Telecom Top 5

Capex slump, new speed record, and telco earnings

Your telecom news update for the week ending 3/29/24. Upcoming telco earnings, a possible Tesla private 5G move, a new data transfer speed record, and more.

6G with AI, Apple and Vodafone news, and a rural 5G fund returns

Your telecom news update for the week ending 3/22/24. We're covering two different antitrust stories, a 6G simulation platform that Nvidia is rolling out, and more. 

Cyberattacks, undersea cables, and spectrum

Your telecom news update for the week ending 3/15/24. Lots of news this week, including another undersea cable outage. Listen in!

Trailer: Telecom Top 5

Telecom Top 5, hosted by Joe Gillard, offers a weekly, concise update on the latest developments in broadband, fiber optic, wireless, 5G, network engineering, cloud, virtual networks, legislation, and more, aiming to save telecom professionals time by delivering essential news in a digestible format.

How to make sure your fiber optic network is ready for 5G

As fiber is the foundation of 5G networks, it is important to get fiber infrastructure up and running right the first time. This blog will take a quick look at some new technologies being deployed across fiber networks, the role of testing to keep those connections running right and the increased responsibilities of multitasking fiber technicians out in the field.   
Strict, accurate testing is a necessity for 5G
Mobile network operators (MNOs) will be offering new 5G services grouped into one of three main types: enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type communications (mMTC) and ultra-reliable low-latency communications (urLLC). Each requires its own mix of bandwidth, latency thresholds, guaranteed QoS and automation. To deliver on these new 5G services, networks must transform. An increase in bandwidth and capacity (i.e., 25G, 100G), scaling to a smarter network (e.g. NFV/virtualization, slicing), use of new technologies (e.g., eCPRI), small cell densification (10-20x more cells) within urban environments and pushing the data plane to the edge are all necessary transformations. Another key transformation will be the need to add more fiber and run it deeper into the network. Due to the nature of these transformations, more detailed and highly accurate testing is necessary to ensure everything’s working right. In addition, having the latest and most efficient testing processes in place will be imperative for speeding up the entire process.
Where 4G networks were quick to forgive bad splices or bad connections, 5G networks can’t and won’t. Unless thorough 5G testing practices are strictly followed, failure rates on new 5G deployments will increase. Back in the day, dropping a call was not a deal breaker, but now it is as the expectations for bandwidth, reliability and delay are very high. The “plug and pray” era is definitively a thing of the past. So what can operators due to improve quality of service and reliability? First, in any network—and particularly in outside plant networks—connectors and connections will always be the weakest points. In the vast majority of troubleshooting cases, the culprit is found to be a dirty connector. So, cleaning and inspection are key to providing better network quality.
What to test and how to test it
When a fiber link is deployed, two tests will typically be performed to validate the quality of the install. The first test is end-to-end loss measurement using a loss test set or an optical multimeter. The second test is a distributed measurement using an OTDR or more advanced reflectometry technology like EXFO’s iOLM. Once the optical link has been validated and qualified, technicians install transceivers connecting the different network elements. At that stage, various tests should be performed such as a spectral measurement on systems where multiple wavelengths or signals are carried into the same fiber. This validates that levels are within tolerances and that transceivers are tuned to the proper frequencies. Note that transceivers are considered as consumables with a very low price point and sometimes quality is an issue.  That said, transceivers can be validated and tuned before installation by using a network tester. Some transceivers might have specific requirements in term of dispersion and fiber type and full fiber characterization might be required. That same network tester can be used for end-to-end testing and to validate that services are being properly transmitted and compliant with industry standards. At the network level, tests such as synchronization PTP1588, packet loss and jitter are usually performed to guarantee quality of service. Troubleshooting cell sites also involve RF-over-the-air testing, which is an entire subject onto itself.
Doing more and doing it quicker than ever
In addition to 5G, technicians in the field need to continue to support 4G LTE infrastructure for years to come. Being able to do more in the midst of new, emerging technologies means a rethink of current processes, with automation—one-button, intelligent testing—being vital to the ability to deliver accurate and ultra-fast fiber connections.
With the deployment of 5G—and soon 6G—test solutions need to do more, be more connected, smarter in every way. In terms of smarter testing, test equipment solutions need to do more than enable technicians to collect raw measurement data. Diagnosis information, advice on measurement and other guidance are valuable insights. For example, causes of failure—specifically a dirty connection or a stressor on a fiber—is important information that would be very helpful to include alongside readings collected using an OTDR. Through the power of the cloud, information can flow back and forth between cloud solutions (providing statistics and batch processing) and the test instrument (providing measurements and diagnosis). This enables technicians and engineers in the field to get that much-needed context and guidance.
Conclusion
Improving field-technician efficiency—by using the right tools and processes to identify and troubleshoot from day one—can represent a time savings of 90%, a necessary improvement in today’s 5G world. In turn, operators can continue maintaining 4G infrastructure while turning up 5G right the first time and begin monetizing their 5G investment sooner than later.

