FTTC issue scheduled for upcoming FCC meeting

Whether fiber-to-the-curb deployments should be deregulated is one of several notable items on the FCC’s agenda for its regular meeting on Thursday.

As part of the Triennial Review Order approved last year, the FCC ruled that incumbent carriers deploying fiber to the home (FTTH) would not have to share the new networks with competitors. But BellSouth has stated it can offer the same advanced voice, video and data services by using a fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) architecture, with the added benefit of allowing the telecommunications network to power telephones, as can be done in today’s circuit-switched network.

“Regulators should focus on the functionality and not the facility used to deliver services,” BellSouth spokesman Bill McCloskey said in a prepared statement. “Since FTTC is the functional equivalent of FTTH, it should be treated as the regulatory equivalent.

“All optical networks have to be converted into electronic signals at some point. There is no functional difference between making that conversion in your front yard vs. your laundry room.”

Verizon Communications has committed to building FTTH in its territories, while BellSouth favors FTTC. SBC Communication has proposed using fiber to the node (FTTN), which would use even more of the existing copper platform than FTTC deployments would.

Other items on the FCC agenda include consideration of a rulemaking regarding guidelines for Broadband over Power Line deployments and an order to relocate government users from the 1710-1755 MHz band, which will be used for advanced wireless services.