Back to the table of Contents Page Classifieds Palo Alto Online Publication Date: Wednesday, April 21, 2004 Another delay for fiber-opticsAnother delay for fiber-optics (April 21, 2004) Besieged by supporters, council considers new financing options by Bill D'AogstinoBringing hyper-fast Internet access to Palo Alto residents will require even greater consideration by the local government than originally anticipated. With new options on the table for financing the project, the City Council delayed moving forward on an expensive proposal to build a citywide fiber-optic network on Monday night -- but not before hearing from interested residents who packed the council's chambers.An estimated $40 million is needed for the city to build the series of glass lines that would bring hyper-fast Internet access, cable television and telephone service to all residents courtesy of the local government.On Monday night, the City Council heard new ideas for ways to fund it, as well as thoughts from nearly 30 residents. Many were hollering for the city to enter the telecommunications business.Todd Stangel, 19, said he supported the fiber-optics project because it would help him videoconference with his girlfriend in New York."I would just like to see an Internet connection that would not make her look like a Picasso painting," Stangel said, garnering laughter from the tech-savvy crowd.The teen spoke to the council while referring to notes scrawled on his left hand.Most of those speaking in support of the project lived in the 66 homes that have been testing the fiber-optics technology for the city since 2001. They hyped the project, saying it would lower costs for cable TV and Internet access, while giving the city a leg-up in attracting new businesses and jobs.A small minority of speakers criticized the venture, including a few residents who worried about the financial risks. The success of the new venture would depend heavily on what percentage of residents signed on and how it would be financed.The city's initial proposal for paying for the system -- floating revenue bonds backed by the city's electricity company -- was reconsidered after closer scrutiny. Of particular concern were the ramifications of California-specific laws, but unspecified political considerations also played a role, officials said.Four new financing options were presented to the council Monday night. One would rely on private investors to spend big bucks; another would directly assess property owners, including those who would not be customers, for the cost; a third would utilize debt backed by a special tax; and the final would back the costs with an unspecified city asset that could potentially be handed over if revenues didn't meet expectations.Each option has new political, financial, practical and legal issues that will be explored further by the city in the coming weeks. Notably, each would have different interest rates attached. The rate the city receives in the endeavor would considerably change the financial picture.Some of the new options would not necessarily have to be placed on a ballot, while others would require a two-thirds approval. Until this week, the city had been moving toward a November election on the issue.As a result of all the new information, the council asked its Utilities Advisory Committee to re-look at the issue on May 5. Armed with new data and the committee's recommendation, the council itself will hold a new public hearing on Monday, May 24, and is hoping to make a decision that night. Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at [email protected] E-mail a friend a link to this story.
Hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) is a telecommunications industry term for a broadband network that combines optical fiber and coaxial cable. It has been commonly employed globally by cable television operators since the early 1990s.
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In a hybrid fiber-coaxial cable system, the television channels are sent from the cable system's distribution facility, the headend, to local communities through optical fiber subscriber lines. At the local community, a box called an optical node translates the signal from a light beam to radio frequency (RF), and sends it over coaxial cable lines for distribution to subscriber residences. The fiberoptic trunk lines provide adequate bandwidth[weasel words] to allow future expansion and new bandwidth-intensive services[citation needed] such as internet access through DOCSIS.
The fiber optic network extends from the cable operators' master headend, sometimes to regional headends, and out to a neighborhood's hubsite, and finally to a coaxial cable node which serves anywhere from 25 to 2000 homes. A master headend will usually have satellite dishes for reception of distant video signals as well as IP aggregation routers. Some master headends also house telephony equipment (such as automatic telephone exchanges) for providing telecommunications services to the community.
A regional or area headend/hub will receive the video signal from the master headend and add to it the public, educational, and government access (PEG) cable TV channels as required by local franchising authorities or insert targeted advertising that would appeal to a local area. The various services are encoded, modulated and upconverted onto RF carriers, combined onto a single electrical signal and inserted into a broadband optical transmitter.
This optical transmitter converts the electrical signal to a downstream optically modulated signal that is sent to the nodes. Fiber optic cables connect the headend or hub to optical nodes in a point-to-point or star topology, or in some cases, in a protected ring topology.
The optical portion of the network provides a large amount of flexibility. If there are not many fiber-optic cables to the node, wavelength division multiplexing can be used to combine multiple optical signals onto the same fiber. Optical filters are used to combine and split optical wavelengths onto the single fiber. For example, the downstream signal could be on a wavelength at 1490 nm and the return signal could be on a wavelength at 1310 nm.
Trunk coaxial cables are connected to the optical node and form a coaxial backbone to which smaller distribution cables connect. Trunk cables also carry AC power which is added to the cable line at usually either 60 or 90 V by a power supply (with a lead acid backup battery inside) and a power inserter. The power is added to the cable line so that optical nodes, trunk and distribution amplifiers do not need an individual, external power source. The power supply might have a power meter next to it depending on local power company regulations. Trunk cables may have trunk amplifiers.
From the trunk cables, smaller distribution cables are connected to a port of the trunk amplifier to carry the RF signal and the AC power down individual streets. If needed, line extenders, which are smaller distribution amplifiers, boost the signals to keep the power of the television signal at a level that the TV can accept. The distribution line is then "tapped" into and used to connect the individual drops to customer homes.
The drop is then connected to the house where a ground block protects the system from stray voltages. Depending on the design of the network, the signal can then be passed through a splitter to multiple TVs or to multiple set top boxes (cable boxes) which may then be connected to a TV. If too many splitters are used to connect multiple TVs, the signal levels will decrease, and picture quality on analog channels will decrease. The signal in TVs past those splitters will lose quality and require the use of a "drop" or "house" amplifier to restore the signal.
The return-path or upstream signals carry information from the home to the headend/hub office, such as control signals to order a movie or internet upstream traffic. The forward-path and the return-path are carried over the same coaxial cable in both directions between the optical node and the home.
Multi-system operators (MSOs) developed methods of sending the various services over RF signals on the fiber optic and coaxial copper cables. The original method to transport video over the HFC network and, still the most widely used method, is by modulation of standard analog TV channels which is similar to the method used for transmission of over-the-air broadcast.
One analog TV channel occupies a 6-MHz-wide frequency band in NTSC-based systems, or an 8-MHz-wide frequency band in PAL or SECAM-based systems. Each channel is centred on a specific frequency carrier so that there is no interference with adjacent or harmonic channels. To be able to view a digitally modulated channel, home, or customer-premises equipment (CPE), e.g. digital televisions, computers, or set-top boxes, are required to convert the RF signals to signals that are compatible with display devices such as analog televisions or computer monitors. The US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has ruled that consumers can obtain a cable card from their local MSO to authorize viewing digital channels.
In the 2000s, telecom companies started significant deployments of fiber to the x (FTTX) such as passive optical network solutions to deliver video, data and voice to compete with cable operators. These can be costly to deploy but they can provide large bandwidth capacity especially for data services.
AT&T Fiber installation may require a technician to come to your home, even if you already have other AT&T services. Fiber services require different types of cable and equipment, and the technician will upgrade the internet lines to your home to be sure you have our most up-to-date fiber optic technology.
When deciding how to spend their advertising dollars, many businesses may be surprised to discover that TV advertising is much more complicated than it originally appears. After all, there are several TV advertising options available. These options include cable, satellite, broadcast TV, and streaming TV (such as Apple TV and Hulu). 2ff7e9595c
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