for a press trip to see what fibre can do for the world's tallest building — so long as it hasn't fallen down yet.

Probably the best show freebie I've had so far was Google's version of the Rubiks cube. But now I've been given something else to keep me amused on a long-haul flight — Alcatel-Lucent's second edition of Breaking the barriers. What's more according to a press release issued today, Alcatel-Lucent is giving away the first few copies at its NXTcomm booth — don't all rush at once!

Breaking the barriers is pitched as a visionary view of operators' broadband access strategies , a subject that's changing so fast that it was necessary to overhaul the content of the book just 18 months after the first edition was published.

The book itself has a minimalist look, finished with a simple plain white dust jacket. But inside it's far from minimalist — it contains no less than 40 contributions from some of the industry's most forward-thinking minds, and includes carrier perspectives on the evolution of their broadband access networks, case studies and regulatory comment, as well as technical discussions from Alcatel-Lucent experts, of course.

Curious? fibresystems.org will be publishing a selection of articles from the book in our white papers section. UPDATE 23/06/08: The first two papers, Citynet Dynamics in Europe - The State of Municipal Fiber to the Home and Fiber Migration - A French Perspective on Very High-Speed Broadband are now online. Enjoy!