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Aktino today announced its AK4000 Ethernet product, which allows carriers to offer 10 Mb/s to 25 Mb/s business-class services over up to 12,000 feet of copper.

The Ethernet in the First Mile solution is designed to fill in the gap between the 10 Mb/s market and the 45 Mb/s market, where carriers can't cost justify extending fiber networks. Currently carriers have a gulf between high-margin Ethernet over fiber service and low-bandwidth DS1 or Ethernet over DS1 HDSL-based solutions.

"Our theory is that is the biggest and most lucrative market for bonding," said Ben Culp, senior marketing communications manager.

Using four pairs, the AK4000 can provide a symmetrical 10 Mb/s Ethernet service up to 12,000 feet. With eight pairs, that rate can be more than doubled up to 25 Mb/s.

The company already started shipping the product last month, and it has been deployed with at least one top 10 independent telco and one competitive local exchange carrier in California. Aktino also is targeting the Tier 1 carriers that have a lot of rural territory but can't justify the expense of putting in significant fiber resources into those areas.

"The issue almost always comes down to capital expense," said Hossam Salib, co-founder and vice president of product marketing for Aktino. "[Trenching in fiber] barely starts to work in the business case at the DS3 (45 Mb/s) level."