Household Data Consumption

Interesting article on average US household data consumption:

Average monthly broadband usage in U.S. homes is 190 gigabytes per month, according to a new report from iGR Research. More than 95% of this traffic is video, researchers said.“TV has become a personal activity,” said Iain Gillott, president of iGR research, in an interview. “If you have four people in a household now, that means four times the data going in.”In the past all members of a four-person home might watch the same thing on the same TV set at the same time. But today, each family member may be watching his or her own Netflix or YouTube choice.

Google Fiber

AT&T took some not so subtle shots at Google Fiber recently. This happening among rumors of Google Fiber downsizing it's personnel and moving to a more wireless-centric solution. Everyone seems to be asking what's up with Google Fiber? An interesting observation from the AT&T post:

February 2010: Google announces its intent to build ultra-high-speed fiber-fed broadband networks with plans to serve around five million subscribers in five years; 1100 cities respond to Google’s Request for Information in an effort to become a Google Fiber City.
Today: Google Fiber has deployed a fiber network in parts of seven out of the 1100 interested cities, but otherwise hits the pause button as Google Fiber learns something we’ve known for over a hundred years – deploying communications networks is hard and takes an enormous amount of time, money and skilled labor.

Emphasis added. There are a lot of risks and hurdles in building a fiber network. An interesting take-away for many municipalities looking to build their own FTTH projects. Don't underestimate the risks and costs involved in such projects!

Could Drones Replace Tower Climbers?

Could drones replace tower climbers? Could one of the most dangerous and highest paying blue collar jobs in the cell and utility industries be going the way of typewriter repairmen? Drones and robots seem to be the future.

“We will take tower climbers off the towers. That’s our goal and we expect it to fully occur within five years,” said [Lee] Priest [CEO of ETAK]. He said some of ETAK’s drones already have robotic arms that can touch the towers. “We are also looking at remote robots that can climb towers,” he said. “They can use the safety climb as well as the pegs to get up towers.”

DOCSIS 3.1 vs. FTTH

Interesting look at the differences between DOCSIS 3.1 and FTTH.

To me this was the key take-away:

There is no debate that an entire network built with fiber-optic cable is the way to go if you are building a network from scratch or replacing a legacy copper wire network. 

Seems common sense to most but needs to be said for others.

FTTH Take-Rates

Fiber Maven (via Telecompetitor) reports approximately 28 million homes passed with FTTH with an average 50% penetration.

One must assume that "penetration" means the same as "take-rate". The unanswered question is how many of those 28 million homes passed were FiOS, U-Verse or cable overbuilds?

Verizon FiOS Strategy Going Forward

Verizon will look to other cities to replicate the "FiOS build-out" model the communications giant is implementing in Boston.

Make no mistake - this strategy is primarily based on Verizon increasing their 5G footprint and secondarily on increasing their broadband penetration. Verizon is just using the video services FiOS offers as the "shiny thing" to get public officials attention. And to get favorable pole attachment concessions.

TWC Misleading Customers on Internet Speeds

The NY State Attorney General is troubled by the way Time Warner Cable handles customer service and how their advertised Internet speed don't match up with reality.

Misleading Internet speeds are pretty common and you would almost expect that sort of flim-flam marketing from companies like TWC or Comcast. What concerns me is the almost willful suspension of reality when it comes to so-called Gigabit Cities.

I get about 16-18 Gbps from my Charter connection but my bill says I'm supposed to get 30 Mbps. I'm not too upset about that because I understand contention and my speeds are at least better than 50% of what I'm supposed to be getting. But what about subscribers in FTTH builds who are supposed to be getting "up to 1 Gbps" on their new fiber connection only to top out at 100 Mbps when doing a speed test in the middle of the night and much less when doing a speed test during normal hours?

What's worse and what's more misleading - Charter giving me 18 Mbps from my 30 Mbps connection or getting 100 Mbps or less on a supposed Gigabit connection? There's a pressure on many of these fiber builds to attach the name Gigabit to their build and at the same time set customer expectations that the engineers know are not realistic. I don't agree with the practice and it is becoming way too common.