4 April 2003 Minneapolis, MN Lightwave --Optical Solutions Inc., a developer of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) systems, and FTTH integrator Big Sky Communication & Cable, Inc. today announced that Ironwood, a master planned community in Montana, will provide broadband services to residents via a new FiberPath 400 FTTH network.
The Ironwood community is just west of Billings, MT, and located near the scenic Yellowstone River Valley and Beartooth Mountains. The development will feature more than 50 acres of parkland, many miles of nature trails, and an advanced new FTTH broadband network.
"Ironwood is the latest example of a 'fiber powered' community that can now take advantage of the high-content, high-bandwidth services only available via fiber-to-the home technology," said Darryl Ponder, CEO at Optical Solutions. "With the new FiberPath network in Ironwood, residents can receive affordable voice, video, data services all integrated into one bill, customized to their household's needs."
Ironwood is also planning to provide a full spectrum of advanced smart home capabilities powered by the FTTH network, that could actually "instruct" a home to monitor temperatures, turn lights on and off, start dinner, answer the phone, and even call the police and fire department in emergencies.
"We anticipate that many Ironwood residents will use their FTTH access to telecommute, and take advantage of the online education, entertainment, and smart home services that will be available," said Shane Linse, president of Big Sky Communication & Cable. "The community intranet we are planning for Ironwood will connect community residents to each other, as well as to schools, businesses, city government, and other local resources."
Optical Solutions' FiberPath 400 system is based on a passive optical network (PON) architecture.