Fiber to the “X.” That description says it all about this nascent but increasingly important network architecture for telecom service providers. The “X” represents not uncertainty, but flexibility. It represents the myriad options service providers have as to how to design their fiber deployments, and it represents the distinctiveness of each carrier's decision. How any given carrier opts to fill in the “X” — with premises, node, curb, home or some other destination — is an individual decision that should be based on current network configuration, investment variables, target customers, intended applications and many other issues.

The intent of this Telephony special report on FTTx is to examine those factors in depth and to analyze how several carriers — each faced with very different circumstances in their networks and with their target customers — are addressing them. This section is intended to serve as a resource to readers who may be grappling with these very choices, or who may be at various stages of FTTx construction themselves and want to learn more about the options other service providers are taking.

On the following pages, we drill down into the many variables of FTTx deployment, examining what technology options best suit networks of various ages and in various stages of evolution. Given the existing state of networks and the technology decisions that have been made for them to date, what are the smartest, most economical and most viable choices to be made regarding fiber in the access network?

We also explore the resulting services that can be offered based on the deployment of different FTTx alternatives. Is a service provider's ultimate goal to be able to offer IPTV applications and compete with the embedded video service providers, or does an FTTx deployment have other drivers altogether? What are some of the other next-generation services that an FTTx architecture potentially makes possible? What are the revenue and competitive implications of those new services? These are critical considerations that must be determined through careful planning when making architecture decisions that will have network and service ramifications for years — even decades.

Throughout these pages, we also chronicle three very different FTTx experiences: One with Verizon Communications, one with OptiNet Communications and one with TDS Telecom. The decisions these service providers are making regarding FTTx should provide valuable insight to readers facing similar — or, in some cases, very different — circumstances. We also provide commentary from Vince Vittore, executive editor of Telephony, about the long-term implications of the important FTTx choices carriers are now making.

Decisions surrounding FTTx deployment are indeed some of the most important that today's telecom service providers face. The content that follows in this special section is meant to help shed more light on the outcome of and opportunities created by the selection of different architectural designs for FTTx rollout — the various options that exist for filling in the “X.”