US operator, Netly Fibre has completed construction of an open-access terabit-ready fibre network in Solana Beach, California.
The multi-million dollar project has taken two years to complete and includes high-speed dark fibre access for every residence, business, traffic light, and institution in the city. To achieve terabit speeds the company built multiple dedicated strands of fibre to each address located on city streets and so was able to eliminate splitters and active components that can potentially slow speeds.
Netly Fiber designs, builds, and operates its citywide open access networks, but does not additionally provide the service to consumers. Instead, the company makes its unlit fibre available to all service providers on fair, wholesale terms. By building the underground system with multiple dedicated strands for each address, once the fibre is deployed, surface streets will be spared disruption for the future. To aid its target of making the terabit-ready city a reality, in 2018, Netly partnered with Corning to develop the terabit city fibre system. The company selected Corning SMF-28 Ultra 200 micron bend insensitive single mode fibre and now intends to use the same product in other terabit-ready city clusters throughout California.
City of Solana Beach Mayor Lesa Heebner commented: ‘We’re very excited to be named the nation’s first terabit-ready city. Because of Netly’s private investment, our city IT department was able to connect all city offices with fibre optic service, improving internet speed and reliability while reducing costs for taxpayers. We are especially excited to see how this infrastructure can enable future Smart City applications to improve the quality-of-life for our residents.’
Jack Demers, CEO at Netly Fiber added: ‘We looked decades into the future to explore what bandwidth demand would be like, then built a terabit-ready fibre network, capable of delivering future-proof speeds and capacity for generations to come. At Netly, we believe fibre optic infrastructure is vital to our country’s long-term prosperity and should be built once, built right, and made available to all, and that’s exactly what we’ve done in Solana Beach.’
Darin Howe, application solutions manager at Corning Optical Communications“This collaboration with Netly Fiber to build a true terabit-ready city is an important step for Corning as we continue to play a vital role in driving the continued expansion of connectivity. By densifying dedicated fibres throughout, Netly’s system provides ultimate flexibility for the future. We think this is the industry’s new gold standard.’
