FTTH Council Elects Board Members for 2008

The Fiber to the Home Council (FTTH), a seven-year-old, nonprofit group designed to help operators plan, market, implement and manage fiber-based systems, announced four new members to its board of directors for 2008.

The board additions for the group include Josh Wilken of Corning Inc., Max Kipfer of Connexion Technologies, John George of OFS and Steven Holt of EMBARQ Logistics. The new members were elected to two-year terms.

Also, Jeff Mnick, vice president for marketing of GVTC Communications Inc., was re-elected to his second term on the nine-member board.

The FTTH Council has more than 150 member companies and organizations dedicated to bringing very high-speed fiber-optic connections directly to homes and businesses in the United States and Canada. The group also aims to help members with business issues associated with FTTH deployments in the wake of FTTH pioneer Optical Entertainment Network Inc. (OEN) discontinuing all services last month after failing to meet funding goals.

OEN was in a fiercely competitive market — Houston — and lacked the deeper pockets of household name incumbents as new entrants. On the flip side, member GVTC has met with success in the equally competitive market of San Antonio.

Membership includes “municipalities, utilities, developers, and traditional and non-traditional service providers, creating a group to share knowledge and build industry consensus on key issues surrounding fiber to the home,” said the council.

The board will be chaired in 2008 by Mike Hill, president and CEO of Tennessee-based OnTrac Inc., which works with telecommunications companies on the installation and deployment of commercial and residential fiber-optic systems. Hill replaces Kathy Harriman, senior vice president of EPB Telecom of Chattanooga, Tenn., who served as chair in 2007.

Also leaving the board are Leonard Ray of Cisco Systems Inc. - Scientific Atlanta, Patrick Sims of ADC Telecommunications Inc. and Michael Kunigonis of Corning Inc.

The other members of the board include Greg Solomon of Pulaski Electric System, Robert Campbell of Ditch Witch - the Charles Machine Works Inc., and Steve Kemp of Alcatel-Lucent.

Fiber to the Home Council www.ftthcouncil.org

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