Critical Telecom said it has signed a multi-year global agreement with Ericsson, under which Ericsson will integrate Critical's line-powered GEmini Remote Ethernet DSLAM into its Ethernet DSL Access portfolio.

Aimed at carriers providing broadband access services including IP video, the agreement gives Critical an important distribution channel to reach beyond its traditional independent telco market in the U.S.

"Groups like SBC and larger RBOCs typically make decisions based on relationships and this can only help us," said Nancy Macartney, who was named president and CEO of Critical last week.

Though in the works for several months, the agreement is the first arrangement on Macartney's watch and indicative of the direction the company will go. Macartney, a 25-year telecom veteran, was promoted to her current position from vice president of operations. Previously, she was the vice president of supply chain management for Ciena.

Among the goals for Critical is scaling the 24-port GEmini platform to handle increasingly larger deployments while also figuring out a way for carriers to use it in small configurations such as a 12-port unit.

"On the one hand we can subtend or daisy chain them up to 192 ports, but we also see more demand coming from the smaller deployments," she said.

Additionally, the company is looking at developing a VDSL2 version of the product, a move that would open up the potential market. Currently, the DSLAM provides ADSL2+ bandwidth using Gigabit Ethernet. The VDSL2 version will retain many of the characteristics of the ADSL2+ DSLAM.

"The time line [for VDSL2] is totally gated by the chip suppliers," Macartney said. "We're using the Broadcom chip set and they're looking at a summer or late spring delivery date. With some minor changes in electronics we can deliver the same footprint."