PON can be used to get in and out of local gateways and DLCs, since they will support fiber connections in a next-generation buildout scenario like Project Pronto. PON is very much on the minds of the RBOCs, although little is deployed just yet. ILECs will kick in during the second half of 2001. One PON criterion is the availability of fiber. This also raises the issue of local dark-fiber unbundling, which is something we have rarely seen.
PONs make sense for carriers that have fiber in the ground.
Digging up the street to lay new fiber for a PON is probably not an effective business case. Quantum is also in trials with Comcast, a cable TV provider. However, these trials have been ongoing since spring 1999. With this approach, the optical access switches terminating each PON fiber tree are colocated in a convenient location. A combined SPOP offers a CLEC an easy platform for deploying local data services, such as transparent LAN services, from the PON access tree.