BellSouth names Alcatel, Redback lead IP vendors

Alcatel and Redback Networks today both announced that they were chosen as primary vendors for BellSouth's next-gen IP network buildout.

Financial terms of the deal were not announced. Redback, however, will provide its SmartEdge Service Gateway platform while Alcatel will supply its recently introduced IP DSLAMs, the 7302 and the 7330, which is a remote version of the 7302. Combined, the two products will allow BellSouth to deliver triple play services including IP-based video.

For Alcatel, the deal represents a continuation of its DSLAM contract with BellSouth and marks the second tier-one U.S. carrier--SBC being the other--to adopt IP DSLAM. For Redback, the deal is one of the first publicly announced U.S. carriers to use the SmartEdge. Previously the company had signed deals with Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan and Korea's KT. Strategically, the win also marks a milestone for both BellSouth and Redback.

"It is a significantly different architecture win for us," Kevin DeNuccio, president and CEO of Redback said in an interview this morning.

The BellSouth contract will add the role of broadband aggregator and broadband manager to Redback's traditional job of providing B-RAS functionality.

"This is putting a device that is directly connected to the IP DSLAM," DeNuccio said. "And it's doing aggregation very far out in the network at the end CO. That's going to give BellSouth the ability to do lots of QOS very far out in the network."