After announcing a passive optical-networking project last year that could
lead to fiber to the home, SBC Communications Inc. has inked an equipment deal
to light up the first commercial deployment.
SBC signed a multimillion-dollar agreement with French equipment provider
Alcatel Alsthom to deploy fiber-to-the-user technology for customers in SBC
subsidiary Pacific Bell's Mission Bay project near San Francisco.
With Alcatel's '7340' fiber gear, SBC's network will be able to deliver
voice, video and data over fiber.
The two companies are developing a network architecture to support existing
digital-subscriber-line Internet-access service and migrate for the direct fiber
technology.
In May 2001, SBC announced that it would be using passive optical networking
and wave-division multiplexing to extend direct fiber connections to businesses
and new residential communities.
SBC signed a pact with Catellus Development Corp. to build the utility links
for the fiber connections in Mission Bay, a development including 5 million
square feet of commercial space and 6,000 homes.
