Ohio's Buckeye Cablevision Pushes Fiber To The Home

Buckeye Cablevision will initiate a fiber-to-the-home deployment in its Toledo, Ohio, system using Kabel-X USA's process for deploying fiber through existing coaxial cabling.

Buckeye plans to switch an existing subdivision from coax to a fiber-to-the-home solution without construction of new facilities in the easements. The Kabel-X system -- developed by the Austrian parent company and introduced in the U.S. last year -- removes the coax cable's center conductor and dielectric material by injecting a proprietary fluid to provide a conduit for fiber-optic cable.

"We see the Kabel-X technology as an innovative tool that will allow us to cost effectively deploy a fiber-to-the-home architecture in areas currently served by a traditional hybrid fiber coax network," Buckeye Cablevision chief technology officer Joe Jensen said in a statement.

Buckeye Cablevision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Block Communications, is the largest cable provider in the Toledo area, with approximately 150,000 subscribers.

Kabel-X's cable-extraction technology can extract 600 to 1,000 feet of coaxial core in two to three hours, the company claims. Separate equipment is required to blow fiber through the coax sheath. Kabel-X USA is based in Davie, Fla., near Ft. Lauderdale.