Getting the bends is a great thing for Corning’s new fiber
By Brian Santo

A new type of optical fiber from Corning will make the installation of FTTP profoundly easier, and will be a first giant step toward making in-building fiber wiring practical. Corning said the first, largest beneficiary will be Verizon, which was involved in the development of the new fiber.

Optical fiber has long been flexible enough to bend around corners, but doing so compromises its ability to transmit light; if bent too sharply, signals are completely lost. Corning’s new fiber can fit around corners – can even be looped – with minimal signal loss, which will make fiber much, much easier to install, especially in commercial and residential buildings.

Corning says its new single-mode fiber is over 100 times more bendable than standard fibers, while maintaining compatibility with industry performance standards, existing manufacturing processes and installation procedures. “So customers don’t have to sacrifice one benefit to get another,” said Peter F. Volanakis, president and chief operating officer at Corning.

The company has not released any details about the underlying technology, other than to say it involves nanostructure technology. Corning was not able to respond to calls on short notice.

“Continued innovation in advanced telecommunications networks is critical to the long-term success of Verizon and our ability to provide our FiOS service on a mass scale in the United States,” said Paul Lacouture, executive vice president of Engineering and Technology, Verizon Telecom Group.

“We are working closely with Corning to solve the challenges of providing fiber solutions to high-rise apartment complexes across the United States. This fiber technology will enable us to bring faster Internet speeds, higher-quality high-definition content, and more interactive capabilities than any other platform which exists today.”

Cablevision offers multi-line residential VoIP
By Traci Patterson

Cablevision Systems Corp. is now giving its residential customers the option of having up to four Optimum Voice digital phone lines.

Subscribers with one Optimum Voice line can add up to three additional lines for $14.95 per month, per line. Cablevision already offers business customers up to eight lines of Optimum Voice.

Optimum Voice is available exclusively to Optimum Online high-speed Internet customers. The service is carried over Cablevision’s broadband network.

A&E, MobiTV team up for mobile video launches
By Mike Robuck

A&E Television Networks (AETN) said today it has hooked up with MobiTV to launch mobile channels for A&E and The History Channel.

A&E Mobile and The History Channel Mobile are available today on the MobiTV platform for customers who have mobile services through participating providers in the U.S. A&E said the new mobile channels are the first phase of its overall digital strategy to deliver programs and services to viewers on multiple platforms.

The History Channel Mobile shows include “Dogfights” and “Modern Marvels” while the A&E Mobile offerings feature “Dog the Bounty Hunter” and “Criss Angel Mindfreak.”

“These mobile channels enable us to offer a new service to our existing audience, and through cross promotion, to bring new viewers back to our linear channels,” said Paul Jelinek, AETN’s senior vice president, digital media, in a prepared statement.

Today’s announcement marked the second time the two companies have collaborated. In April 2006, the two companies partnered to deliver “The History Channel en espanol” as part of the line-up on MobiTV en Espanol, the first live Spanish language mobile television service offered in the U.S.

CommScope, IPcelerate partner on emergency alert solution
By Mike Robuck

CommScope and IPcelerate integrated their respective systems to create an emergency notification system for VoIP networks.

The joint solution was developed for a large, unnamed Dallas-based corporation. The solution was developed under the auspices of Cisco’s technology partners program.

In order to comply with federal guidelines, the new design needed to show the exact physical location of any emergency phone call within the network, which has been difficult in the past because VoIP phones can be moved from office to office. The CommScope/IPcelerate solution shows the physical location of a phone call on a telephone set used by company’s security personnel.

“In this case, we implemented qualities from both systems to create a new feature for the client that integrates seamlessly with Cisco’s software and telephone sets,” said Mark Peterson, senior vice president, global marketing, of CommScope Enterprise Division, in a prepared statement.

The new system utilizes IPcelerate’s software, IPsession, which complements Cisco’s call manager and uses MAC addresses along with other identifiers to recognize the specific VoIP phones connected to the network. It also uses the SYSTIMAX iPatch Real-Time Infrastructure Management System, which is used to document and maintain, in real-time, all physical layer connectivity information.

NuVisions snags 2,000 subscribers in New Jersey
By Mike Robuck

Microwave Satellite Technologies doubled its subscriber base by adding over 2,000 residential and commercial customers in a mixed-use community in Jersey City.

Under its service name of NuVisions, the company will be providing video, voice, Internet and Wi-Fi services to businesses and residential customers in Newport. Newport is being developed by the LeFrak Organization, and MST has leased office space in a Newport office center.

MST will provide its bundle of data video products to over 120 commercial customers in Newport, including Marriott, Sears and UBS Financial. MST will launch its IPTV service to Newport’s residential and business customers by using the community’s existing bandwidth infrastructure.

Synacor distributing celebrity news, videos
By Traci Patterson

Synacor and CelebTV.com are partnering for an online video channel offering Hollywood news, features stories and video clips. The service can be offered by ISPs and cable operators through a partnership with Synacor, which is now a distribution partner of CelebTV.com.

TVN signs 100th affiliate
By Traci Patterson

TVN Entertainment Corp. has signed its one-hundredth affiliate partner – Alaskan broadband operator GCI Communication Inc. TVN is a privately-held digital content aggregation, management, distribution and service company that delivers on-demand content via its cable, telco and broadband partners. The company recently launched VOD Complete, an end-to-end VOD solution for small market systems.

Broadband Briefs for 7/23/07

* Conexant picks up business in China
Conexant Systems said DareGlobal, an equipment manufacturer based in Shanghai, will build two new set-tops that incorporate Conexant’s standard-definition MPEG-2 decoders. The STBs are being deployed by MSOs in the Chinese provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong.