US Sonet

"Wave7 Optics products have truly performed and when there have been issues to resolve, their response has been overwhelming."

John D. Andrews
President
US Sonet LLC, IL

Situation - Based in Salem, Illinois, US SONET and their wholly-owned subsidiaries provide local and long distance telephone, Internet, and cable television services to thousands of subscribers throughout Southern Illinois. During their search in 2002 for the best premium broadband service for their customers, they too decided the benefits-to-cost situation for FTTP was becoming too attractive to ignore, so they began to explore their options with the leading vendors of optical broadband access equipment.

Prospects - As neither the cable television nor the “incumbent” telephone company offered broadband service at the time, US SONET knew it was tapping into a lot of pent-up demand. Furthermore, US SONET’s business case was enhanced by their ability to tap into an existing SONET ring backbone network – a feature that not only provides optical infrastructure, but “state-of-the-art” network protection as well – an important “QoS” benefit for their eventual FTTP customers. In the course of evaluating the various bids to their RFP, US SONET quickly confirmed what they had suspected from the beginning – that an all-fiber system is faster and more reliable than the copper or coaxial systems used by traditional cable and telephone companies. Its capacity enables companies to deliver many more services with fewer employees and less maintenance.

Solution - "In the process of choosing the Last Mile Link as our optical access product, we were looking for a platform technology to differentiate ourselves and a technology that will grow with us,” said John Andrews, President of US SONET. “Wave7 effectively showed how their infrastructure would support everything we want to do now and in the future. HFC and DSL architectures cannot support the services we plan to offer and competing ATM-based optical systems come up short when it comes to ‘usable bandwidth’ per subscriber.”

During the initial network rollout, the cost to connect each customer premise ran about $2,000, which, according to an article in the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch” newspaper of May 29, 2003, was a figure comparable to the cost of hybrid fiber-coaxial networks, like the upgrade one of the leading MSOs in the country was installing in the St. Louis area at the time. The cost for US SONET has since fallen.

And, with their selection of the Last Mile Link System, US SONET became one of the first service providers of any type in the state to offer “fiber-to-the-home” services. This distinction quickly paid off as real estate developers in the area learned about US SONET’s new capabilities and inquired about extending the FTTP network to housing developments under construction.

Current Situation - The original business plan called for “passing” all 2,865 homes and 391 businesses of Salem by the end of 2004. They are now concluding the build out of Salem IL with over 1,200 active subscribers – just now they are completing some of the more difficult runs in their overbuild. With their 2nd marketing blitz now underway, they expect to have more than 2,000 customers within 2006. US SONET currently offers residential subscribers a triple play of telephone, symmetrical high-speed Internet and different tiers of RF video service – more than 200 channels and 50 premium channels in some instances. Enterprise subscribers benefit from bandwidth-on-demand service, multiple phone line connections, and other features needed for “mission critical” business operations.

US SONET and Wave7 Optics are now expanding the network to additional Illinois communities as well as one large 4,500 green field home development. Plans are being finalizing to reach an additional 59 towns under the company name "Fiber50". These 59 towns along the Hwy 50 corridor will be offered a triple play featuring IP video. US SONET intends to complete this build out within 18 months utilizing Bechtel Construction Company for turn-key construction and project management.

“The network has proven very useful in improving our voter and election related operations here, among other things,” said Steve Bailey, County Clerk of Marion County, Illinois. “We have much quicker communications with State officials and it’s a big time saver overall. With this network, I feel that US SONET has taken our small community and put us at the forefront of technology. Not only does everything work great, but the billing is simplified and much improved. When things work more efficiently, it saves time and money for the taxpayers.”