What are the alternatives for provisioning broadband access? The answer to this question is never obvious since the term "broadband" keeps changing. No longer is it ISDN, or even T1. With the advent of High Definition TV, the Cable Modem and ADSL options are at best, "honorary members" of the Broadband club, but no longer on the active roll. Wireless options may also have a role, but "cold spots" and other physical barriers still need to be addressed. Currently, the only effective options available to carriers for high quality and reliable broadband access service are those that are fiber based.

We believe that on average, bandwidth requirements for most homes and businesses will soon be at levels requiring Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP). In some cases, Fiber-to-the-Node (FTTN) and copper to the premises may provide adequate bandwidth for a period of time. Amedia, for example, offers a VDSL FTTN solution that can deliver from 20 Mbps up to 100 Mbps. However these performance characteristics are highly dependent on distances. Fortunately, with Amedia's FTTN solution, when subscriber demand materializes, carriers can economically upgrade their nodes to our ESON Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) solution by simply swapping line cards without replacing the rest of the AS5000.