COMPTEL: Aktino CEO sees Ethernet-over-copper tipping point

ORLANDO – In his 30-plus years in telecom, Lonnie Martin has led large telecom equipment companies (ADC) and startups (White Rock Networks). In taking on the CEO job at Aktino, Martin has taken on something in between. The company is five years old and sitting in a hot market – the Ethernet-over-copper (EoC) space – but trailing the segment leaders, Hatteras Networks and Actelis.

In an interview on the Comptel trade show floor this week, Martin exuded confidence that the technology differences between Aktino and the EoC leaders are beginning to play out to his company’s advantage, even as telecom service providers are realizing the importance of extending the reach of Ethernet over their networks.

“This has been a great situation for me because I’ve landed here just as bonded copper has become a mainstream technology,” Martin said. “After an agonizingly long early adoption period, the pressures to do this are too compelling – especially in this economy, when no one has the money to lay fiber.”

Martin sees this as “a two-to-three decade opportunity” which means Aktino has time to catch up to the older market leaders. The company relies heavily on some of the industry’s long-time copper experts, including co-founders Ben Itri and Sam Salib and PairGain founder Howard Flagg, who serves on the board of directors. PairGain was an original DSL supplier to major telecom service providers.

Instead of using G.SHDSL, as others do, Aktino is using DMT technology, the original base of ADSL, and incorporating MIMO [multiple input, multiple output] technology from the wireless space to do a better job of eliminating noise and disturbers, Martin explained.

“It comes down to rate-reach – how far can you send a given bandwidth or how much bandwidth can you send over a given distance,” Martin said. Beyond 3000 feet, the short reach of EoC, “[Aktino] can deliver twice as much bandwidth” and can deliver even more downstream bandwidth when used in asymmetric mode.

Martin believes the asymmetric approach makes sense for things such as wireless backhaul, thinking that more data will be downloaded to smart phones and other data devices than will be sent upstream, and delivering more bandwidth to copper-fed DSLAMs.

“Those copper-fed DSLAMs are running out of gas, and that’s where the ILECs have their most strategic customers – on DSL,” Martin said. “That’s where they want to deliver value-added services. We think we can give them the bandwidth they need to do that.”