Tennessee teleco taps Occam for network upgrade, FTTH project

Oct. 11, 2006
OCTOBER 11, 2006 -- To date, Ben Lomand has purchased approximately 50 of Occam's BLC 6252 blades and plans to trial the vendor's BLC 6312 blade as part of a project to offer Active Ethernet FTTH.

OCTOBER 11, 2006 -- Ben Lomand Telephone Co-op Inc., one of Tennessee's largest independent operating companies (IOCs), has selected Occam Networks (search Occam Networks) to provide triple-play services to its customers.

"We evaluated many solutions to expand our network, with a focus on ease of implementation, high performance, and stability," recalls Ray Cantrell, network operations manager of Ben Lomand. "In our evaluation, Occam's BLC equipment exceeded competitive products in all categories. This allowed us to migrate to an all-IP platform, and the Next Level Cabinet Retro kits from Occam provide an easy way to add IP video without replacing the cabinets."

Ben Lomand built out half of its geographic territory with Next Level Communications equipment, but concerns over the future evolution of that equipment caused the IOC to reconsider its deployment plans. Ben Lomand launched a comprehensive search for an equipment provider to build out the other half of its network, implement upgrades to the area currently covered with Next Level equipment, and assist with deployment of a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) project.

To date, Ben Lomand has purchased approximately 50 of Occam's BLC 6252 blades and plans to deploy many more as it upgrades seven new networks. Ben Lomand soon will trial Occam's BLC 6312 blade as part of a project to offer Active Ethernet FTTH.

"We plugged Occam's blades into our network, and they were up and running in as little as 15 minutes," Cantrell reports. "Engineers from the other companies we invited in required two or three visits to make their products work."

"Because all Occam BLC products are based on interoperable standards, customer engineers frequently report that our blades are integrated into their networks in a matter of minutes," contends Russ Sharer, vice president of marketing for Occam Networks. "Customers like Ben Lomand demonstrate the value of this standards-based approach. We are eager to help Ben Lomand and other telcos bring new, IP-based services to their subscribers quickly and cost effectively."


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