Alaska Communications goes to 40G, lower 48

ACS chose 40 Gb/s gear from one of its existing optical equipment suppliers, Nortel Networks.

Last year, some carriers complained publicly about the high price of 40 Gb/s technology, at least one going as far as saying it might skip 40G entirely in favor of 100 Gb/s. But this year, those debates died down somewhat as 40G technology costs came down and more industry members began to see 100G as a technology better suited for the next decade than this one.

For ACS, the choice of 40G this year was clear, Vadapalli said. “There was no material difference between [40G and multiple 10G systems] from a financial perspective,” he said. “From a technical perspective, this gave us greater density on in-state fiber pairs.”

“There’s finite fiber pairs in the ground, and you try and maximize what bandwidth you deliver from that,” he added. “We look at not just the cost of acquisition but the economics of the life cycle -- what it would take for spares, maintenance – the whole nine yards -- over the life cycle of the technology. And we did not find any material difference between going one way or the other financially.”