* Rogers to offer on-demand Olympics coverage
Canada’s Rogers Cable Communications plans to offer free on-demand access to CBC’s coverage of the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, which get under way Feb. 10.
Starting Feb. 11, Rogers will offer about 13 hours of Olympic programming via VOD.
Rogers offers VOD to more than 830,000 homes in Ontario.
* GPON to fuel Fujitsu plans
Fujitsu Network Communications said it will leverage technology used in Asia and the United Kingdom to fuel its entry into North America’s Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) market.
Fujitsu is already deploying its Gigabit Ethernet Passive Networking (GEPON) systems in Asia, and its Multi-Service Access Node (MSAN) and Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) technology in the U.K.
Fujitsu said its new GPON architecture will outpace legacy Broadband Passive Optical Networking (BPON) technology, which is used in some fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) deployments and limited to 622 Mbps downstream/155 Mbps upstream, or about 20 Mbps per home. GPON aims for downstream rates of 2.488 Gbps/1.2 Gbps, or about 75 Mbps per home.