800-Pound Gorillas

Though compelling in their approach to the market, most fiber providers so far have managed a small but increasing market share of FTTH deployments.

Connexion, for instance, has contracts with about 85 greenfield communities representing 80,000 units--a number the company hopes to grow to 400,000 by year's end. Kruse puts Zoomy about fifth in line among its competition.

The overwhelming market share leader, at least for now, is an old schooler: Verizon. Its FTTH technology, known as FiOS, is widely deployed. FiOS Internet serves more than 520,000 customers in 16 states, with a target of 7 million users by 2010. FiOS TV is available in 10 states and serves nearly 2 million households, with projections of 15 million by decade's end.

The bulk of these installations are for existing Verizon customers. About three years ago, however, Verizon launched its Enhanced Communities Group (communities.verizon.com) to target greenfield developments, albeit within the telco's regulated service areas.

"Our goal is to align with those of the development community," says Dan O'Donnell, the group's national sales director. "We're tracking development trends and seeking out partnerships."

More recently, AT&T started a fiber program to deliver its U-verse digital services to greenfield developments. To date, AT&T has secured contracts to deliver fiber to more than 300,000 housing units in new master-planned communities, the largest being Bridgeland, a 20,000-unit community near Houston.

Like its competitors, Verizon targets large-scale projects where it can install a fiber network and bundle services at an affordablerate, paid by HOA fees. O'Donnell says the company is willing and able to customize its marketing and service packages, including co-branding, sales center kiosks and demonstrations, and aftersale customer services. He insists Verizon will not limit developers to its own services. "We want a relationship with every developer within our footprint," he says.

Builders, Be Aware

While FTTH is the real deal with a decades-long track record, taking fiber to the porch entails changes in easement ownership, in-house low-voltage wiring schemes, and potential cost hikes for small-volume and individual builders.

"It's really no different than installing any other conduit in a trench," says Capps. "But there are licensing regulations and theestablishment of private [versus public] easements" as part of the entitlement process that enables a fiber network.

There can also be a fair amount of resistance to such network privatization among governing agencies and legacy providers that might prefer the status quo of public-access rights of way maintained by the municipality.

"We sell municipalities on the economic development potential of a fiber network," says Kruse. "And because we offer open access that fosters competition, there are no fairtrade issues."

At Tamarack, when Weimer asked legacy providers to bring their services to his headend so Zoomy's crew could distribute them, he had to convince the phone company and regulators that the network was for the community only, not a harbinger of a larger deployment. "Once they realized we wouldn't offer competitive services outside the resort, they settled down," he says.

Inside a fiber development, builders and installers must plan for the technology. Fiber providers take the cable to the house; from there, they rely on the in-house contractors to set up a wiring package to optimize the fiber's bandwidth.

Home-run structured wiring, therefore, is required, sometimes with a minimum number of multiport outlets in each room. "It's a reasonable requirement," says O'Donnell, one that typically costs $300 more than a daisychained layout. "We provide specifications and guide the installation to ensure the performance benefits of the fiber."

That performance would be enhanced even more with an end-to-end fiber network that extends inside the home. Though in its infancy, fiber-inthe- home schemes for high-frequency digital signals promise to fulfill the true expectations of today's toys, and enable future evolutions or technologies of those devices and services (see "Home-Spun Fiber," below).

And builders should know that building in a fiber community can mean more money, but also higher returns. While firms such as Zoomy and Connexion are willing and able to finance a turnkey FTTH solution for new developments when it suits their business models, the cost to a smaller builder might be prohibitive, at least for now.