Rolling out fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) is great, unless you have to pay for it. Operators claim that as much as 80% of the costs are incurred from the manhole to the home. Plus, according to the latest statistics, less than 10% of all copper-based access lines to the home have been converted, leaving a whopping 90% to convert... cha-ching! So the question is, are there cheaper alternatives for delivering higher bandwidths to customers than simply rolling out the fiber? In a word, yes. And actually, this word is Vectoring.

In an effort to improve on various technologies, EXFO is continuously striving to develop new standards for the industry. I personally had the chance to contribute to the development of the ITU-T Y.1564 Recommendation, which was adopted back in 2011, and I had the opportunity to demonstrate a new product based on Y.1564 during a recent meeting with Study Group 12 in Geneva.

The 2013 FTTH LatAm Conference in Brazil was a resounding success. Organized by the FTTH Council Committee, of which EXFO is a proud board member, this event is home to a series of conferences, seminars and workshops that cover a wide range of technical and operational subjects focusing on the benefits of fiber-network deployment.