Marking its third customer win since making its fiber-to-the-user platform commercially available in July, Alcatel will deploy its 7340 FTTU solution in Chelan County, Wash.
The multi-million dollar agreement calls for overbuilder Chelan County Public Utility District to deploy Alcatel’s 7340 FTTU solution for a new high-speed optical network in the county. The overbuilder plans to build the network over the county’s existing telephone network to enable the delivery of advanced voice, video and data services to the majority of Chelan County.
Once the network is in place, Chelan County PUD does not plan to offer the services directly to subscribers, but instead will use privately owned providers to deliver the voice, video and data services separately.
The 7340 platform, which conforms to new broadband passive optical network (BPON) standards called G.983, includes OLT devices for the central office, ONT devices that sit at the customers’ premises, as well as an overall management system. On a BPON like the 7340, voice traffic is carried as VoATM packet data, and data is carried over traditional Ethernet infrastructure. The Alcatel platform is the first product that is standards-based and available for the residential market, according to Mark Klimek, senior director of marketing and business development for Alcatel’s FTTU program.
Alcatel’s first FTTU customer, SBC Communications, added the 7340 passive optical networking platform to SBC Pacific Bell’s Mission Bay project in San Francisco. The ILEC used the platform to power a high-speed network in a Greenfield community there.
Its second customer, overbuilder Bristol Virginia Utilities, used the platform to build its new all optical network on top of the existing legacy network. BVU is selling a triple play – voice, video and data – of services.
Alcatel deployed its product commercially in July and has signed up three customers since then, a sign the company sees as positive. “We believe the (FTTU) market has started to develop and will continue to develop,” says Klimek. “Standardization is critical (for the market’s) long-term success,” he says.
Alcatel is actively selling its product. “There is a lot of activity especially in the overbuilder market,” says Klimek, although he would not comment specifically on any deals the company has in the works right now.
