UTEL expands into Chinese FTTP market

United Technologists Europe Ltd (UTEL), a UK-based research and development organization, says it has agreed a new joint venture with Chinese company Nanjing Orient Info & Tech. Co Ltd. The joint venture will focus, at least initially, on UTEL's Fast Light PON test and protection switching system.

In September, UTEL announced that it had finished work on Fast Light, which it calls “a groundbreaking solution for automating the fiber repair process and carrying out protection switching of optical line terminal ports in PON networks” (see “UTEL launches Fast Light FTTH fault detector”). The joint venture will promote the technology in China, the largest and fastest growing fiber access market in the world.

The joint venture, known as UTEL Orient, will be based in the country’s commercial capital, Nanjing. As part of the agreement, the Chinese company will market and distribute technologies developed by UTEL, including Fast Light.

“We are confident that this new joint venture will be very successful as all three of the big Chinese service providers have indicated that they are in need of a fiber fault-finding solution like Fast Light, especially one which is capable of performing remote diagnostics that the entire industry previously thought impossible,” said Frank Kaufhold, managing director of UTEL.

A single PON fiber failure can result in 64 customers losing their TV or internet access. Fast Light allows service providers to identify all customers potentially affected by a fault remotely, within minutes and sometimes before a single call has to be made to the customer contact center, UTEL asserts. This allows the operator to meet restoration expectations whilst dramatically reducing operational costs.

“This is an important investment for Nanjing Orient, as the Fast Light technology is like no other we have seen demonstrated before,” said Jason Yang, CEO of Nanjing Orient. “Its commercial and technical benefits are key selling points for us and we can clearly see a viable benefit for both companies involved in this venture.”

For more information on test equipment and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.