----- Original Message -----

From: "Scott Helms" <khelms@zcorum.com>

I'm spotty on mailing lists since most of my time is spent building these kinds of networks.

Showoff. :-)

1) Talk to more vendors than just Calix, especially if they're quoting their Ethernet density on the C7. Also, keep in mind that port density may or may not be relevant to your situation since space for muni shelves isn't usually a problem. Port density is much more important if you're deploying in existing telco enclosures but muni networks tend (not universally of course) to reuse existing city infrastructure building to house the nodes of their network. Please note that I am not reccomending against Calix, they're a good solution in many cases, but AE is not a strong point on the C7. The E7 and the B series, which is the old Occam product, is much better than the C7. For that matter I wouldn't consider doing a new build on the C7 since that platform's EoL can't be too far in the future.

I hope I said "E7"; it's what I meant to say. Yes, I wasn't going to stop at Calix; I'm just juggling budgetary type numbers at the moment; I'll have 3 or 4 quotes before I go to press. It's a 36 month project just to beginning of build, at this point, likely. Assuming I get the gig at all.

2) I have no idea who told you this, but this is completely and utterly incorrect in nationwide terms. If you have a specific layer 3 provder in mind that tells you they want a GPON hand off then that's fine, but ISPs in general don't know what GPON is and have no gear to terminate that kind of connection.

Other people here, said it. If nothing else, it's certainly what the largest nationwide FTTH provider is provisioning, and I suspect it serves more passings than anything else; possibly than everything else. But it doesn't matter either way, except in cross-connects between my MDF and my colo cages; except for GPONs apparent compatibility with RF CATV delivery (which I gather, but have not researched) is just block-upconvert, I don't care either way; there's no difference in the plant buildout. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA #natog +1 727 647 1274