An impending buyout won’t keep Advanced Fibre Communications Inc. (AFC) from continuing to provide broadband access solutions to SBC Services Inc.
The two companies agreed to a five-year contract extension, expanding on a partnership that has existed since 1997. Under the new deal, AFC will provide SBC with its AdvancedVoice and UniversalDSL outside plant cabinets and network management systems.
These solutions leverage AFC’s portfolio of AccessMAX integrated multiservice access platforms (IMAPs). The AdvancedVoice solution delivers narrowband, wideband and broadband services, designed to enable carrier networks to evolve at their own pace.
The UniversalDSL platform can be deployed in both integrated (voice plus DSL) and overlay (DSL only) applications. AFC said its installed base of AccessMAX systems – more than 100,000, thus far – provides a foundation for carriers to deploy the company’s FiberDirect solution for to fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks.
John Schofield, chairman, president and CEO of AFC, said his company’s solutions would allow SBC to “seamlessly and cost-effectively evolve its existing infrastructure to faster, more scalable next-generation networks that will deliver a broader range of advanced voice and high-speed broadband services.”
Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. AFC is on the verge of being acquired by Tellabs for about $1.9 billion.
