PCCA Journal|4
th
Quarter 2012
38
T
he number of North American households connected
directly into fiber networks has hit the 9 million
mark, with small incumbent telephone companies
continuing to lead the growth in fiber-to-the-home deploy-
ments, according to the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council
Americas.
At the FTTH industry’s annual conference in Dallas, the
council announced that FTTH services are now available
to 21.3 million North American homes, an increase of more
than 10 percent over the past six months.
“While large providers such as Verizon in the U.S., Bell
and Bell Aliant in Canada, and Telmex in Mexico continue to
be very important, small providers such as rural telcos, real
estate developers, small competitive providers, and even rural
electric coops are playing a key role in driving the expansion
of fiber to the home,” said Michael Render, president of RVA
LLC, which tracks FTTH deployment for the council.
In its analysis, RVA found that all but eight of nearly 880
FTTH service providers surveyed have fewer than 30,000 sub-
scribers, with only five having more than 50,000 access lines
and 97 percent of them having fewer than 10,000. The most
notable of the big FTTH providers is Verizon, which serves
more than half of the FTTH households in North America.
“In addition, other large providers are growing in impor-
Continued on page 40
News Briefs
Continued from page 37
FERC Proposes Enhancements to
Reliability of Bulk Power System
T
he Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) in October
took steps that it says will en-
sure continued reliable operation of the
nation’s bulk power system by proposing
to approve a revised vegetation man-
agement standard and to require new
standards addressing the impacts of a
geomagnetic disturbance (GMD).
GMDs, which result in distortions to
the earth’s magnetic field, may cause
severe problems with grid reliability,
including blackouts as well as dam-
age to critical or vulnerable equip-
ment. Although strong disturbances are
infrequent, current mandatory reliability
standards do not adequately address
vulnerabilities, according to FERC.
To address this reliability gap, the
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR)
proposes to direct the North American
Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC),
the FERC-approved electric reliability
organization, to develop and submit new
GMD standards in a two-stage process.
First, within 90 days of the effective
date of a final rule in the proceeding,
NERC would file one or more standards
requiring owners and operators of the
bulk power system to develop and
implement operational procedures to
mitigate GMD effects. That such proce-
dures already are in place in some areas
should allow for faster development and
implementation of these standards, the
FERC says.
In the second stage, FERC proposes
that NERC file, within six months of a fi-
nal rule, standards that require grid own-
ers and operators to conduct initial and
continuing assessments of the potential
impacts of GMDs and, based on those
assessments, implement strategies to
protect the bulk power system, including
automatic blocking of geomagnetically
induced currents, instituting specifica-
tion requirements for new equipment,
inventory management, or isolating
certain equipment that is not cost ef-
fective to retrofit. Stage two would be
implemented in phases, focusing first on
the most critical and vulnerable assets.
The NOPR does not propose specific
requirements but offers guidance regard-
ing the assessments of the grid’s vulner-
ability to GMDs, the mechanisms for
protecting critical or vulnerable compo-
nents, and an implementation schedule.
In a separate NOPR on vegetation
management, FERC proposes to approve
revisions submitted by NERC that would:
• Expand the applicability of the
standard to include lines operated
below 200 kilovolts that are part of an
Interconnection Reliability Operating
Limit or a Major Western Electricity
Coordinating Council Transfer Path,
• Set a new minimum annual inspection
requirement, and
• Incorporate new minimum clearance
distances into the text of the stan-
dard.
Small Telecom Providers Lead
Continued Expansion of All-Fiber Networks
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