FTTH provider adopts Australian-designed hardware

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 19 March 2009 05:12

Business IT - Networking

OptiComm will use NEC equipment to roll out fibre to the premises (FTTP) to at least 50,000 new homes and businesses.

While OptiComm's current strategy is to address greenfield sites, but has longer-term plans to hook up existing premises.

Very sensibly, OptiComm takes care of the pipes and allows customers to select from a range of service providers for broadband, telephony (PSTN or VoIP) and TV.

For example, the company already has arrangements with Foxtel, Austar and SelecTV, as well as several (unspecified) ISPs.

Broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps are supported by the planned network.

Other applications include environmental monitoring, security services, smart metering, and community services such as surveillance.

The same equipment can be used by businesses requiring VLAN services. OptiComm's Eline service is said to be equivalent to a Metro Ethernet service.

"Just like electricity, gas and water infrastructure are essential in the construction of new housing, Fibre to the Home is no longer a nice to have, but a must for new residential and mixed use developments," said Phil Smith, general manager at OptiComm.

"Indeed, we're seeing it being mandated by many of the large developers who have identified it as a disadvantage not to have high speed broadband connectivity in new homes," he added.

The equipment selected by OptiComm can deliver up to 1Gbps per port, allowing headroom for future bandwidth increases without requiring hardware replacement.

It was developed in Australia by NEC, and the entire OptiComm network will be managed from NEC's national operations centre in Melbourne.