Advanced Fibre Communications, Inc. (AFC) (Nasdaq: AFCI), a provider of multiservice broadband solutions for the telecommunications industry, announced it has acquired over 50 new IOC (independent operating company) customers since January 2001, increasing its IOC customer base to more than 750 carriers. According to the USTA, a trade association for the local exchange carrier industry, there are roughly 1,000 independent telephone companies in the U.S. today. To date, AFC's independent telco customers have deployed nearly 16 thousand AccessMAX Integrated Multiservice Access Platforms (IMAPs), which have a serving capacity of more than 20 million access lines.
In 1993, Pacific Telcom, Inc. (formerly PTI Communications, Vancouver, Wash., and now owned by CenturyTel, Monroe, La. (NYSE: CTL)) provided small communities in rural eastern Oregon with Digital Loop Carriers (DLCs) equipped for voice, payphone and T1 data services -- over both fiber and copper spans -- that could be terminated on the same system. Utilizing a single fiber-optic strand, AFC's AccessMAX platforms enabled PTI to deploy an integrated drop-and-insert fiber to copper system at the U.S. Forest Service's Bear Springs, Ore., facility. Today, by inserting AFC's AccessMAX ADSL x+y line cards, those same systems are capable of providing eastern Oregonians with integrated voice and Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) services.
Integrated voice and broadband services offered over ADSL and Symmetric High-Bit-Rate DSL (G.shdsl) are becoming increasingly popular, but distance still remains the enemy of bandwidth, resulting in a degradation of these services or the inability to deliver these services altogether. AFC addresses the last-mile bottleneck with its AccessMAX packet-powered IMAPs. AFC's AccessMAX System 8, launched last June at SuperComm 2001 in Atlanta, offers complete flexibility in deployment of ADSL and G.shdsl services, and the Company's portfolio of AccessMAX ADSL x+y line cards may be deployed in either the central office or in a remote terminal.
Claiming to be the first to incorporate traditional Time Division Multiplex (TDM) voice, ATM, DSL Access Multiplexer (DSLAM), and Next-Generation Digital Loop Carrier (NGDLC) capabilities in a single, fully integrated platform, AFC's AccessMAX was engineered originally to provide voice, high-speed data, and multimedia services, such as video -- all from a single platform. AccessMAX enables IOCs and large incumbent service providers alike to deliver next-generation services from the access edge to meet 100 percent of their subscribers' demands for voice and broadband services.
About AFC:
Headquartered in Petaluma, Calif., Advanced Fibre Communications, Inc. is a designer and manufacturer of broadband access solutions for the local loop. For more information, visit www.fibre.com.