Wave7 Optics and US SONET Telephone Company of Illinois begin FTTH deployment to 3,600 homes and businesses
7 May 2003 Alpharetta, GA Lightwave -- Wave 7 Optics and US SONET LLC today announced that 3,600 homes and businesses in the Salem, IL area (approximately 60 miles east of St. Louis) soon will have access to the most advanced fiber-optic network currently available for multiple telephone lines, more than 200 digital television channels, ultra high-speed Internet, advanced gaming, or other data services. US SONET recently began connecting their customers to the new network and anticipate completing the network by year's end.
"Our business plan encompasses the city of Salem, which contains 3,600 homes and businesses, and we plan to use Wave7 in all of them," asserts John Andrews of US SONET. "In the process of choosing the Last Mile Link as our optical access product, we were looking for a platform technology to differentiate our selves and a technology that will grow with us. Wave7 effectively showed how their infrastructure would support everything we want to do now and in the future. HFC and DSL architectures cannot support the services we plan to offer and competing ATM-based optical systems come up short when it comes to 'usable bandwidth' per subscriber," he explains
Wave 7 Optics' Last Mile Link provides up to 300 times more capacity than competing broadband systems, such as DSL or cable modem, at the same or lower installation cost, say company representatives. Because of the inherent high-bandwidth capabilities of fiber optics and Wave7's architectural cost advantages, US SONET can provide each of their customers access speeds from 256 Kbits/sec up to a maximum of 500 Mbits/sec "symmetrical" service, unlike typical "asymmetrical" services where download speeds far exceed "upload" speeds.
Furthermore, the Last Mile Link uses standard data, telephone, and CATV interfaces as its customer premise devices to accommodate existing home and business telephone, television, and computer systems, meaning customers do not have to buy new equipment to get on the new network. The system also supports current emerging technology, such as IP telephony and IP streaming.
"In addition to numerous technical advantages, our customers can deploy the Last Mile Link on a low 'first cost' basis and without risk of 'stranded investments,' as they only add equipment when they need it--not in anticipation of future connections that may not materialize," contends Tom Tighe, CEO of Wave7 Optics. "Furthermore, adding capacity in our system requires only the insertion of an additional 'line card' in our 'Last Mile Core' field unit and an extra Gigabit Ethernet optical interface in the 'central office' to increase bandwidth throughput capability to customers."
The Last Mile Link is an Internet-Protocol (IP) and Ethernet standards-based optical access system that provides all traditional "carrier-grade" telephone services (including fax), high-speed data (e.g., Internet service) and both analog and digital video (including IP streaming video). Featuring privacy and security encryption techniques and "quality of service" mechanisms designed for business applications, the LML overcomes the high-fiber counts, limited distance range, and high central office equipment costs that have stymied the growth of FTTx systems, say company representatives.