FTTH Con: Emerson enters FTTP OSP market

LAS VEGAS--Emerson Network Power entered the market for fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) outside plant products this week.

At the Fiber-to-the-Home Conference, the company announced a new family of pedestals and active and passive crossconnect cabinets.

Emerson has a history of making and selling outside plant products for copper broadband technologies and currently claims to be the largest supplier of cabinets to Bell companies. Emerson also assembles the contents of these cabinets (equipment supplied by third-party vendors such as Corning) for customers that request it. But unlike the fiber-to-the-curb and fiber-to-the-node networks Emerson has been supplying thus far, FTTP outside plant is passive, containing no active electronics.

“We wanted to move into the fiber side of the business,” said Manish Bhandari, vice president and general manager of Emerson’s outside plant business. “This is what we do. We know how to design cabinets in the most compact format.”

In particular, Emerson is offering cabinets that can be used for copper at first and be converted to fiber later without the need to replace the entire cabinet.

The move puts Emerson in competition with some of the partners it relies on for the gear inside its cabinets and pedestals, including ADC and Corning.