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Tellabs has mitigated what had been a concern raised by some industry observers about multivendor FTTP interoperability by announcing at Supercomm that it is launching its optical networking terminal interoperability initiative. The program, which will allow Tellabs ONTs to interoperate with other vendors' optical line terminals, initially will cover broadband passive optical network technology, though Tellabs also plans to eventually address gigabit PON and Ethernet PON interoperability as the markets for these platforms continue to emerge.

Mike O'Malley, group manager of portfolio marketing at Tellabs, said the company had based its interoperability program on compliance with International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and Full Service Access Network (FSAN) standards. "We want carriers to be able to pick and choose the vendors that they want to work with," O'Malley said, adding that Tellabs already is testing ONT/OLT interoperability with several vendors that it invited into the program based on feedback from its carrier customers. O'Malley declined to identify those vendors.

About five months ago, after Tellabs acquired Vinci, engineering consultancy CHR Solutions and a few financial analysts had wondered if Tellabs might try to steer carriers away from deploying its ONT with OLTs from other competing vendors. The new interoperability initiative appears to put those concerns to rest with good intentions. "The Vinci deal was a very natural progression for Tellabs to make," O'Malley said.

Tellabs actually participated in an FSAN interoperability demonstration held this week on the show floor. FSAN is a forum for the world's leading telecommunications service providers and equipment suppliers to work toward a common goal of truly broadband access networks.

"Both FSAN and the ITU are doing work on specifications, but they have left it up to the vendors to certify interoperability," O'Malley said. "Tellabs has been a proponent of that kind of interoperability for a long time."

In related news, Sprint North Supply and Alltel Communications Products have agreed to distribute Tellabs' ONT equipment. The respective companies, two of the largest North American distributors of access equipment, will exclusively sell Tellabs' ONT products for multi-vendor OLT installations.