Oakland, CA — March 2, 2011 — Zhone Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ZHNE), a global pioneer in FTTx network access solutions, today announced that Myakka Communications, Inc. (Myakka), a broadband service provider to rural Manatee and Sarasota Counties, Fla., will deploy Zhone’s MXK™ intelligent Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) and Active Ethernet (AE) solutions to enable broadband services for 1,200 residential and business customers.
Myakka will leverage the Zhone MXK Optical Line Termination (OLT) in combination with Zhone Network Interface Device (zNID) Optical Network Terminal (ONTs) to deliver affordable and reliable high-speed Internet access, VoIP and in the future, advanced video services to residential customers, local businesses and schools.
“We are thrilled to partner with Zhone for the use of our broadband stimulus funds, to ensure a smooth transition for our customers and deliver ongoing exceptional, local service,” said Charles Matson, chief executive officer, Myakka. “Zhone was the clear front-runner when evaluating fiber access partners, especially given their advanced FTTx offerings and the flexibility and functionality of the Zhone EZ Touch Provisioning system. The fact that they’re a U.S.-based company and actually offer local manufacturing and support in Largo, Fla., just miles from our headquarters, was also important to us.”
All of the design and manufacturing of Zhone’s MXK platform and zNIDs, the primary fiber access solutions being used in this Myakka deployment, are being completed at Zhone’s manufacturing facility in Largo. The economic benefits of choosing a partner with local production operations are tremendous for both Myakka and its customers.
“While Zhone does have extensive reach in international markets, we remain very committed to supporting the broadband goals here at home. We are pleased that we’re able to work with customers such as Hardy Telecommunications, Shawnee Telephone, Yadkin Valley Telephone and now Myakka to maximize the investment being made with our nation’s broadband stimulus program and ensure Americans in even the most rural service areas have access to the most advanced voice, video and data services available today,” emphasized Brian Caskey, chief marketing officer for Zhone. “Zhone customers benefit from our consultative partnership approach to ensure their fiber strategy matches the government’s national broadband vision while also providing services that are best for their communities.”
Zhone has leveraged the best practices learned from other global customer projects to perfect a technology and operational strategy that capitalizes on the complexity of multi-service access, effectively creating the industry’s most inclusive FTTx solutions portfolio. Specifically, the Zhone MXK platform is built to adapt to Myakka’s specific field requirements for maximum cost savings and service differentiation.
The capabilities of Zhone’s MXK platform allow Myakka to support the extreme bandwidth demands generated by multiple high-definition television (HDTV) screens, high definition digital video recorder (HD-DVR) content and video streaming within the home. The MXK’s future-proof design and Zhone EZ Touch Provisioning minimizes customer impact and installation time during the rollout of both current services and advanced services added later.
Zhone has deployed over 1000 of its fully redundant, carrier-grade all-IP MXK platforms with more than 100 service providers globally. Featuring industry-leading density, scalability and switching capacity, the MXK is the industry’s first terabit access concentrator and provides non-blocking capacity of up to 3,600 100 Mbps GPON subscribers or 360 1G Active Ethernet subscribers.
For more information about Zhone’s MXK solution or to learn more about the other solutions offered in the new Zhone FiberHome™ portfolio, please visit http://www.zhone.com/products/MXK/ or http://www.zhone.com/solutions/fttn/.
