Alcatel lands SBC FTTP deal

SBC today announced that it has signed a four-year contract with Alcatel to be the primary supplier of fiber-to-the-premise equipment.

The deal, which did not have any financials attached to it, is based largely on Alcatel’s 7340 FTTP system, which brings fiber to a terminal unit that is either attached to the side of a home or in the business. SBC, which is part of the joint procurement committee that includes Verizon and BellSouth, is the second carrier to choose its primary access vendor. Earlier this year, Verizon said it would use AFC.

"They’ve agreed to us for four years, which is not an insignificant term," said Hilary Mine, senior vice president of marketing for Alcatel. "It’s a huge JPC win."

SBC has been using Alcatel equipment in its high-profile Mission Bay network in California and is looking at a variety of services, Mine said.

"They are playing with video services, they’re playing with gaming," she said. "This is not like an announcement where we got into the lab. The reality is they’ve deployed it. We’re serving 180 households."

SBC’s selection of Alcatel is a non-exclusive agreement and likely will include a number of other vendors. Alcatel has signed marketing agreements with several other vendors including Scientific Atlanta and General Bandwidth. However, those agreements also are non-exclusive and may not necessarily lead to deployments through SBC, Mine said.