ADTRAN Connects Operators to Smart-Home Opportunity

ADTRAN today thrust open the door to smart homes for operators looking to build on their existing relationships with residential subscribers.

ADTRAN unveiled a whole-home mesh WiFi solution; expanded its 10G PON portfolio and integrated SmartRG tools into its Mosaic Subscriber Experience Suite to simplify smart-home management for service providers. The company made the announcements during the first day of ADTRAN Connect, the annual two-day press and analyst event the broadband access vendor hosts at its Huntsville, Ala.-based headquarters.

With Intellifi model SE80ac, SmartRG's turnkey mesh WiFi solution, providers can deliver speedy, intuitive and reliable broadband across subscribers' homes, according to ADTRAN. The wall-pluggable and compact mesh access point allows end-users to roam around their residences without losing connectivity, even in former dead zones.

This consistent connectivity improves subscriber experience, reducing service calls about WiFi and curtailing dissatisfaction in operator services, even though poor WiFi often has more to do with incompatible devices, users' poor placement of access points or other issues unrelated to a provider's fixed-access network, said SmartRG Chief Technology Officer David La Cagnina.

"We all recognize gigabit is here, it's out there. The real challenge is who actually can get a real gigabit connection in their home?" he said. "The answer is only if you use a wired connection. Operators have spent so much building up their networks to build up gigabit networks to the prem, and then what happens? Subscribers connect via WiFi at the prem. Our operator customers tell us they need solutions that make sense out of the mesh mess."

ADTRAN acquired SmartRG in December 2018. (See ADTRAN Buys Connected Home Dev SmartRG.)

In addition to the whole-home mesh WiFi solution, ADTRAN's integration of SmartRG tools into Mosaic Subscriber Experience Suite gives operators insight into home networks. This empowers operators to see how, why and where residential customers have problems, and can prevent problems from occurring in the first place, ADTRAN Chairman and CEO Tom Stanton told Broadband World News. In addition to reducing -- or cutting -- costly truck rolls, this insight reduces customer service calls and shortens any customer contact with call centers since technicians can pinpoint problems much more readily, he said.

Finally, ADTRAN expanded its 600-Series of 10G PON ONTs. This move includes the SDX 620s & 640s XGS-PON and 10G EPON SFP+ ONUs, designed to simplify service delivery, the vendor said. In addition, these new PONs allow operators to set up flexible WAN technology options for SFP-based residential gateways, and give providers various 1G and 10G Ethernet port options with integrated carrier-class VoIP and built-in optics for residential applications, according to ADTRAN.

"10G PON delivers the service quality and reach we need to maximize the revenue opportunities across all of our of markets, including the residential, business and industrial segments, delivering a robust multi-gigabit service structure that exceeds our customers' expectations," said Sven Huster, engineering director at UK altnet Zzoomm, in a statement.

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— Alison Diana, Editor, Broadband World News. Follow us on Twitter or @alisoncdiana.