Amino Communications‘ foray into the U.S. market got a big boost this week after the U.K.-based company scored a deal to supply IP-based set-tops for the UTOPIA (Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency) fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) project.
Amino said the three-year contract includes an initial order of 20,000 AmiNET 110 set-tops. Initially, the boxes will support video programming, video-on-demand, online gaming, and other interactive services. Future plans call for Amino to support video telephony.
UTOPIA removed a big barrier from its path late last month when it closed $85 million in funding for the first phase of the project. That phase will reportedly hook up 50,000 homes in six of the 11 participating cities, including Murray, West Valley City and Midvale in Salt Lake County, and Orem, Payson and Lindon in Utah County, among others. The city of Provo has already moved in a different direction, opting to build its own FTTH network under a $40 million project called iProvo.
UTOPIA marks the most significant U.S. deal for Amino, which also supplies IPTV set-tops to Surewest Communications of Sacramento, Calif., and Ringgold Telephone Company of Georgia.