Lucent extends Sprint DSL win

Lucent Technologies re-upped its contract with Sprint’s Local Telecommunications Division to provide DSL systems.

As part of the extension, Sprint will deploy the Stinger MRT platform in a number of its remote digital loop carrier cabinets, extending the reach of the company’s DSL service. Sprint, which serves more than 8 million DSL lines, also will continue deploying Stinger DSLAMs in its central offices.

“We worked really hard with Lucent to harden this and deploy them in our remote next-generation digital loop carriers,” said Marce Maatsch, director of national engineering standards and processes for Sprint LTD. “It gives us a strategy in rural deployments. And then we can string them together as we grow.”

The move is particularly important because Sprint’s network serves numerous rural markets, she said. Additionally, about one-third of the company’s local customers are served by a DLC, many of which are still copper fed.

“When you only have the DSLAM out of the CO, after 18,000 [feet] that's it,” Maatsch said. “And if there was any DLC in between, you can’t serve that customer.”