24 June 2003 Livermore, CA Lightwave--Alloptic, Inc., a pioneer in the development and deployment of passive optical networks (PON) that operate at gigabit speeds, today announced that the City of Mount Vernon, WA, and CSS Communications, an integrated communications provider, have chosen Alloptic equipment to deliver data, voice, and video services to businesses and residents. CSS Communications operates the city's fiber-optic network.
The city and CSS Communications will deploy Alloptic edgeGEAR equipment in central office facilities and Alloptic bizGEAR optical network units at the customer premises. Initially, the network will deliver high-speed data services, virtual local area network (VLAN) and virtual private network (VPN) applications, as well as T1 and traditional voice services. Ultimately, bandwidth may be resold to other service providers to increase the options available to subscribers.
"Our objective was to fully utilize our existing fiber infrastructure by implementing a solution that met the needs of our businesses and residents today and in the future," said Kim Kleppe, information services manager for the city of Mount Vernon. "After exploring various technologies, it became clear that a passive optical network was the best approach for our city."
Mount Vernon has a population of 26,670 and is home to Skagit Valley College.
"Only Alloptic could deliver the bandwidth that we needed," stated Ray Poorman, chief technology officer at CSS Communications. "With VLAN services operating at 10 and 100 Mbits/sec, we use the available gigabit of bandwidth. Equally important, their central office equipment proved to be plug and play, their network management system is very sophisticated, and the pure passive architecture greatly reduces operating expenses."