Alcatel, Motorola, Tellabs to Support Verizon's G-PON

By Erik Linask

Associate Editor,
Internet Telephony magazine

 

Already delivering broadband speeds faster than most other telecom and cable companies, Verizon is now set to up the ante by installing equipment from Alcatel, Motorola, and Tellabs that will dramatically increase speeds on the company’s FTTP network. 

 

Verizon will begin deploying Alcatel (News - Alert) equipment later this year, followed by Motorola (News - Alert) and then Tellabs.  Initial estimates are the new equipment will be increase broadband speeds by up to four times on the downstream up to eight times on the upstream.

 

The company says that equipment from the three suppliers will support its Gigabit Passive Optical Network, or G-PON.  Alcatel equipment will be installed in Verizon’s (News - Alert) central switching offices as well as in new installations of direct fiber-optic links terminating at customers’ premises.  

 

Motorola and Tellabs both supply electronic equipment for the current technology being deployed in Verizon's 16-state FTTP network, known as B-PON or Broadband Passive Optical Network, making them a natural partner for continued expansion of services and capabilities.

 

“G-PON is the next step in the evolution of the all-fiber access network,” said Paul Lacouture, Verizon’s executive vice president for network and technology.  “When we first launched the nation’s only large-scale FTTP program in 2004, we said that one of the most important competitive and cost-effective features is that we could increase speed and capabilities by evolving to more advanced electronics and without having to change the fiber we had already deployed or are deploying. Today’s announcement begins to fulfill that promise.”

 

Not only will the three vendors’ hardware increase broadband transmission speeds via the fiber network, it also will enhance Verizon’s FiOS TV product, enhancing its VOD capabilities and paving the way for an all-IP offering.  Not surprisingly, the deal also brings additional cost savings for Verizon — the company says the costs of the electronics portion of the FTTP platform will be diminished by one quarter. 

 

Currently, Verizon building out its FiOS network in more than half of its total service area, which encompasses 28 states.  Its fiber-based FiOS Internet services today feature downstream speeds ranging from up to 5 Mbps to 50 Mbps and upstream speeds ranging from up to two Mbps to five Mbps.

 

Verizon’s FTTP project was launched in Texas back in 2004, had passed about three million homes and businesses by the end of 2005, and is on track to pass a total of six million premises by the end of this year.  The company says it expects to increase annually by about three million premises passed for the next several years.

 

Basically, FTTP replaces the copper wires that connect most customers to their telecom systems with higher capacity optical fiber — nearly limitless, in fact.  The higher capacity access allows the provider to offer advanced bandwidth-intensive products and service that would not be possible with the smaller traditional pipeline to the home.  The fiber-optic network also tends to be more reliable than copper networks, being less susceptible moisture and electrical interference. 

 

The network is generically known as a passive optical network (PON), a point-to-multipoint, FTTP network architecture in which unpowered optical splitters are used to allow a single fiber to serve multiple residences, thus increasing the overall reliability of the network and reducing operational and maintenance expenses.