Brightspeed, which will be formed from Lumen’s former ILEC assets (see “Former Lumen ILEC operations rebrand as Brightspeed, reveal FTTH ambitions”), says it’s at the starting line of its fiber to the premises (FTTP) deployment, even though the transaction that will create it hasn’t closed. With an eye towards delivering services over a new infrastructure in the third quarter of this year, the company will launch its FTTP deployment in North Carolina, the state in which it has its headquarters. Brightspeed says it expects to deploy fiber across its 20-state footprint.
Brightspeed says it will spend more than $2 billion over the next five years to pass up to 3 million homes and businesses with FTTP. The company will rely on what it calls “a suite of fiber-based Optical Distribution Network (ODN) technologies and integrated software that will leverage an innovative distributed tap (access point) product solution” that will enable it to deploy its network faster than conventional centralized split architectures.
Four companies will serve as major deployment partners:
- Corning Inc. (NYSE: GLW) will supply its Evolv terminals and Pushlok connectors
- Calix Inc. (NYSE: CALX) will offer its cloud platforms and 10G XGS-PON systems
- Dycom Industries Inc. (NYSE: DY) will serve as the design and construction partner
- IQGeo Group (LSE: IQG) will offer its geospatial software platform to aid network planning, design, construction, and maintenance processes.
"We are thrilled to work with this stellar team of partners who understand our mission," commented Tom Maguire, COO of Brightspeed. "The deployment in North Carolina is another milestone for Brightspeed as we prep for our standalone business. This is the first time many of these technologies will be deployed at scale in the U.S., and we are both energized and humbled to serve as a technological pioneer in our industry."
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