Powell, WY, embarks on FTTH initiative

MAY 28, 2008 �The City of Powell, WY, has scheduled a celebration of the start of construction of its municipal FTTH project at a community open house today. The network will provide high-bandwidth advanced IP services to both residents and businesses within the community of 5,500 people in northern Wyoming.

"The city's first and foremost responsibility is to build and maintain its infrastructure; it's in our best interest," said Powell City Administrator Zane Logan.

"Our new FTTH system will not only service existing residences, businesses, and schools but also help retain our young people and attract new residents and businesses. So many communities are struggling to remain competitive in an information-intensive economy. This network will ensure that the city will have state-of-the-art infrastructure, while embracing the involvement of private service providers," said Powell Mayor Scott Mangold.

The network, called PowelLink, is being built as the result of a partnership between the city, network service provider TCT, and municipal-broadband-network facilitator U.S. MetroNets (USM).

The City of Powell will provide access to the network as owner of the FTTH system and the town's electrical poles. Although the city wanted the community to have the advantage of a next-generation FTTH system, it did not want to own or manage its service offerings.

USM has developed a business model that it believes addresses all the elements needed to build a successful, profitable system, including financing, bond underwriting, legal counsel, service provisioning and more. The company was able to obtain private financing for the project based on the model. The company is also acting as project manager for the network during construction.

"U.S. MetroNets sees a lot of strategic value in the business model used in Powell," said Ernie Bray, CTO and founder of USM. "This model breaks new ground -- you can count on the fingers of one hand those cities that have gone forward to provide FTTH using other models. PowelLink opens the door for other communities interested in public/private partnerships for FTTH systems."

The service provider for the project will be TCT, a nearby independent telephone company that offers voice, data, and video services within its existing territory and will be expanding its subscriber base by coming to Powell. TCT already has experience deploying GPON FTTH networks and will manage the services when installation is completed later this year. Ultimately, Powell will own the network.

"TCT had already chosen Calix equipment for our in-territory FTTH deployment that provided advanced IP services, and we knew its products worked well," said Chris Davidson, general manager of TCT. "As a result, we'll be ready to operate, manage, maintain, and run services across Powell's FTTH network from day one. That experience provided a strong case for Calix."

The new FTTH network, which will leverage TCT's existing fiber ring, employs the Calix (search for Calix) C7 multiservice access platform serving 2.5 GPON and the Calix 700G GPON optical network terminals (ONTs), which terminate fiber at the customer premises and interface with the subscriber's in-home communication and entertainment devices. TCT will use the Calix Management System (CMS) to provision, troubleshoot, and manage the entire network.

"The partnership that's developing the City of Powell's FTTH network demonstrates a unique approach to bringing the latest GPON technologies to innovative communities," said Dave Russell, solutions marketing director at Calix. "The Powell deployment demonstrates what private service providers can do to help communities that want forward-looking broadband infrastructure. Powell is a great model for other communities exploring public-private partnerships. It proves that cities have other options and don't have to go in it alone if their incumbent service providers are not willing to invest in the critical broadband infrastructure their communities need."

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