Tollbridge puts fiber into its network diet

(Telephony) Tollbridge Technologies has placed the last piece into its voice-over-broadband network mosaic by adding fiber to its list of network options and by partnering with World Wide Packets to demonstrate fiber as a last-mile voice and data transport.

"You won't find a lot of the fiber players, even the newer ones, who are devoting much attention to voice," said Agnes Imregh, Tollbridge's marketing vice president. "We think that this is now the time, when everything is in the exploratory stage, to start to introduce the concept."

Imregh said that the transition was relatively easy for Tollbridge "because our adapter, our CPE (customer premises equipment) takes Ethernet in and Ethernet out. For any pure Ethernet network you don't even have to do anything."

Imregh admitted that voice over fiber isn't atop Tollbridge's project list.

"DSL is obviously first, then cable, then wireless and then fiber," she said.

Nevertheless, she said, fiber is making a move.

"If you do a financial analysis of the business case in an MTU (multi-tenant unit) building, for DSL, T-1 and fiber, it turns out fiber makes the most sense for converged voice and data and other types of media services," she said.

This, she said, led to the World Wide Packets partnership.

"They are a really forward-looking player in the customer access side," she said.