Broadband Communities

JAN-FEB 2014

BROADBAND COMMUNITIES is the leading source of information on digital and broadband technologies for buildings and communities. Our editorial aims to accelerate the deployment of Fiber-To-The-Home and Fiber-To-The-Premises.

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32 | BROADBAND COMMUNITIES | www.broadbandcommunities.com | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014 FTTH DEPLOYMENT solution tailored to make it a reality. Unlike most other candidates, Hotwire was willing to conform its business model to Avalon's needs rather than requiring that those needs bend to an established provider model. Founded in 2000, Hotwire Communications is one of the nation's leading fber optic communications providers specializing in multifamily communities. Led by an experienced, reliable and innovative management team headed by Kristin Johnson Karp, Hotwire is well-positioned to partner with NAP to make the Avalon vision a reality. One crucial asset Hotwire brings to the table is its private, fber optic, self-healing network that serves communities across the eastern United States in and around Philadelphia, New York, south and central Florida and Atlanta. One strand of fber has 19,000 times the capacity of a coaxial cable trunk, and Hotwire builds 96 strands of fber into each community. Currently, Hotwire brings a 10 Gbps connection to each property served, but its fber network can be scaled up to 129 terabits per second to accommodate any community's bandwidth needs for the foreseeable future. Hotwire's proprietary network includes more than 200 miles of fber in metropolitan Atlanta that run from downtown to Alpharetta. Te self- healing fber backbone is completely redundant, providing 99.9 percent reliability. Te Hotwire network will connect Avalon directly to the data hub at 56 Marietta St. in Atlanta, which dovetails perfectly with the Avalon plan described above. Tis direct connection to one of the nation's largest data hubs will provide major benefts to all Avalon residents, especially business tenants. For example, the Avalon retailer Gap, headquartered in San Francisco, must back up each day's data by uploading large fles to one or more central servers in California. Tis process normally requires hours of data transfer. With Hotwire's direct connection to the Marietta Street hub, Gap at Avalon will be able to transfer massive data fles directly and securely to its servers in a fraction of the normal time, bypassing the public Internet and minimizing reliance on third-party networks. LEGAL CHALLENGES Avalon's gigabit vision required future-proofng. Tus, NAP's overall goal in negotiating an agreement with Hotwire was to sign a document that could be relied upon to ensure that the services provided to Avalon tenants and homeowners would remain state- of-the art over a long period of time. Achieving this goal entailed striking an often delicate balance. On the one hand, advanced technology is relatively expensive to purchase and install; therefore, the term of the agreement must be sufciently long to allow the service provider to recover its initial investment, along with a reasonable proft. On the other hand, a long contractual term is, by nature, problematic at a time when rapidly evolving technology tends to disrupt existing business models and render existing technological platforms obsolete. Te contracting challenge was to build into the agreement sufcient incentives for Hotwire to invest in future-proof technology yet avoid locking NAP into the kind of long-term commitment that would undermine Avalon's ability to ofer its residents and tenants the most advanced communications services available in the marketplace. Te fact that Avalon consists of several distinct communities (multifamily residential, single-family residential, movie theater, retail and ofce), each with its own interests and priorities, presented another challenge. For example, the single-family residential community within Avalon will be governed by a homeowners association, which allows lot owners collective control over the common The bandwidth test in the Avalon demonstration trailer shows what will be available to residents. The contracting challenge was to create incentives for Hotwire to invest in future-proof technology without undermining Avalon's ability to stay ahead of the technology curve. BBC_Jan14.indd 32 1/27/14 1:44 PM

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