TECHNOLOGY NEWS:
Broadband boost from Nexans
In the ultra competitive world of telecoms speed is all and with subscribers able to ‘chop and change’ telecom operators almost overnight one doesn’t need a crystal ball to see that future competitive advantage will only be built on a solid base of delivering high-performance broadband capability. Broadband is evolving rapidly due to subscriber expectations concerning data speeds, reliability and value-added services. This, in turn, has repercussions
on the cable infrastructure. To help its telecom operator customers “satisfy today’s needs and respond to tomorrow’s promises” Nexans has developed two new generations of cable products: enhanced XDSL copper and FTTx fibre-optic micro cables.
In a one-year test programme, Nexans duplicated a one to five km outside-plant installation to see the correlation between copper cable and the enhanced XDSL service performance levels, and secondly to evaluate the performance (in terms of reach and data rates) of enhanced cables over current analogue voice cables.
The test results were conclusive according to Véronique Stappers, Corporate Marketing Manager for Nexans Telecom Infrastructure Market: “The superior performance of Enhanced XDSL cables allows operators and their DSLAM equipment suppliers to significantly increase data rates and geographical reach. This translates into more services available for more potential customers and better quality of service for all customers.”
The second test demonstrated that up to 50% more services became available for customers located within the 2.5 kilometre radius, and the reach increased by some 40% meaning that broadband became available for significantly more subscribers.“Operators should be looking at the quality of their existing cable network
and comparing it to what is now available to improve broadband performance,”
says Ms Stappers. Acknowledging that complete upgrades can’t happen overnight, she nevertheless urges operators to look at repair and maintenance: “Review what cable you
use from now on. By changing your specification your network can be upgraded progressively.”
Nexans’ second broadband boost is in
the area of fibre-optic micro cables.
The company has developed a new generation of micro cables that can add up to 10 cables (of 96 fibres each) to an existing fibre network without extra engineering. These compact cables have sufficient stiffness and a low friction co-efficient due to a special sheath know-how. This makes them easy to blow individually into a confined space, like a 10mm mini-duct.
They have the same capacity and connectivity as conventional fibre cables,
but can be deployed faster and over longer distances in metropolitan environments.
Over the years, Nexans has steadily improved the installation speed for its micro cables. Second generation B-lite (quality Blue) could be installed over the first kilometre within 15 minutes; the new third generation B-lite (quality Green) cable can be installed in two full kilometres in under an hour. Véronique Stappers elaborates: “This means that the operators can deploy faster and further but also in an optimum way in the irregular duct paths prevalent in metropolitan contexts. Micro cables are also highly water-resistant seeing as manholes are often submerged.”
“Fibre-optic micro cables provide operators with a way to optimise the occupation rate (the number of cables in an existing duct), while providing their networks with maximum flexibility. Since there is progressive deployment, capital expenditure can therefore always be in line with current earnings. In other words capital expenditure can be easily adjusted to actual revenue per user (RPU). There is a strong push-pull factor here as well, with technology doing the pushing and demand doing the pulling. As RPU rises, new capacity can be deployed rapidly; as new capacity is deployed, additional customers buy into the system.”
Company: |
Nexans |
Country: |
France |
Fax: |
+33 1 56 69 84 84 |
Email: |
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Website: |
www.nexans.com |