The second largest Baby Bell plans to start network construction in the first quarter of 2005 and aims to make its new IP-based network available to 18 million households by the end of 2007, with TV services beginning in the fourth quarter of 2005.
SBC now estimates that the cost of the new network will be $4 billion, at the low end of its previous forecast of $4 billion to $6 billion. However because a significant portion of the spending will replace ongoing spending for the current network, the company says incremental capital expenditure will be relatively small.
San Antonio, Texas-based SBC sees project Lightspeed as enabling it to leapfrog existing telephone and cable TV networks. It is this notion that traditional phone companies, doomed to declining revenue as customers make increasing use of mobile phones, can transform themselves into organizations capable of delivering a rich array of media that has excited carriers worldwide.
Two technologies will be used in the new network. In existing neighborhoods, SBC plans to use an FTTN architecture. This takes fiber to within 3,000 feet of homes and, with the use of compression can deliver 20 to 25 megabits downstream SBC says this is sufficient to simultaneously deliver four streams of TV programming, fast Internet access and IP voice.
FTTP (fiber to the premises) will be used in new housing developments, as well as in some multi-dwelling units.
While the two architectures support the same services. SBC says FTTN deployment can be completed in one-fourth the time required for an FTTP overbuild and with about one-fifth the capital investment. When the project is complete in 2007 it expects to reach 17 million households with FTTN technology and nearly 1 million with FTTP.
Nothing as ambitious as SBC’s plan has been unveiled so far in Europe, though one of the biggest beneficiaries is Paris, France-based Alcatel SA, which beat Lucent to win a $1.7 billion contract to provide network equipment and video system integration services for Project Lightspeed.
