Verizon exec talks up FTTP

A Fiber to the Premises RFP, which seeks equipment for broadband services over fiber, is expected to be issued next week by three regional Bell operating companies. Some say FTTP eventually will overtake DSL as the broadband access service of choice for subscribers and service providers. One of those believers is Verizon. Verizon Network Services President Paul Lacouture sat down with Jim Duffy, managing editor of The Edge at Network World, at last week's SuperComm exhibition to discuss this topic.

Is FTTP a catalyst for turning around the telecom industry?

I think it is. I don't think it's an overnight thing. I think DSL and cable modem changed a lot of the industry but that took a few years to get rolling. You'll see the same thing here.

It opens up that last mile. It opens up the bandwidth to the home, to the small business. Once you have what is very, very high bandwidth to the customer, then it's going to make a lot more bandwidth necessary on the backbone, it's going to allow a lot more applications to be developed.

It lifts all the boats that are in that whole field, from an applications side, to an equipment side, from a backbone infrastructure side. I really think it has that kind of [effect]. And you have a chance to start fresh on the regulatory side. You'll design products and services around the market vs. around [policy].

Do you expect the FCC's Triennial Review to come out in favor of these buildouts?

Yes I do. I expect that it will provide a lot of clarity around, if you build new networks, you build broadband, you build packet switches or IP switches, you'll have new rules. I'm very confident about that.

Wasn't this what DSL was supposed to do when RBOCs issued their last joint RFP in 1996?

DSL had a single focus: high-speed Internet access. DSL's been almost single-product-type technology. It doesn't do anything in terms of modernizing the outside plant. As a matter of fact, it adds complexity to the outside plant because you're adding more electronics.

When you put fiber all the way to the premises, you modernize your outside plant, you change your ability in terms of how you operate not only a data network but your voice network, and it gives you the video capability. So it's a much different play than DSL.

Some analysts believe that passive optical networking will become the next DSL. Does it threaten to cannibalize your DSL business, or do you want it to?

We want it to over time. In the near term - we're spending a lot of money on DSL this year, there's a lot of improvement. When you're doing a PON build it takes time to build that architecture. There's a lot of life left in DSL but over time you'll be migrating customers to the fiber network.

The good thing about DSL is a lot of the money that's been invested is reusable - as you put PON in one place you can move the electronics around. If I've got a [central office] that has PON in it and the one next to it is DSL and still growing DSL customers, I'll stop purchasing DSL but I'll reuse the inventory over where I'm growing DSL.