12 December 2002 -- BTexact Technologies, BT's advanced research and technology business, has signed a licence agreement to allow Furukawa Electric's US-based fibre supplier OFS to use BT's blown-fibre technology and know-how.
The blown-fibre technique reduces the cost and increases the reliability of installing fibre in duct networks. Fibre can be installed swiftly as and when required using air to blow them down ducts. OFS will use the technology in its Access Advantage System fibre-to-the-home solution, which enables economic optical connectivity to homes, businesses, and multiple dwelling units (MDUs), including those in previously hard-to-reach areas.
Pairing BTexact's blown-fibre technology with OFS' optical fibre and cable has proven instrumental in lowering fibre deployment costs related to local optical fibre network build, the companies say. "Previously unavailable right-of-ways, such as gas lines and sewer pipes can now be utilised to reach the customer," says Paul Neuhart, president Optical Cable Division, at OFS.
OFS' XpressTube FX blown fibre unit designs can be blown into inexpensive duct networks, eliminating invasive and disruptive excavation costs, and expenditures on costly procurement of rights of way. Initial investment costs are likewise kept to a minimum as fibre can be deployed as needed, based on customer demand.
Access Advantage is optimised with OFS' AllWave and LaserWave fibres to lower cost per bit over the lifetime of the cabling system. AllWave fibre enables the use of coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) in the 1400nm wavelength band to support lower cost services to businesses and homes connected to PONs or local Ethernet switches. LaserWave multimode fibres enable the use of lower-cost optical transceivers, reducing the cost of connections to local Ethernet switches for homes and businesses.