ALMERE, THE NETHERLANDS – Rekam, a provider of TV and Internet services, has extended its partnership with Hemmink, a supplier of infrastructure solutions to operators and contractors, and PBN, a provider of advanced optical broadband solutions, for further expansion of its RFoG (RF over Glass) network in a greenfield area in Lekkerkerk, The Netherlands, a city east of Rotterdam. In the initial phase Rekam worked with Hemmink and PBN to build a fiber-optic infrastructure to every house in Lekkerkerk.
The network is an RFoG-Network meaning that fiber optic cable is used as transport medium after the signal converted from RF to optic. The fiber optics transport the existing signals/services used within Rekam’s existing coax network. This includes DOCSIS 3.0 services. All metering cabinets in the houses are fed with fiber and terminated with RFoG units from PBN (DPON). The RFoG concept has also been rolled out in other parts of Rekam’s network.
Choosing the Right Supplier
Peter Oskam, technical advisor for Stichting Rekam stated: “Within this project both active and passive components were required. For the active part of the network, Headend and ONU, you need to choose for one supplier. The components need to work seamlessly together and using different vendors can cause compatibility issues. It is therefore also a very important choice and decision which you cannot easily change. In our case we selected the solution form PBN, which is represented in The Netherlands by Hemmink. Both have been involved in developing our network concept and have delivered a detailed network concept for Rekam.”
In the coming years Rekam expects to connect a few thousand homes annually. According to Peter Oskam, “At this moment we are sticking to the RFoG-concept but we are also looking to the possibilities of a pure IP-based network. The first thing is to get all the fiber installed in the electricity closet in each house. By choosing RFoG as an intermediate solution we are able to offer our standard services with the same low cost, which is benefits our customers and us.”
