Optical Solutions today unveiled what it believes is a quantum leap forward in optical access technology with a gigabit passive optical network. It also might be a path for the small vendor into the big time fiber to the premises game.

The company’s FP500 platform, designed after its APON and BPON implementations that have been deployed by a few dozen independent telcos, is aimed specifically at the mass-market deployments being contemplated by larger carriers, said Peter Jew, vice president of marketing for Optical Solutions. The platform follows the specific recommendations contained in the ITU’s FSAN (Full Service Access Network) G.984 GPON document.

At the speeds-and-feeds level, GPONs provide a different framing from BPONs that makes it more cost effective to go to higher speed implementations up to 1.2 Gb/s downstream and 622 Mb/s upstream. EPONs, by contrast, become significantly more expensive when they are required to provide anything beyond 622 Mb/s downsteam and 155 Mb/s upstream, said Jew. That makes GPONs more capable of providing video (the down) and business services (the up) than EPONs. Additionally, GPON supports all native TDM voice services.

“GPON also has a very clean path from ATM to an all-IP environment,” said Jew. “[The FP500] is specifically built for the mass market from a cost perspective. I’m making a challenge with the fact that on day one, GPON is the same price as EPON.”

According to company estimates, large-scale deployments of FTTP will be down to about $1400 per line by next year and around $1200 per line in 2005. Those estimates include labor, construction and electronics.

Whether the company can move into the larger carrier market remains to be seen. So far, Minneapolis-based Optical Solutions has done a tidy business with small telcos, claiming more than 45 “fiber powered” communities and 17,000 subscriber units shipped. However, moving into the big time will take more than a good technology that scores well with independents.

Earlier this summer, the company signed a marketing alliance with Next Level Communications. However, Jew said Optical Solutions also has a big brother partner to help in its bid for the big RBOC FTTP business and other large contracts, but won’t reveal that name for now.

Additionally, while claiming the FP500 is now in its first office application trials, the company is waiting a few weeks to name carrier customers.

“We believe we’re going to cause a technical discontinuity in the market,” Jew said.