Jul 14, 2003 12:00 PM,

Alcatel wins RUS acceptance

By Vince Vittore

Alcatel announced today that its 7340 fiber-to-the-user platform has been given a technical acceptance by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service, allowing small carriers to buy the platform using the Broadband Pilot Program.

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The platform, which was released in January, is designed to support “triple play” services of voice, high-speed data and video. The RUS designation should help the company get into the small telco market where no single vendor has been able to dominate. Thus far, the company has deployed the 7340 with municipalities in Bristol, Va., and Chelam County, Wash., as well as with SBC in its Mission Bay development in San Francisco.

“We’ve started with the municipalities for the early adopters,” says Mark Klimek, Alcatel's senior director of marketing.

The Broadband Pilot Program, which was announced earlier this year, funds projects that increase broadband penetration in rural areas. However, Alcatel’s bid in the rural market may be just a prelude to a big RBOC deal. The company is believed to be in the lead for the joint RFP issued by BellSouth, SBC and Verizon, according to a report issued last week by UBS Warburg.

Though the company isn’t talking directly about the bid, Klimek said he was happy to see that the joint committee of three RBOCs has decided to use the G.983 standard for passive optical networks (PONs), which Alcatel uses as the basis for the 7340. That also helps the company’s rural play.

“We’re kind of excited that they’ve validated our core technology,” he said. “The fact that the RBOC community has validated G.983 gives [rural carriers] a sense of security.”