FEBRUARY 7, 2007 -- Alcatel-Lucent (search for Alcatel-Lucent) and Freescale (search for Freescale) today announced their plan to facilitate the adoption of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technologies by making available jointly-developed GPON technology and interoperability specifications to vendors of terminal equipment worldwide.
Through an agreement with Freescale Semiconductor, terminal vendors now will be able to license critical technologies, including reference designs and support, for GPON that is compliant with Alcatel-Lucent's 7342 IntelligentIServices Access Manager (ISAM) fiber-to-the-user (FTTU) product family. In addition, and under a separate agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will offer support services required to promote interoperability.
"Alcatel-Lucent has been a long-standing promoter of the Full Service Access Network (FSAN) Group's efforts to standardize GPON, and this should come as no great surprise given our market position in broadband access," contends Dirk Van den Berghen, president of Alcatel-Lucent's access activities. "It is fully expected that this move will help eliminate industry barriers toward multi-vendor interoperability and enable service providers to select GPON terminal equipment in nearly any configuration they desire at competitive prices," he says.
As part of this program, manufacturers of GPON terminal equipment will be able to procure system-on-a-chip (SOC) silicon from Freescale Semiconductor.
Freescale and Alcatel-Lucent had already partnered in 2005 to deliver what they claim was the first available GPON interface using a combination of Freescale and Alcatel-Lucent intellectual property. Through the use of a reference design and support services, vendors now will be able to ensure interoperability of GPON optical network terminals (search for ONTs).
"Freescale's ongoing collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent gives customers access to exceptional software and systems expertise while helping to drive industry-wide adoption of advanced fiber-to-the-home technology," adds Lynelle McKay, senior vice president and general manager of Freescale's Networking and Computing Systems Group. "This important technology milestone, a result of combining Freescale's GPON SoC capabilities with Alcatel-Lucent's broadband system leadership, ultimately benefits subscribers who can look forward to a greater choice of broadband services in the future," says McKay.
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