Like many independents, NDTel is deploying fiber-to-the-premises. Based in Devils Lake, N.D., the company has launched a two-phase buildout using Allied Telesyn's access gear. Unlike most telcos, though, the company has opted to use an active Ethernet system versus the passive optical network architecture.

“We started construction in August, and we're doing probably 1000 premises in phase one, which is this year,” said Richard Ellison, network services manager for NDTel. “We'll do an additional 2200 in phase two next year.”

NDTel decided to use active Ethernet largely because it wanted the opportunity to offer bandwidth beyond what copper could provide, he said. Currently, NDTel faces off with Midcontinent Cable in Devils Lake. In areas where copper is in good shape, the company is providing a 4 Mb/s service (with 500 kb/s upstream).

In the FTTP areas, though, it wants to go up to 100 Mb/s, and active Ethernet made that easier.

“The mathematics were a little more logical with the active solution,” Ellison said. “This product is easy for us to manage all the way into the home. It's just so versatile, and the deliverable bandwidth isn't shared until quite a bit back in the network.”

In a PON architecture, bandwidth is split multiple times before it hits the home. Most existing telco FTTP deployments are PON because carriers believe it is more cost effective. Conversely, many municipalities have opted for active solutions, believing they offer greater bandwidth in situations where penetration rates are high, said James Mustarde, vice president of marketing for Allied Telesyn.

Allied, though, has seen increased interest from telcos as they begin to do more long-range planning.

“The real driving force is that PON is not nearly as scalable as active solutions,” Mustarde said. “The bandwidth requirement for building and scaling a network plays very significantly into the decisions you make.”

The counter argument in favor of PONs is that as users begin signing up for high-end access services, the cost of providing enough bandwidth at aggregation points increases, cutting further into margins.

Mustarde defends against such assertions by noting that the cost of transport from aggregation points is continually dropping. Moreover, the objective in providing high-speed data isn't always to make it the most profitable service.

“A lot of the IOCs are very happy with adoption rates lower than 50%, but the long-term objective is to stop erosion of voice revenue,” he said. “What they're really looking to do is see a retention in customers who are moving to other voice services.”

For NDTel, that line of thinking makes perfect sense. Initially, the company will offer voice and data services over the FTTP network, but it's definitely contemplating other parts of the bundle.

“It's not for video, but that's probably in our future,” Ellison said. “It's definitely been mentioned.”