News

MORE NEWS

FTTH Stockholm event reflects Nordic ambition

20 September 2013

'Showcasing a Brighter Future' is the theme of the next edition of the FTTH Conference, taking place at the Stockholmsmässan exhibition centre in Stockholm, Sweden, from 18 to 20 February 2014.

FTTH Council Europe, which is organising the event, says the The Nordic nations – and Sweden especially – have become the most advanced fibre countries in Europe. Nearly half of all Swedish households have access to a FTTH connection, and 23 per cent of homes in the country are already FTTH subscribers. Norway, Denmark and Finland also have high levels of FTTH deployment and adoption.

Molex acquires FCT Electronics Group

19 September 2013

Molex, a global electronics components company, has completed the acquisition of FCT Electronics Group, based in Munich, Germany. FCT Electronics specialises in designing and manufacturing custom mixed-layout connectors and cable assemblies. This strategic acquisition is expected to expand the presence of Molex solutions in the global medical electronics, industrial, telecom and aerospace industries.

Saskatchewan trial points towards speed upgrade

19 September 2013

French telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent and SaskTel, the full service communications provider in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, have announced the successful trial of fibre-optic data transmission that could enable the delivery of data at speeds of up to 400G (gigabytes-per second) over a network originally built for 10G traffic.

Teraxion signs Canadian research deal

19 September 2013

TeraXion, a designer and maker of optical components and modules, and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) have signed a strategic partnership.

The two parties says the deal will lead to the development and fabrication of TeraXion’s new modulator products family and covers its next-generation Indium Phosphide high-speed modulators for coherent transmission systems at 100 Gb/s and beyond. Work will take place at NRC’s Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre in Ottawa.

Hawaiki signs up another customer for Pacific cable

19 September 2013

Interest in Hawaiki's new 14,000 km trans-Pacific cable continues to grow, with cable developer and owner Hawaiki Cable announcing another customer signature.

New Zealand ISP Orcon has confirmed its intention to acquire international bandwidth on the New Zealand/Australia-US segments of the Hawaiki submarine cable system.

Faster optical communications on the wings of a butterfly

19 September 2013

Laser nano-technology has been used to create a device smaller than a human hair, in an effort to make optical communication faster and safer.

Researchers from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia and Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany mimicked microscopic structures on the wings of a butterfly to create the photonic crystal which can split both left and right circularly polarised light.

ECOC conference details

13 September 2013

This month’s ECOC (European Conference on Optical Communications) 2013 has plenty to attract delegates. The conference will be held on 22 to 26 September at the ICC London ExCeL, with an exhibition running from 23 to 25 September.

The conference programme will be divided into six 'tracks', as follows:

Liquid Telecom running smoothly in southern Africa

12 September 2013

Liquid Telecom has announced two initiatives aimed at broadband services in Zimbabwe – the country’s first direct fibre connection to the West African Cable System (WACS) and the rollout of an urban fibre network in the capital, Harare.

Strategic deal for Teraxion

12 September 2013

TeraXion, a provider of optical components and modules, and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) have announced a strategic partnership that it says will lead to the development and fabrication of TeraXion’s new modulator products family.

The company says the agreement covers its next-generation Indium Phosphide high-speed modulators for coherent transmission systems at 100 Gb/s and beyond. Work will take place at NRC’s Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre in Ottawa.

UK government urged to abandon rail plans in favour of fibre

11 September 2013

The UK government is being petitioned to provide a 'true national fibre optic network' instead of going ahead with the controversial HS2 rail system.

The petition on the HM Government E-petition website, created by 'broadband activist' Matthew Coutts, states: 'The plans for the HS2 (High Speed 2) rail project should be completely scrapped in favour of developing a national true fibre optic broadband network to make the UK one of the fastest and best connected countries in the world with a future-proof technology in place.

Confusion after Australia changes FTTH plans

11 September 2013

The new Australian coalition government is planning to change the development of the country's national broadband network, from a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network to a fibre-to-node network.

The new plan, pledged by the newly elected government, will use copper cables from the national network provider Telstra's to connect households to the fibre network.

Ciena chosen for Icelandic development

10 September 2013

Farice, the main provider of international capacity from Iceland to mainland Europe, has deployed Ciena’s 100G coherent optical transport technology to upgrade its submarine cable system that connects Iceland and Scotland.