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To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (5032)	8/24/1999 10:06:00 AM
From: MikeM54321	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Frank, Would you happen to have our other discussions regarding AT&T's HFC broadband plans in Salt Lake City handy? I believe the news came out around June 99. I believe it was FTTC related. I thought you may have it bookmarked. I wanted to review it to see if it was in anyway related to your Optical Solutions, Inc. news. I'm wondering if it pure coincidence that both are testing in Salt Lake City. For some reason I doubt it. Thanks, MikeM(From Florida)

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (5032)	8/25/1999 8:18:00 AM
From: Sector Investor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

Frank, Bell South is also doing FTTH and FTTC, using optical duplexer and triplexer splitter equipment from MRVC's Optical Access subsidiary (OEM to RELTEC, now part of Marconi). See the article below. Affordable at last? BellSouth taps Marconi for FTTH JOAN ENGEBRETSON Conventional wisdom says fiber to the home is too expensive. But BellSouth—which announced last week that it would test a fiber solution based on passive optical networking to 400 homes in Dunwoody, Ga.—believes that architecture may be more economical in the long run than fiber to the curb. The carrier has been deploying FTTC in new network builds since 1995 to support POTS and has been concerned about operational costs associated with the active electronics in the optical network unit at the curb. With FTTH, those electronics are at the home. "The home is a much more benign environment," said Dave Kettler, executive director for BellSouth science and technology. Although the initial installation cost for FTTH is higher than FTTC, Kettler believes FTTH will reduce ongoing operational costs by avoiding problems such as wasp nests and hot temperatures that plague FTTC systems. FTTH will also lower power consumption costs by using a single-fiber architecture. "Others may take a dual-fiber approach, but using our FiberStar access platform can prove more cost-effective," said Mark Cannata, vice president of access network systems marketing for Marconi. The FTTH system, which BellSouth is purchasing from Marconi, will support up to 100 Mb/s of data connectivity, although initially the carrier will offer digital subscriber line speeds. Eventually the system could be upgraded to higher data rates, and those upgrades will be easier with FTTH than with FTTC, said Kettler. Customers in the Dunwoody trial will be able to obtain 120 channels of digital video, 70 channels of analog video and 31 channels of CD-quality digital audio service. Depending on the trial's results, BellSouth may decide to deploy FTTH more broadly, said Kettler. In the meantime, the carrier will emphasize what it calls integrated fiber in the loop (IFITL). IFITL brings fiber to the curb, but in addition to POTS service, it offers entertainment video and brings both a copper pair and a coax connection to the home. For video transmission, fiber must be closer to the end user, said Cannata. But, deep fiber is not always the right thing to do, he added. "There are still cases where utilizing existing copper makes sense, but for this type of deployment, the economics are hard to beat." BellSouth expects to reach 300,000 homes with FTTC and 200,000 homes with IFITL by the end of the year. —Liane H. LaBarba contributed to this story.