Atlanta first North American site for Fiber-to-the-Home
System
Lucent and Bell South
FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY JUNE 03, 1999
New BellSouth Network Architecture Delivers High-speed Internet Access, Digital Video
and CD-Quality Sound
ATLANTA - (Editor's Note: This release was jointly released by Lucent and Bell South.)
Suburban Atlanta residents will be the first in North America to experience the nearly
unlimited speed and bandwidth of passive optical networking delivered directly to their
homes.
A passive optical network (PON) uses high-capacity, optical fiber to transmit voice, data
and video. It's called "passive" because it eliminates the "active" electronics - which require
AC power - now residing in outside cabinets and pedestals located between BellSouth's
central offices and customers. A passive optical network will also reduce BellSouth's costs
because of the elimination of an external power source.
BellSouth plans to install the new fiber optic system to connect its switching offices to some
400 Atlanta customer homes. The system ultimately will be used to deliver voice, video and
high-speed data access using the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) data networking
protocol, the fastest technology in use today.
In this first installation, BellSouth will offer participating residential customers:
Internet access at super high speeds through a 100 megabit-per-second interface (actual
speeds available to customers during the trial will be limited to tariffed BellSouth
consumer high-speed data offerings)
120 channels of digital video entertainment,
70 channels of analog video entertainment, and
31 channels of CD-quality digital audio service.
"BellSouth has long been a leader in fiber optic networking and fiber-to-the-home research,"
said Dr. Dave Kettler, executive director for BellSouth Science and Technology. "We first
installed fiber to customer homes more than 10 years ago in two central Florida
subdivisions. Since that time, and especially during the last several years, we've made fiber
to the curb our preferred solution to providing telecommunications services for new
subdivisions. Just this year, we initiated an ambitious program of replacing existing copper
lines with fiber to the curb in some 200,000 homes in Atlanta and Miami.
"BellSouth's latest step provides the final link for an all-fiber connection from our switch all
the way to the home, instead of terminating fiber at the curb. Fiber to the home is BellSouth's
ultimate platform for satisfying our customers' voracious appetite for bandwidth, an appetite
that is growing at exponential rates."
Kettler also pointed out that BellSouth is currently involved in joint research on fiber to the
home with Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Company. "The Atlanta
installation builds on our research collaboration with NTT, which is creating common
technical specifications for optical network systems as part of our participation in the Full
Service Access Network (FSAN) industry consortium."
The optical fiber access system to be used in the Atlanta installation was developed by
Lucent Technologies and Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. The integrated system consists of
Lucent optical access network equipment, Oki optical line terminals, a network operating
system and analog optical network terminals. A Lucent optical network termination unit will
be installed inside the customer's home to convert optical signals into high-speed Ethernet
data for the customer's personal computer. An Oki analog optical networking unit will be
used to provide video signals to the customer's TV.
"By deploying a PON system, BellSouth is demonstrating its industry leadership in optical
access networks and its vision to deliver fiber optics directly to the customer's home," said
Steven Russell, vice-president - BellSouth Region for Lucent Technologies in Atlanta.
"Passive optical networks and fiber to the home will help future-proof BellSouth's network,"
Russell said.
"This new system gives users the ability to support not only today's but tomorrow's
bandwidth-intensive multimedia applications," said Ikuo Matsuoka, general manager of the
Transmission Systems Divisions, Oki Electric. "With Oki's technical know-how and more
than 100 years of industry experience, it is our pleasure to collaborate with Lucent
Technologies to build BellSouth's initial PON installation."
Founded more than 100 years ago in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. is Japan's first
telecommunications manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. With over 20,000
employees, Oki Electric today is a network solution company providing customers with
top-notch products and technologies for telecommunications systems, information systems
and electronic devices. For more information on Oki Electric, visit the company's Web site
at oki.com.
Lucent Technologies designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private
networks, communications systems and software, data networking systems, business
telephone systems and microelectronic components. Bell Labs is Lucent's research and
development arm. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit the company's Web
site at lucent.com.
BellSouth is a $24 billion communications services company. It provides
telecommunications, wireless communications, cable and digital TV, directory advertising
and publishing and Internet and data services to 34 million customers in 19 countries
worldwide. Domestically, BellSouth provides telecommunications services in nine
southeastern states, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi,
North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. With its headquarters in Atlanta, BellSouth
serves 24 million local telephone lines and provides local exchange and intraLATA long
distance service over one of the most modern telecommunications networks in the world.
More information on BellSouth is available on the Internet at bellsouth.com |
