City of Salisbury selects Zhone’s zNIDs and MXK FTTx platforms for municipal fiber project

JANUARY 27, 2010 -- The City of Salisbury in North Carolina has selected MXK and zNID Fiber to the Home (FTTH) solutions from Zhone Technologies Inc., provider of network access systems, to serve as the bedrock platforms for a municipal broadband initiative now underway.

Salisbury officials cite interactive HDTV, telemedicine, advanced emergency services, and greater community cohesion as potential differentiators in attracting knowledge workers and seeding new business growth in the shifting digital economy, according to a representative.

Leveraging design advancements in non-blocking architecture, Zhone’s MXK platform and zNID Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) support unicast media streams that require dedicated bandwidth for applications such as interactive HD video and telemedicine. For Salisbury, Zhone’s integrated approach to FTTH results in lowered equipment costs, increased network control, and targeted service differentiation on the full range of FTTx services.

“We don’t want to rely on the technology or timeline of existing carriers to meet our goals for a communications network that gives us a competitive advantage in attracting new businesses to our city,” says Mike Crowell, director of broadband services for Salisbury. “Zhone’s FTTx system proved to be the most powerful solution with twice the capacity over other platforms on the market. That nets out to significantly lowered bandwidth costs, while giving us the freedom to grow network services as we grow our city.”

“The City of Salisbury has done a phenomenal job on all fronts of this project, from platform selection and network planning, to building enthusiastic commitment from the community,” says Brian Caskey, chief marketing officer for Zhone. “We’re proud to be a part of a project that serves as a model of excellence for other cities planning municipal broadband initiatives.”

Visit Zhone Technologies and The City of Salisbury