By BARNABY J.
1991 this is a digital version of an article from The Times Print Archive, before it starts online in 1996.
To keep these articles as they appear initially, the Times will not change, edit, or update them.
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Despite years of research and development, telephone equipment vendors have yet to come up with fiber optic systems that are cheap enough to convince local telephone companies ---
Or the public utilities committee that regulates them. -
Give up copper wire completely.
But they are close. The hair-
Thin fiberglass has replaced almost all of the bulky copper cables used for a long time
Distance connection.
They also carry more than two.
30-from the central office of the local network to the traffic of the long Network-
The distance and share between central offices is growing steadily.
Now, fiber-optic technology is entering the "local loop" because telecom engineers call it a line from the central office to the roadside of commercial and residential users.
"We are at the intersection where fiber-to-home is more economical than copper," said Paul Polishuk, publisher of industry communications fiber-to-home . ".
According to Raynet in Menlo Park, California, the domestic market will replace copper worth $6 billion a year. -
Basic supplier of telecom equipment.
Another $9 billion a year is spent overseas replacing copper with fiber.
Advertising fiber is making extensive progress, replacing copper as a conduit to the regional office, also known as a remote terminal, which can be used as a distribution point on site anywhere on 50 to 1,000 lines.
More importantly, the telephone company is ready to order a system that will bring fiber to the roadside box near the telephone user.
The Curbside box, also known as the base or user interface unit, is like a micro-switching station.
They convert optical signals into electrical impulses that can be sent to the home along existing copper lines and work backwards to convert electrical impulses into light signals when the homeowner is on the phone.
Telephone companies are now willing to install them because the equipment is economical when serving up to four customers.
The fibers leading to the roadside still don't make the industry dream of a system entirely made up of fibers.
The system can provide hundreds of video channels and services for home computer users, as well as regular telephone services on a fiber optic.
In addition, telephone companies believe that fiber optic networks connected to the home will be cheaper, more reliable and easier to serve.
But going to the last few feet of the house with fiber can be expensive.
Each house requires a box of optics and electronic equipment to convert optical signals into electronic pulses that can be registered as sound on a phone, data in a computer, or an image on a TV screen.
In order to pay for the investment, telephone companies said they needed to get permission from regulators to sell more products to consumers in "ordinary old telephone services" than the usual POTS.
"The situation now is that the courts, regulators and Congress have all supported the intense lobbying of cable companies, publishers and consumer groups, in order to prevent telephone companies from providing video or database services in areas where local telephone monopoly exists.
Opponents of the telephone company believe that the monopoly of the telephone business will provide income and unfairly subsidize any other services that the telephone company may provide.
Few experts doubt that fiber will eventually reach most families if not all families.
Copper wire is simply not capable of dealing with emerging technologies such as high technology.
Integrate voice, video, and data signals into the home on one line.
But which businesses or business groups will be in the air first.
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In the face of this uncertainty, telecom equipment suppliers have fallen to two
A two-pronged strategy: Let the fiber compete with copper and try to design systems that can be easily upgraded in the future.
William McAllen said: "Our initial approach was to go all out at home, but it didn't make any financial sense, so we kind of backed down, quality Andover American telephone Telegraph Company loop system Fiber product planner. A. T. & T. 's fiber-to-the-
Curb design is called an active double star.
The first star is the spread of fiber optic lines from the central office to the remote terminal.
The remote terminal organizes traffic from the central office and directs a series of fiber optic lines to 16 to 24 roadside bases through the second star. A. T. & T.
Compared with some competitors, the system uses more fiber and more electronic devices to route traffic at remote terminals.
But according to telephone company engineers, it can use the same cheap lasers, which are widely used on CDs and have lower power requirements. A. T. & T.
The system is also easy to upgrade to handle services such as HD TVs, he said.
Advertisentraynet's system has two ways to attract support in the industry.
Its bus system is 30% cheaper than. T. & T.
According to Jane Belcher, an analyst at Duff and Phelps in Chicago.
The bus is a fiber optic highway running from a central office or a group of regional offices served by a central office.
There is a series of roadside bases on the bus, just like the interchange on the interstate.
Raynet also marketed a variant on its system that uses a device called a splitter to create a branch network.
If the signal splitter is inserted into the center distribution point, the effect is to create a fiber path array.
It can also be inserted along the bus to create a systemstar, part-bus.
Itters are passive devices such as Prism.
Each path that leaves the splitter carries all the information that arrives there in a weaker form.
So, engineers say that systems with itters need more powerful transmitters than. T. & T.
A more sensitive receiver to ensure that no information is lost.
One of the advantages of Raynet is Rides, a package it has developed with BellSouth for integrating fiber in the loop into the rest of the telephone network and managing its fiber optic system.
One of the competitors, DSC Communications, pataluma, California.
The software has been registered for use in its own system, and several other competitors are weighing similar actions. Raynet and A. T.
& T's competitors range from giants like Alcatel, France and Fujitsu, Japan to the mid-market
Companies of the size of ADC Telecom
And DSC, and small companies like broadband technology.
All systems must also provide power to the electronic devices they use, because unlike copper wire, the fiber optic network cannot carry its own power supply.
An unknown question is whether deploying fiber to the roadside will delay fiber to the home in some cases.
Copper has a much larger capacity in short distances than in mobile phone systems that sometimes string miles.
Daniel Boyce, an employee manager who implements fiber at the South Bell roadside, believes that fiber-optic-to-the-
The containment system, which cuts the average copper wire in the telephone system from two miles to 500 feet kilometers, will have 100 kilometers.
Fold the jump on capacity.
"This creates some good opportunities for the top
He also stressed that such a system will still have a small part of the potential of pure fiber systems.
A version of this article was printed on page 3003006 of the National edition on March 24, 1991 with the title: technology; Optical Fiber (Almost)at Home.