Portland Workshop to Discuss Fiber-Enabled Broadband and its Economic Benefits for Communities
WASHINGTON, DC – Leaders of the fiber to the home (FTTH) industry will gather in Portland, Oregon this month for a broadband workshop that will highlight the high-bandwidth, all-fiber telecommunications networks that are being deployed in the Pacific Northwest region.
The full-day of presentations and discussion has been organized by the national Fiber-to-the-Home Council, a group that promotes the expansion of faster networks. It will take place on Wednesday, March 28, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Portland.
Featured speakers will include representatives from telephone companies and public electric utilities in Oregon and Washington that are operating FTTH networks in their communities. They will be relating their experiences in deploying and operating the new high-bandwidth technology, as well as how customers are receiving it and the impact on economic development in their communities.
More information and an updated agenda can be found on the Portland workshop event page at the FTTH Council’s website.
According to the market analyst firm RVA LLC, there are about 75 telecom service providers across Oregon and Washington that have upgraded to FTTH, and together they serve about 225,000 households.
“Many of these companies in Oregon and Washington, whether they are local telecoms or public utility districts, have been providing higher than average bandwidth for some time,” said Michael Render, President of RVA. “In fact, some residents in this region have been getting 100 megabit per second connectivity for longer than in any other region of the country, going back a decade or more.”
“A number of communities in the Pacific Northwest have already found out how important fiber-enabled broadband is to their economic development,” said Heather Burnett Gold, President of the FTTH Council. “It’s not only large employers looking for superior bandwidth in communities when they make location decisions, but FTTH also drives the proliferation and success of home-based businesses. It all adds up to one thing – faster connectivity drives more growth.”
The FTTH Council estimates that more than 770 entities across the U.S. and Canada – almost all of them small telephone companies, competitive broadband providers or public utilities – are already providing services over FTTH networks, and that the vast majority of them expect to grow their fiber footprint in the immediate future.
The Council estimates that FTTH networks are now available to one-fifth of U.S. households, with more than seven million homes connected with end-to-end fiber.
FTTH networks are capable of handling the enormous bandwidth demands that experts predict will be associated with emerging services in the areas of HD and 3D video entertainment, tele-medicine, telecommuting, distance learning and a host of other applications.
“Clearly, the fiber revolution is already well underway, and this workshop will be an outstanding opportunity to learn what today’s forward-thinking broadband providers are doing to drive next-generation bandwidth and all of the business and lifestyle enhancements that will mean,” said Gold.
The workshop is open to anyone with an interest in next-generation broadband. An agenda and registration information can be found on the FTTH Council’s website, www.ftthcouncil.org.
Following the workshop, on March 29 and 30, the FTTH Council will be joining with its partner The Light Brigade in conducting a two-day exam preparatory course for the Certified Fiber to the Home Professionals Program (CFHP) at the DoubleTree by Hilton. The course is structured to certify competence in overall FTTH theory, terminology, topology, equipment and system cost estimation. More information about the program can be found on the FTTH Council’s website.
About the FTTH Council North America:
Now in its 11th year, the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council is a non-profit association consisting of companies and organizations that deliver video, Internet and/or voice services over high-bandwidth, next-generation, direct fiber optic connections – as well as those involved in planning and building FTTH networks. Its mission is to accelerate deployment of all-fiber access networks by demonstrating how fiber-enabled applications and solutions create value for service providers and their customers, promote economic development and enhance quality of life. More information about the Council can be found at www.ftthcouncil.org.
For more information contact:
David St. John
315.396.9590
Portland Workshop to Discuss Fiber-Enabled Broadband and its Economic Benefits for Communities
Portland Workshop to Discuss Fiber-Enabled Broadband and its Economic Benefits for Communities
