August 10, 2006 Boston, MA -- Information Gatekeepers Inc. (IGI) has released FTTP: Still the Big News in 2006. The 2006 incarnation of the market research firm's FTTP coverage focuses on the RBOC's change to an entirely new delivery mechanism based on GPONs. Verizon has just announced the successful vendors from its analysis of a GPON RFP, and the other RBOCs are watching closely, says IGI. The other major change noted in the report is the merger of AT&T and BellSouth.
The RBOCs, all four to greater or lesser extents, are now in the process of rolling out FTTP, IGI reports. Verizon has a monumental effort underway, and the others are in various stages (lab tests, minor deployments, or preparing massive rollouts) of deployment. The RBOCs are also on the verge of moving into the video business. At least two of the four RBOCs are expected to be in the residential TV delivery business before the end of 2006. Several relatively new technologies will be deployed in their entries into that business, and the RBOCs will use just about every imaginable combination of those technologies to achieve their objectives. The report covers all the details of these activities, says IGI.
The report considers the issues of the background competitive landscape, especially now that the RBOCs have swallowed up the two largest IXCs (and CLECs); the details of the RBOC PON (and the coming GPONs); details of the various RBOC access architectures and how video fits into these architectures; details of the various options for deploying video FTTX, broadcast video, and IPTV; the current deployment scenarios; an analysis of the economic impact (capital and on the overall network) of that deployment; the specific plans of each of the RBOCs; vendors of the equipment and software; and details of the video plans. This update will add information on the selected vendors, as well as illustrating the impacts of the so-far identified deployment plans, according to IGI.