Rochester Telephone selects Zhone's MXK platform for FTTH triple-play deployment.(FTTX)

Zhone Technologies Inc., a provider of FTTx network access solutions, added Rochester Telephone Company Inc. (RTC), a voice, video, and data services provider in Rochester, Indiana, to its customer roster. The company will deploy Zhone's MXK intelligent Gigabit passive optical network (GPON) solution to enable triple-play services for local residences and small businesses.

After the completion of a two-month trial in February 2011, RTC will use Zhone's MXK solution to deliver affordable and reliable high-speed Internet access, VoIP, and video services to its customers. The MXK is especially ideal for this deployment because of its ability to support both radiofrequency (RF) and Internet Protocol (IP) video over fiber, which works seamlessly for passive optical network (PON) or point-to-point Active Ethernet. This will provide for a smooth transition for RTC's subscribers and mitigate any potential migration challenges--such as a decrease in network performance quality or reliability--during the upgrade to more advanced triple-play services.

"With over 6,500 access lines in our network today, we needed a fiber access vendor with superior scale and effective network management capabilities. We were also looking for a partner that could help us seamlessly upgrade our existing Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON) network," noted Joe McCarter, president of RTC. "Zhone was the right choice for us not only for the scale they offer with the high density 8-port GPON Optical Line Termination (OLT) card, but also for the added optimal benefit of recurring savings realized with the Zhone EZ Touch Provisioning system."

Zhone has leveraged its deep experience in managing the complexity of multiservice access to build the industry's most comprehensive portfolio of FTTx solutions and the MXK in particular is well acquainted with RTC's specific field requirements to provide optimum cost efficiency and maximum service differentiation in combination with the zNID GPON optical network terminals (ONTs).

The widespread system capabilities of Zhone's MXK platform benefit both RTC and its subscribers, including utilization of up to 1-Gigabit capacity in the home and the ability to support the extreme bandwidth demands generated by multiple high-definition television (HDTV) screens, high-definition digital video recorder (HD-DVR) content, and video streaming within the home.

The future-proof design of the MXK minimizes customer impact and installation time during the rollout of both current services and new advanced services that may be added in the coming years.

"Zhone's North American footprint continues to expand with both broadband stimulus and traditional fiber projects with operators such as Hardy Telecommunications, Shawnee Telephone and Yadkin Valley Telephone," explained Brian Caskey, chief marketing officer for Zhone. "Traditional triple-play upgrades also benefit from the Zhone Management System (ZMS) and the corresponding EZ Touch Provisioning solution. RTC is a valued customer for Zhone and we are pleased they are able to benefit so significantly from the MXK's industry-leading scalability and FTTx reach."

The ZMS provides management support for the multiservice networks Zhone supports. The client-server architecture uses proven industry standard components such as an application server framework and a relational database to provide a robust platform for RTC and its customers. ZMS automates complex, tedious, and error-prone tasks, thereby raising network productivity, improving efficiency and reducing operating costs for RTC. As an extension of the ZMS, EZ Touch is a next-generation carrier-class network management and provisioning solution that reduces recurring operational expenditure (OpEx) by minimizing truck rolls and manual subscriber-specific features and, effectively, automating the service-provisioning functionality.

Zhone has deployed over 1,000 of its fully redundant, carrier-grade all-IP MXK platforms with more than 100 service providers globally. Featuring industry-leading density, scalability, and switching capacity, the MXK is the industry's first terabit access concentrator and provides non-blocking capacity of up to 3,600 100Mbps GPON subscribers or 360 1G Active Ethernet subscribers.

For more information about Zhone's MXK solution or to learn more about the other solutions offered in the new Zhone FiberHome portfolio, please visit http://zhone.com/products/MXK/ or http://www.zhone.com/solutions/fttn/.