SBC Speeds Up Its Fiber Optic Rollout

Trailing in its drive to bring fiber optic connections to its subscribers, SBC Communications has devised a new campaign to bring the high-speed broadband technology to more than 17 million homes by the end of 2007.

The former regional Bell operating company (RBOC) said Thursday that the first phase of the project will be completed by the fourth quarter of 2005 when IP-based TV services will be launched. Like Verizon Communications' fiber offerings already underway, SBC sees its Project Lightspeed competing with

cable offerings.

The firm said it will use two technologies to bring the high-speed broadband to customer sites " fiber to the premises (FTTP) and fiber to the node (FTTN.) FTTP will be utilized to reach about one million homes directly in new housing projects and in some large multi-dwelling units. FTTP is being used by Verizon to roll out IP broadband in states in its region. FTTP generally can reach speeds of 39 megabits downstream.

SBC is using FTTN to reach the lion's share of its targeted audience " 17 million homes " and the decision to use FTTN will trim costs and speed up deployment. "The company expects that FTTN deployment can be completed in one-fourth the time required for an FTTP overbuild and with about one-fifth the capital investment," the firm stated.

The entire fiber rollout will come in at about $4 billion " on the low end of the firm's previous estimate of $4 to $6 billion; the savings are attributed primarily to the use of FTTN, which involves bringing fiber to within 3000 feet of subscribers and then utilizing advanced compression techniques over existing copper lines to reach final destinations in homes, the firm said."FTTN is capable of delivering 20 to 25 megabits downstream," the company stated, "sufficient to simultaneously delive four streams of TV programming, including HDTV and Internet access with robust speeds, and IP voice."

SBC said it expects to spend another $1 billion in customer-activation capital expenditures. The states served by the RBOC include Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, and Wisconsin.