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Sprint North Supply this week is unveiling a distribution agreement with Scientific Atlanta that will mark one of its first large-scale deals with a traditional cable vendor while also adding some final pieces to its fiber-to-the-home portfolio.

Under terms of the deal, Sprint will distribute and provide logistical and ancillary services for SA's headend equipment and IP set-top boxes as well as the Prisma II high-density transmitter and host module. The company will use those products to "bookend" its agreements with FTTH vendors.

Currently Sprint distributes Optical Line Terminals for a number of vendors including Tellabs, Calix, Entrisphere and Optical Solutions. However, the company will continue exploring other options for its independent telco base.

"We're in active discussions with several vendors to make sure we have a complete suite of EPON, BPON and GPON options," said Brad Clark, vice president of marketing for Sprint North Supply. "This gives us a nice video headend though to go to market with."

For SA, the deal gives it a market entry strategy into the independent operating company (IOC) market where it has neither the sales history nor the resources. However, the company realizes IOCs are a fertile market that has been dominated so far by smaller headend vendors such as Tut Systems and Skystream Networks.

So far, the company has been partnering with other PON vendors but sees the Sprint agreement as a natural next step into the telco world.

"As we see more traction building up, this distribution agreement give us a much wider base of customers," said Paul Connelly, vice president and general manager of emerging businesses at Scientific-Atlanta.

On the show floor this week--or more appropriately outside the show--Sprint will incorporate the SA gear into its FTTx truck, which gives carriers a run down of the various deployment options.