Adtran Seeks ITU Blessing for Its FTTX Gear
Kevin Morgan, Adtran's director of marketing for carrier networks, says there is now a proposal for the ITU to create a working group to consider ways to use Ethernet in the drop to the home, as Adtran's product does. Three Tier One service providers -- one in the U.S., one in Europe and one in the Middle East -- are conducting field trials of the Adtran product.
"The architecture is out there," Morgan says. "Now we need to get some service provider comment and standards development activity."
UBE is unusual in a few ways: Besides using a version of 100BaseT over the final 500 feet of twisted pair wiring into the home, a media adapter in the home actually pulls power from the consumer's commercial electrical service to power the pedestal, at a modest cost to the customer.
Since most phone networks are set up to provide two lines into each home, it would still be possible to offer a line-power lifeline voice service, in addition to IP-based data and video, Morgan says.
— Carol Wilson, Chief Editor, Events, Light Reading
Besides the powering scheme, the way the product is rolled out is interesting. One ONT per every 8 homes vs. one for each home. Seems like that would save carriers a ton and be far less expensive for consumers to provide power for the equipment.
Anyone see a downside to this approach?