JUNE 29, 2009 -- Agder Broadband, a broadband service provider in Norway, has deployed LG-Nortel (search Lightwave for LG-Nortel) WDM-PON Ethernet Fiber Access equipment, in conjunction with channel partner INS, to provide high-speed broadband services to homes in the southern region of Norway. LG-Nortel is a joint venture of LG Electronics and Nortel.
The new equipment will enable Agder Broadband to extend its service reach from cities and dense populated areas to smaller outlying communities in areas such as Indre Agder, the joint venture says. The fiber-based infrastructure can deliver broadband speeds of up to 100 Mbps and will position Agder to introduce triple-play services in these smaller communities. Agder's new broadband service offerings are expected to become commercially available in July 2009.
The new gear addresses Agder's challenge of clearing first-mile bottlenecks to enable the provision of high-speed services to homes across Norway, LG-Nortel says. Agder Broadband already had fiber infrastructure installed that reached distant villages across Norway. However, extending high-speed broadband services to households in these villages was not economically feasible because it meant installing new long-distance fiber or building expensive and power-consuming central offices to provide dedicated fiber for each connected household, the joint venture adds.
"While we wanted to deliver high-speed broadband to a greater sector of the Norwegian population, we still needed to make a commercial return," said Toralf Nyheim, managing director, Agder Broadband AS. "Even with an existing fiber network in place we faced the classic expensive 'first-mile' problem until INS proposed an Ethernet fiber access solution based on next-generation WDM-PON technology."
"Compared to the alternatives, WDM-PON technology represents real value for customers like Agder Broadband," said Peter MacKinnon, chairman , LG-Nortel. "WDM-PON is clearly emerging as the technology of choice for service operators' access networks, driven by an ever increasing demand for bandwidth and cost effective next generation, high availability, access infrastructure."
According to Michael Howard of Infonetics Research, "More and more service providers around the globe are looking to get greater utility from their deep-fiber access networks. WDM-PON delivers up to 10 to 20 times the capacity with a dedicated wavelength to each destination, be it to the home, building, or DSLAM. Consumers want a super-fast broadband network that can download music in seconds and movies in minutes, and carriers want backhaul facilities to carry residential and business traffic. Point-to-point Ethernet WDM-PON offers a simple way to help meet the ever-growing global demand for bandwidth."
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