cfx_september-2024 - 17

HELPING HAND
Corning Happy to Play Supporting Role
in Operator Buildouts
By Noah Ziegler
The $42.45 billion figure NTIA oversees
with its BEAD Program is quite the mountain,
and the task to bridge the digital
divide in all 50 states, territories and D.C.
is far from simple. As states and operators
throughout the U.S. await their turns
to put that funding to work, Corning has
been ready to roll out the fiber technology
needed to accomplish such a large-scale
expansion.
Corning has been taking steps to help
since the program's creation in November
2021 from the Infrastructure Investment
and Jobs Act. The company has invested
more than $500 million in new manufacturing
capacity for fiber and cable plants
over the past four years. According to Bob
Whitman, VP, Market Development for
Carrier Networks, those investments have
essentially doubled Corning's ability to
serve the market.
" Bottom line is, we're ready with products
to meet this demand when demand
starts to happen, " Whitman says. " Corning
will be ready with end-to-end solutions.
As soon as that money starts flowing,
we'll be selling those products. [There's]
excitement and anticipation, and hopefully
we'll start to see NTIA approve some
state plans and with that, money starts
flowing. "
In March 2023, Corning unveiled a new
optical cable manufacturing campus in
Hickory, North Carolina, which added
400 high-skilled manufacturing jobs to a
workforce that already surpassed 5,000
employees. The new Trivium campus has
enabled Corning to scale more and bring
down some of the lead times on cable,
which is key considering the wrench that
the pandemic threw on the nation's supply
chain.
Some of the technological innovations
Corning has recently launched include
the Evolv FlexNAP solution with Multifiber
Pushlok technology, designed to accelerate
fiber-to-the-home deployments and
increase network density, scalability and
flexibility. The enhanced product line also
includes the Evolv Assemblies that feature
tactile and audible feedback as well
as new terminals that are available in a
stubless format in order to reduce operators'
reliance on extensive inventory and
part numbers. Corning has also reduced
the terminals' packaging material per unit
figure by up to 30%.
Corning also took it upon itself to form
the Rural Advisory Council, a group containing
small operators from across the
country as well as one outside of the U.S.
that allows Corning to better understand
the challenges that come with deploying
fiber in remote areas. The RAC has been
meeting virtually on a quarterly basis for
a few years now and meets face-to-face
once a year to stay on top of the various
hurdles these operators run into and will
encounter in the future.
" We brainstorm solutions, we come
up with product concepts, we trial them
out. So we're learning from them and their
challenges [and] they're learning from
each other when they have these challenges
and how to solve them, " Whitman
says about the Council. " It's really working
out great and we're learning so much
about how to handle the space that nobody
has been deploying to yet. "
Whitman has been involved in the world
of FTTH for almost his whole professional
career up to this point. He sees BEAD as
the true opportunity to bridge the digital
divide. Until states are able to push funding
to operators and the BEAD bonanza kicks
into high gear, Whitman and Corning will
stand firm saying " We're ready. "
" I've been working on fiber-to-the-home
for almost my whole career, and it is truly
the opportunity to finish this out and get
fiber to everybody who wants it, " Whitman
says. " When I first started doing this, it was
only the little guys-small carriers, utilities.
It wasn't the big guys doing it, and now
we're back to the big guys finishing programs
or talking about finishing programs,
and little guys are going to be what's left.
Being able to help them achieve some of
these types of builds is going to be a career
milestone. "
Corning is meeting the BEAD moment
with the opening of its Trivium campus in
Hickory, North Carolina.
Corning's connectivity solutions have passed 100 million homes globally.
Since 2020, Corning has invested more than $500
million in fiber and cable manufacturing.
Corning has invested in manufacturing to meet the demand
it anticipates from publicly funded programs such as BEAD-
nearly doubling its ability to serve the U.S. cable market.
Corning's newly launched FlexNAP™ system with Multifiber
Pushlok™ technology facilitates cost savings of at least $25 per
home passed compared to traditional splicing methods.
CablefaxTopOps.com
September 2024
Top Ops 17
BUILD OUT PARTNER
https://www.corning.com/optical-communications/worldwide/en/home/the-signal-network-blog/100-million-homes.html https://www.corning.com/optical-communications/worldwide/en/home/the-signal-network-blog/multifiber-pushlok-technology.html https://www.corning.com/optical-communications/worldwide/en/home/the-signal-network-blog/multifiber-pushlok-technology.html http://www.CablefaxTopOps.com
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