PCCA Journal|4
th
Quarter 2012
40
News Briefs
Continued from page 38
tance. AT&T is increasing its deployment of FTTH in new
developments, and the new Google Gigabit fiber deployment
in Kansas City is now fully underway,” Render said.
RVA found that more than a half-million households on
the continent receive internet connectivity at or in excess of
100 megabits per second (mbps), and that tested throughput
speeds among survey respondents found FTTH subscribers
beginning to pull away from other access technologies in
both download and upload capacity. Median tested download
speeds were above 20 mbps for FTTH subscribers, compared
to less than 15 mbps for cable modem users, while FTTH
upload speeds were over 9 mbps compared to about 3 mbps
for cable.
“What we’re finding in our surveys is that the advantages
of having an all-fiber infrastructure are now starting to be
experienced by subscribers in very real ways,” said FTTH
Council Americas President Heather Burnett Gold.
Also discussed at the FTTH Conference were the results of
the first comprehensive study on emerging FTTH deployment
in Latin America, which found that all-fiber networks now
pass 4.2 million homes in the region, with 350,000 homes
connected.
The study, conducted for the FTTH Council Americas
LATAM Chapter by the consulting firm IDATE, found that
Mexico is the leading FTTH market, followed by Brazil, with
Chile and Argentina also showing some promise as deploy-
ments get underway in those countries.
“We found that the main fiber architecture being deployed
in Latin America is FTTH, as opposed to fiber to the building,
and that GPON is the preferred technology, involving more
than 80 percent of the deployments in both cases,” said Roland
Montagne, director of the Telecoms Business Unit at IDATE. 
Broadband Users Go Borderless
M
ore than half (52 percent) of
all U.S. consumers surveyed
say internet service is their
home’s most important utility, according
to the first in a series of tech consumer
research surveys, called the Verizon FiOS
Innovation Index: Borderless Lifestyle
Survey. And if you have an internet-
connectable device with you at all times
whenever you leave your home, there is
a good chance that you are one of the
nearly 40 percent of Americans that the
index identified as “borderless consum-
ers.”
Verizon believes the borderless life-
style is a result of the convergence of
wired and wireless broadband networks
and the unique user flexibility and
personal empowerment that converged
services enable. The borderless lifestyle
is about eliminating the old technology
boundaries that used to separate net-
works and service platforms, home and
work, allowing customers to connect and
accomplish what they want or need to
do, whenever they wish, wherever they
are, using the device that they prefer.
“As the borderless consumer segment
continues to grow, so will the need to
identify, understand, and anticipate what
consumers truly want in their increas-
ingly connected lives, today and in the
future,” said Eric Bruno, vice president
of FiOS strategy and development for
Verizon.
The FiOS Innovation Index found that
while borderless consumers are well-
equipped for anywhere, anytime online
engagement, their digital activities—
communication, entertainment, and
commerce—still revolve around their
physical home.
The index will periodically examine
trends in connectivity, device adoption,
and user experiences that are shaping
consumers’ lives and driving innovation
in the connected media and services in-
dustries. The index will provide insights
into large-scale trends for adults living in
the U.S. and explore how they are using
advances in technology and innovation
to live a life more connected and without
borders.
Borderless consumers are found in
every ethnic and age group—millenni-
als, generation X, baby boomers, and
the mature generation—though 18-to-34
year-olds constitute the greatest number
of borderless consumers. Many are col-
lege educated and own their home, and
nearly half earn $75,000 or more annu-
ally.
If you are also motivated to make
technology and connectivity upgrades
and are interested in enjoying the
benefits of a digital smart home, you
are definitely among the 39 percent of
U.S. adults that are living the borderless
lifestyle.
According to the FiOS Innovation In-
dex, 82 percent of borderless consumers
are interested in using network services
like cloud-based data storage to access
to their data files using any device, from
any location, at any time. The study also
found that women (53 percent) outnum-
ber men (47 percent) in the borderless
consumer segment.
The vast majority (90 percent) look
forward to the day when every connect-
able device in their house can seamlessly
interconnect and work together—via
their in-home network or online.
1...,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39 41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,...68