Oakland, CA — November 16, 2011 — Zhone Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZHNE), a global leader in FTTx network access solutions, today announced that it is working with Grand River Mutual Telephone Corporation, Missouri’s second largest independent operator, to build a new fiber network that will support delivery of more affordable and reliable high-speed Internet access, VoIP and video services to residential and business subscribers.
The unmatched flexibility and scalability of the Zhone MXK™ platform and its ability to provide Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON), Active Ethernet (AE) and VDSL2 connectivity in facilitating network and service upgrades to FTTH has been repeatedly demonstrated in similar broadband projects throughout the United States. The greenfield fiber point-to-point (P2P) AE network, managed through Zhone’s MXK platform, will benefit Grand River Mutual Telephone residential customers with wire-speed gigabit connectivity to enable a higher quality of media experience with multiple high-definition television (HDTV) channels, high-definition digital video recorder (HD-DVR) content and video streaming within the home.
“With more than 15,000 access lines spanning Northern Missouri and Southern Iowa, we needed a fiber access vendor with superior scale and effective network management capabilities,” said Wendel Myers, general manager of Grand River Mutual Telephone. “The increased density, scale and performance provided by the Zhone MXK, and zNID™ ONTs address our network complexity and challenges. This new fiber network allows us to provide advanced communications and connectivity to our residential and business customers. The benefit for service providers like us is that a full range of delivery mediums can be deployed side by side in the MXK which limits the cost of network upgrades and ongoing broadband deployments.”
“Similar to many of our North American customers, Grand River Mutual Telephone needed a fiber access solution with high performance attributes to meet the changing needs of its customers,” explained Brian Caskey, chief marketing officer for Zhone. “Flexibility, scalability and ease of use are some core functionalities of the MXK that resonate with service providers, and have ultimately made it one of the leading solutions for FTTH deployments globally.”
Zhone has extensive experience managing the complexity of multi-service access and, as a result, has built the telecom industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of scalable FTTx solutions. The MXK’s feature set aligns well with Grand River Mutual Telephone’s specific field requirements, enabling Zhone to provide optimum cost efficiency and maximum service differentiation in the operator’s network in combination with the zNID Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) that will be installed at the residence and business sites to support individual subscriber service needs.
To date, Zhone has deployed more than 2,600 of its fully redundant, carrier-grade all-IP MXK platforms with more than 150 service providers in more than 40 countries globally. Zhone’s MXK platform is a fully redundant, carrier-grade all-IP platform and the industry’s first terabit access concentrator. Featuring industry-leading density, scalability and switching capacity, the MXK provides non-blocking capacity of up to 3,600 100 Mbps GPON subscribers or 360 1G Active Ethernet subscribers.