Why Air-Blown Fiber? All about Air-Blown Fiber solution

Sumitomo Electric Lightwave is the first company that brought the Air Blown Fiber (ABF) technology to the United States over 30 years ago and since then, we are the market’s leading company to provide the best ABF solution.  For an environment where operation downtime must be minimal, Air Blown Solution brings a great advantage.  Sumitomo’s Future FLEX Air Blown Fiber provides innovative way to create a network path with easy 3 steps by using 5 components. 
FutureFLEX’s 5 components are  
Tube Cable 
Fiber Bundle 
Tube Distribution Equipment 
Fiber Termination Equipment
Blowing Equipment
Step 1: Create an End-to-End Tube Cable Pathway 
Tube Cables have its own ratings to use in appropriate spaces such as Plenum, riser and regular outdoor. ABF tube cables contain inner tubes of up to 24 tubes and all or some inner tubes will be filled with fiber bundles. 
Tube Distribution Equipment is the switch point to change tube cable type or re-route fiber bundle to different path so that the blown fiber bundle travels to the designed direction.  
The beauty of FutureFLEX ABF is when an environment changes like outdoor to indoor or riser to plenum, the tube distribution unit (TDU) becomes a tube cable splice point to create one continuous pathway that covers multiple environments.
Step 2: Install Fiber Bundle 
ABF Fiber Bundles are available up to 72f and all strands of fiber bundles fit to any Future FLEX tube cables and they are all removable even installed once.  By having an ABF system with removable fiber bundle and able to replace with any fiber strands, the network owner can save money for not purchasing dark fiber and upgrade or add more fibers to existing tube cable in the future. 
Our blowing equipment is portable and electricity free design that allows blowing activity hassle free especially where hard to bring generator to obtain power.  Even without using electricity, the blowing pressure is powerful enough to install 3000ft. of fiber bundle in 30 minutes.  In addition to the short installation time, the FutureFLEX ABF only requires 2 installers, at the start of blowing and the end of blowing point to catch the fiber.  With FutureFLEX, fiber installation in the high security area or highly sanitized area with restricted access can be accomplished without interrupting the space and obtaining security clearance.  
The advantage of FutureFLEX ABF is not only the minimum labor and fast installation.  FutureFLEX’s rating system is based on tube cable rating.  FutureFLEX fiber bundle has no rating unless it blow in our rated tube cable. The fiber bundle travel inside outdoor tube cable carries outdoor rating, and fiber bundle travel inside plenum cable carries plenum rating.  Because of this unique rating, a fiber bundle can travel through multiple environments without fusion splicing and also carries multiple ratings in one blow. Of course, fiber installation can be done without disrupting ongoing business.
Step 3:  Terminate the Fiber Bundles at Fiber Termination Units 
Sumitomo Electric Lightwave provides variety of fiber termination products such as Lynx2 connectors, FOX cassetts, Fusion splicers and many kind of termination boxes to provide end to end solution to our customers. 

Broadband for Everyone

Broadband has become an essential utility for people around the world. It powers the digital economy; it makes applications such as remote learning and telemedicine possible; and it sets the stage for a future where virtual reality, augmented reality, and the metaverse are commonplace. However, 22.5% of US households do not have access to broadband. Closing the digital divide comes with many challenges including competition for resources, time to build, and many different considerations around technology. In this podcast CommScope’s Craig Culwell discusses how to overcome these challenges. You will learn how choosing the right technology can ease the impact of the skilled labor shortage, understanding and accessing government funds, technology considerations for your unique build, and finding key efficienciencies in your network rollout.

The Future is Line Powering: How We Can Enhance the Performance of the Telecom Power Grid

The telecommunications power grid has evolved from centralized to distributed architecture, which means more elements spanning greater distances from central offices. While this has expanded the grid and network coverage, the challenge of powering these far-flung elements has created headaches. Conventional power solutions (i.e. local power) are capital intensive and cause lags in deployment, but what solutions exist on the market today?
Hybrid cables that contain both fiber optic strands for data transmission and copper wires to run power through them. These cables provide a streamlined, versatile and sustainable solution to line powering for the current telecom power grid and future evolution. In this episode, Tony Wilson, President and Owner of Telecom and Industrial Marketing Solutions, and Keith Hoover, broadband product line manager for Superior Essex Communications, explain how combining these two delivery methods into a single cable can Enhance the Performance of the Telecom Power Grid.

Upgrading Your Network: Transitioning to the Latest Generation of Fiber Optic Closures

We all know about the critical need to upgrade aging networks. The internet of things is here and technological advances like telemedicine, precision ag, distance learning, remote work, autonomous vehicles, and 5G and beyond all require huge amounts of bandwidth with lower latency. But this is a massive infrastructure undertaking, so how do you properly plan for this transition, especially when it comes to upgrading the current fiber optic closures within your embedded base?

Preparing for the Future: A Three-Phased Approach to Modernizing Legacy Networks

As service providers transform their businesses to become agile and responsive and support configurable digital services, the question of network modernization is more and more urgent. Legacy networks are not only struggling to keep up with customer demands, they are increasingly difficult to maintain and costly in terms of real estate and power consumption, as well as contributing to an increased carbon footprint.
While an up-to-date, efficient network is the aspirational vision for any service provider, it’s easy to hesitate in the face of modernization’s daunting challenges and risks. Network digital transformation needs a broad range of technical, business, and planning expertise that few operators have available.
In this podcast, we’ll explore a vendor-agnostic, three phase approach to modernizing legacy TDM networks.
Topics of discussion:
The phased approach to Network Modernization and how it benefits the service provider 
The importance of a partner’s personnel in the Network Modernization process 
Types of projects available for modernizing legacy networks
The role of Circuit Emulation (CEM) in modernizing networks  
The need for advanced tools and automation to speed the process while increasing accuracy