Cinci Bell picks Motorola GPON

Motorola announced this week that Cincinnati Bell will use its GPON and RF video technology, marking another North American win. The independent telco is looking at fiber-to-the-premises for both single family and multi-dwelling units within its footprint.

“In selecting a next generation video network solution, we looked for a partner with extensive fiber experience including the proven ability to serve the MDU market,” said Darrick Zucco, general manager, Fioptic Services of Cincinnati Bell, in a prepared statement. “With Motorola’s extensive deployed base of GPON equipment in North America and their integrated 1GHz RF video solution, we are confident that as we begin employing fiber into parts of our network, our subscribers will receive the highest quality television and broadband services for many years to come.”

The technology Cincinnati Bell deploys in customer’s homes and apartments will be very different from what Verizon started its FTTP deployments with, only four years ago, said Floyd Wagoner, director of global product marketing for access network solutions at Motorola. The push to make installations cheaper and faster has transformed optical network units from larger devices installed on the side of the house and connected to separate battery backups inside to smaller units with integrated batteries installed just inside the house and plugged into existing power outlets to much smaller devices that can sit on a desktop or in an entertainment cabinet, Wagoner said.

“Our innovation has been focused around getting those install times down, which meant driving the simplification of the install,” Wagoner said. “Going from outside to inside, reducing the form factor and device consolidation are all areas in which we have innovated.”

Today’s ONTs also used pre-connectorized fibers to reduce the need for field splicing which allows service providers to use lower-level technicians to handle installs.

“Now as they move into MDUs, telcos need even smaller units to fit into basements and into people’s apartments,” Wagoner said.

Motorola has built a wide variety of devices to meet different global needs, including feature-rich ONTs for the U.S. and Europe and lowest cost ONTs in Asia, where video service is often not part of the mix, Wagoner said, and is now synthesizing its wide range of experience to create the next generation of in-home devices.

“Today we have 35 million deployed globally,” Wagoner said. “We think Asia will drive the next trend, with indoor devices that are low-cost because of scale. With that market there could be 200 million to 300 million devices deployed and at those economies of scale, you begin to see fiber ONTs at the same price that we see DSL modems today.”