Julie Veach to replace Sharon Gillett on FCC Wireline Competition Bureau/Prysmian jumps into fiber to the antenna
Sharon Gillett, chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau, has resigned her post to return to the Boston area, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced last Friday. Julie Veach, currently deputy general counsel in the Office of General Counsel, will step into Gillett’s shoes as Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau starting June 30.
Prior to joining the FCC, Gillett served as the Director of the Massachusetts Broadband Institute. Prior to that, she headed the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable.
“Sharon is one of a kind, and the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau could not have been in better hands over the past three years,” commented Genachowski. “She’s a strong leader, an innovative and data-driven thinker, and a highly effective manager. Her outstanding leadership, including on the once-in-a-generation overhaul of the Universal Service Fund and so many other important policies, have significantly helped our country, ensuring more Americans will have access to robust, affordable broadband and voice services. I wish her the very best in the next step of her career.”
Prior to joining the Office of General Counsel in 2009, Veach served as deputy chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau. She also held a variety of other positions in the Wireline Competition Bureau. Before joining the FCC in 2001, Veach was an associate with the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering.
“Julie will bring her tremendous expertise in telecommunications law, thoughtful insight, and leadership to bear as Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau,” Genachowski predicted. “I am very pleased that she will be leading the Bureau.”
Prysmian Group has signaled its entry into the fiber to the antenna (FTTA) market at CommunicAsia 2012 in Singapore. The company used the event to unveil xsMobile, designed to meet the emerging tower cabling requirements the evolution towards 4G/LTE mobile networks has created.
xsMobile targets the full range of FTTA applications, from a flexible, easily upgradeable backhaul network through to last-mile fiber to the Remote Radio Head (RRH) in the antenna tower. xsMobile features bend-insensitive BendBrightXS optical fiber (compliant to ITU-T G.652.A2/B2) complemented by a suite of optical cable products (pre-terminated or field-spliced) and what Prysmian asserts is a “full connectivity portfolio.” The new product range builds on Prysmian’s experience with FTTH and is fully compatible with existing fiber-optic networks. The line is designed to support fast, simple, plug and play FTTA installation.
Said Gert Hoefman, vice president of Telecom Solutions at Prysmian, “xsMobile provides solutions for three antenna tower configurations — standalone, roof top, and distributed antenna systems (DAS) to deploy FEMTO cells.”
