Page 40 - PCCA Journal 2nd Quarter 2012

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PCCA Journal|2
nd
Quarter 2012
40
Pike Research’s smart grid industry
predictions are:
• Smart meters will shift from deploy-
ment to applications
• Dynamic pricing debates will escalate
• “Architecture” will be the new buzz-
word
• Cyber security failures will become
almost inevitable
• Consumer backlash against smart
meters will not go away
• Distribution automation and AMI will
intersect
• Microgrids will move from curiosity to
reality
• The freeze on home area networks
will begin to thaw, just a little
• Asia Pacific smart grid adoption will
accelerate even faster
• Stimulus investments will bear mixed
fruit
Pike Research’s white paper, “Smart
Grid: Ten Trends to Watch in 2012 and
Beyond,” provides insights into and
analysis of the key issues that will shape
the smart grid market in the months and
years ahead. Conclusions and predic-
tions in the paper are drawn from a
broad array of Pike Research reports,
with market forecasts included for key
market sectors. A full copy of the white
paper is available for free download at
www.pikeresearch.com.
Continued FTTH
Expansion Fueled
by Broad Base of
Telecom Providers
T
he number of North American
households connected directly
into optical fiber networks grew
by 13 percent over the past year, indicat-
ing that telecommunications companies
of all sizes are continuing to upgrade
to next-generation fiber to the home
technologies, according to the Fiber-to-
the-Home Council Americas.
The council recently released figures
prepared by the market analyst firm RVA
LLC showing that 900,000 households
across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and
the Caribbean were upgraded to FTTH
service since April 2011, as the total
number of North American homes with
all-fiber connections surged past 8 mil-
lion. The figures showed that FTTH is
now being offered to 19.3 million homes
on the continent.
About 95 percent of FTTH house-
holds are in the United States, which
began to see a significant expansion of
fiber deployment in 2004 when Verizon
began upgrading to FTTH in much of
its wireline footprint, but deployment in
other North American countries is now
beginning to rise. Canadian households
News Briefs
Continued from page 39
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