1. Monthly archive
  2. June 2021

June 2021

Some North Carolina residents still fight for internet access

More than 30 million Americans live in areas where the internet infrastructure simply isn’t there. This disproportionately affects rural and tribal areas because it’s just too expensive for private companies to install the wiring. The farther homes are spread apart, the lower the return on investment. So some cities and counties across the country have decided to build broadband as a utility for residents, just like water or power. Residents in Wilson County have some of the best internet in the nation.

Cisco targets rural broadband expansion with North Carolina center

Cisco opened a Rural Broadband Innovation Center in North Carolina, which the company said will show off technologies designed for cost-effective broadband expansion. The center, located in Morrisville, a Raleigh suburb, is part of Cisco’s push to address the digital divide. Small, rural providers will play a key role in ensuring equitable broadband access, so they need access to the latest solutions and information on how to implement them, CEO Chuck Robbins said.

Lightpath buys its way to a bigger fiber footprint

Enterprise fiber provider Lightpath charted a course to double-digit revenue growth, planning to spend millions to expand its footprint and serve more customers through a combination of network extensions and acquisitions. Lightpath is jointly owned by Altice and Morgan Stanley and has hitherto operated within Altice’s traditional footprint in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. However, it gained a foothold in Massachusetts through three acquisitions focused in the Boston area.

What is hollow core fiber?

An advanced optical technology, hollow core fiber (HCF) is a potential tool to help slash network costs and enable advanced use cases with latency-sensitive requirements. The fundamental idea behind HCF is that light travels faster through air than glass. Thus, as the name implies, HCF cables have been designed to have an air-filled center channel which is surrounded by a ring of glass tubes. Generally, a cross-section of a hollow core cable looks a bit like honeycomb with a hole in the middle.

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