The Lightwave Blog

Posted by Stephen Hardy

Paul Bonenfant, communications components analyst at Morgan Keegan & Co., released a note today saying his sources suggest that DWDM supplier OpVista may be on its last legs. Bonenfant says "industry chatter" indicates that the company has furloughed staff and is searching for a buyer; if it doesn't find one, it could close as early as this week. Bonenfant suggests that Emcore is the company most likely to snap up OpVista's assets.

Contacted for comment, an OpVista source offered an interview with President and CEO Karl May scheduled for tomorrow, February 25, at noon EST. (February 25 update: Read the results of the interview.)

OpVista has seen most of its success in the cable-TV space; it includes Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable on its international roster of customers. Its differentiation is the ability to cram multiple wavelengths into the space normally required for one. The company leveraged this technology last year to introduce its CX8 optical networking system, a 40-Gbps platform that used what the company called "Dense Multi-Carrier" technology to transmit four 10-Gbps wavelengths in each window of the ITU-T grid. The transmission would therefore act much like a 10-Gbps transmission, which would enable carriers to maintain their current 10-Gbps network design rules and obviate concerns about such impairments as polarization mode dispersion.

The company also offers ROADM capabilities.

You can see a video interview with Karl May on the Lightwave Channel.

Labels: OpVista, ROADM

Posted by Stephen Hardy

Inspired by his attendance at this week's FTTH Council Europe conference in Copenhagen, Ovum Senior Analyst Charlie Davies has issued a few thoughts on the catalysts necessary for FTTH to grow more rapidly on The Continent.

Noting that a busy exhibition floor highlighted the growing importance placed on next-generation access (NGA) infrastructures, Davies added that "there was an equal recognition that for fibre to flower, it needs a lot more nurturing: from private investors, governments and regulators alike." However, governments in particular will have a primary role to play, he said. For example:

"The pragmatic approach of Danish incumbent TDC – rolling out fibre as and when the market requires it and when there is a clear business case to do so – would seem sensible to many commercial companies. But at a time when governments and business leaders posit the fundamental importance of a robust NGA infrastructure to the economy/recovery/future of their respective countries, this approach leaves a considerable chasm. This is making the prospect of 'patchwork quilts' of NGA access unfolding out over Europe a distinct possibility with top down (large telcos/cablecos/private-funding) meeting bottom up (utility/community/public & private funding.

"Key to the 'bottom up' is a more active role by regional and local authorities who have a much more vested interest in their region’s overall economic and social progress. So rather than being purely operator driven broadband rollout, with an eye on NGA access and more ubiquitous coverage comes under the wing of the region, working in partnership with private companies. This approach has been key to rollout of fibre in Sweden and is being replicated elsewhere in Europe on a larger scale. A number of regions including South-West France (Pyrenees-Atlantiques) and Southern Spain (Catalonia) are embarking down this road."

Davies notes that regulators can either help or hurt this process -- particularly as they attempt to encourage private investment. "We expect the next 6 months to be crucial as regulators at both an EU and a national level get to grips with a complex, changing, but at least vibrant landscape," he concluded.

Labels: Europe, FTTH, FTTH Council Europe, Ovum