The Vermont Telephone Co. (VTel) will be expanding the reach of its IPTV service with the deployment of a 100 Gbps optical transport network with fiber-optic broadband access, installed by Alcatel-Lucent.
VTel will be installing Alcatel-Lucent’s 100G optical coherent technology, based on the vendor’s 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS), its 7750 Service Router and its OmniSwitch 9800E Metro Ethernet switch.
Network management capabilities are provided by Alcatel-Lucent’s 5620 Service Aware Manager, and the deployment was supported by the company’s engineering and installation services team.
Alcatel-Lucent has also been selected as the integrator of VTel’s IPTV service, which is based on Microsoft Mediaroom.
VTel will be paying for the network extension with funding from the broadband stimulus program administered by the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA).
VTel intends to expand the availability of broadband to a much larger pool of customers.
The project also expands and strengthens VTel’s existing 1,000-mile, four-state optical fiber network from Vermont with connections to New York City, Boston and Montreal, which already serves some of the most intensive data users in the Northeast.
“In today’s society, if you do not have access to high-speed Internet, you have limited accessibility to educational, business and employment opportunities,” said Justin Robinson, VTel’s president.