Allied Telesyn enters Utopia

Allied Telesyn’s residential broadband gateway has been selected as the access portal for the Utopia project, a massive multi-city fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) project pursued by 18 Utah cities.

Utopia, under the direction of Dynamic City, a Utah-based consultancy, agreed to use Allied Telesyn’s RG223 gateway in the first phase of the project, which will bring fiber to as many as 15,000 homes and businesses in select member cities starting in early 2004. The project ultimately will reach 250,000 homes and 35,000 businesses, which would make it the largest municipal fiber project in the country.

But project leaders have not yet secured the bonds necessary to fund the project, which Utopia chief operating officer Roger Black estimates will cost a half a billion dollars and be financed in two parts. Recently the group considered asking its member cities to provide a “backstop” for some of the debt, essentially “co-signing” for the loan, said Black. That idea has not yet been approved.

According to its website, Utopia has awarded contracts to six other companies in addition to Allied Telesyn: Riverstone Networks for core electronics and access distribution; New Basis and Pfannenberg/Hydal for enclosures; Tyco Electronics for fiber management; Amino Communications for video gateways; and Tetra Tech Construction for construction.

According to Allied Telesyn, the RG223 residential gateway distributes traditional voice and multiple IP-based services throughout a home, including broadband Internet access, voice-over-IP, broadcast television and video-on-demand. It features two analog phone ports, three 10/100 Ethernet LAN ports and supports IGMP for video multicasting.