The Lightwave Blog

Posted by Stephen Hardy

Speaking to a group of media and analysts after last Friday's OIF interoperability demo at Verizon's Waltham, MA, facility, the carrier's vice president of network architecture, Stuart Elby, said he expects that at least one of his current vendors, and perhaps as many as three, will deliver tenable 100-Gbps networking platforms by the end of this year. He added that he expects the platforms will be based on technology "like" the dual-polarized QPSK with coherent detection around which the OIF has rallied the industry (including Verizon), saying he believes the platforms will be "as close to that as exists" at the time.

Elby also said he expects that Verizon will deploy some of the equipment it receives, but not in large numbers. As was the case with 40G, he expects the first generation of 100G platforms will be extremely expensive, and greater deployment will wait until further iterations of the technology reduce 100G's price tag. He said he had doubts that 40G prices would ever reach a level 2.5 times that of 10G, partly because the price of 10G technology continues to shrink. He said that 100G might enjoy a more aggressive downward cost run than 40G, due to greater deployment in data center environments.

Labels: 100G, 40G, Verizon

Posted by Stephen Hardy

Despite the impression he gave us (not to mention Telephony) during his keynote presentation at Optical Access '08 last Thursday, Verizon Director of FTTP Architecture and Design Vincent O'Byrne did not announce Verizon's intention to roll out 100-Mbps services over its FiOS FTTH network in 2009. So says Jim Smith, Verizon Telecom's director of media relations, in an email we recently received.

"What I and he thinks he said was we'd make the engineering choices and construction to make 100 meg possible; neither of us remember him saying we'd sell it," Smith wrote.

Just to put a cap on the matter, Smith concluded, "It is not on anyone's actual product rollout plans at this point."

Were we (and others) hearing things? You can judge for yourself by listening to O'Byrne's keynote.

Labels: FiOS, FTTH, Verizon

Posted by Stephen Hardy

As we reported yesterday, Tellabs has decided to walk away from Verizon's GPON program. As the story indicates, the company isn't providing many details about its thinking, other than "we did not find the deal economical."

However, I have to give Tellabs credit for having the sense to walk away from a high-profile program when the numbers just didn't add up. Yeah, sticking around would mean the company could still say it was a part of the country's biggest FTTH deployment. But being the #3 supplier for a GPON rollout that's still in its nascent stages couldn't have offered much hope of return on R&D; investment. The situation reminds me of those stories you hear about titled families in Europe living almost like paupers in the ancestral castle; at some point, the sacrifices necessary to keep up appearances become irrational.

In an industry that is known for wrapping products in dollars just to keep them moving out the door, Tellabs' ability to say, "Enough!" provides an example that others ought to ponder.

Of course, the smartest move is to avoid getting involved in programs like this in the first place. But, hey, one step at a time.

Labels: GPON, Tellabs, Verizon