AFC takes on AccessLan for $43 million

At first glance, Advanced Fibre Communications’ purchase of AccessLan Communications is puzzling. The company doesn’t have any customers to speak of and has whittled itself down to a mere 75 employees. But there was good reasoning behind AFC’s $43 million cash purchase and assumption of $4 million in liabilities of the company. It lies in what AccessLan wasn’t talking about but was working on in stealth mode: next-generation switching technology.

The new technology handles ATM switching, DSL, Ethernet, IP and passive optical networking. AccessLan’s initial product, which was a DSLAM, gained little traction in the marketplace. The new product is supposed to collapse several network elements into one box, the Telliant 5000. AFC will likely bump up against Alcatel and Lucent Technologies as it tries to win customers for the new product.

The company went from more of a commercial focus to a research and development focus in stealth mode, according to Ryan Koontz, director of business development at AFC. The Telliant 5000 product is shipping now, Koontz said, and has been in trials for six months. The two companies had an unannounced OEM agreement and so far have taken orders for 12 systems from smaller telcos.

AFC will work its way up the food chain in sales of the product from smaller to gradually larger providers, Koontz said. “We will take it into new markets,” Koontz said. “With evaluations running where they are, we got the pick of the litter,” he said.