Bristol, Tennessee goes super high-speed with 1 Gigabit broadband network

BRISTOL, Tenn. and PARIS, Nov. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Bristol Tennessee Essential Services (BTES) and Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris andNYSE: ALU) today announced that 1 Gigabit broadband service is now available to all of BTES' 33,000 residential and business electric customers. 

Powered by Alcatel-Lucent's Gigabit passive optical network (GPON) technology, Bristol's network will accommodate speeds of up to 1 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps), which is 10 times faster than the FCC's National Broadband Plan calling for 100 Mbps speeds for 100 million households nationwide by 2020.

"Bristol now has one of the fastest, totally built out networks in the United States. To give an example of how fast, you can download about two hours of video or upwards of 200 songs in just six seconds," said Dr. Michael Browder, CEO of BTES. "For our residential customers, that means one person in the household can download a movie, while another is playing an online game, while another is watching an HDTV program – all without slowing down any of the activities. For our business customers, it opens the way for transporting and accessing 'big data', which is critical for economic development of the area."

One Gigabit service also has tremendous benefits for education, from elementary through university levels.  For example, an elementary school located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains is combining SMART Board Technology and BTES' Gigabit service to offer virtual field trips to learn about other parts of the world.  Recently, a classroom of 20 eight-year-olds "travelled" to Egypt to learn about the pyramids assisted by their own on-site tour guide. 

"Alcatel-Lucent and BTES have a long-standing relationship, and are committed to putting the Bristol community at the forefront of high-speed, high-tech communications for consumers, schools and businesses alike," said Robert Vrij, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Americas region and head of Global Strategic Alliances.  "Our long-time collaboration to bring this network to Bristol speaks volumes about the confidence they have in our technology, our expertise, our global leadership and our ability to help create one of the world's most advanced high-speed broadband access networks."

About BTES' 1 Gigabit network

Using Alcatel-Lucent's GPON-enabled 7342 ISAM FTTU optical line terminals (OLTs) and optical network terminals (ONTs), BTES is able to provide voice, video and data services up to one Gigabit per second. BTES' OLTs connect to a 10 Gigabit backbone via Alcatel-Lucent's 7450 ESS switches and are aggregated through a pair of 7750 BSR routers to 10 Gigabits of Internet capacity. BTES' ONTs are capable of providing advanced IPTV video services along with traditional cable television, telephone and up to one Gigabit per second of Internet bandwidth.

About BTES

Bristol Tennessee Essential Services (BTES) is a municipally-owned electric utility that also provides high-speed Internet, telephone, and cable television services over a fiber optic network. BTES has more than 33,000 electric customers in a 280-square-mile service area in the City of Bristol and Sullivan County, Tennessee. BTES' fiber optic system has allowed them to do many things with electric service that were unheard of just a few short years ago. Those customers with fiber services to their homes have automatic power outage detection, meaning that they do not need to make a telephone call if their power goes out. In addition, the system provides automatic meter reading and theft detection. BTES also offers additional products and services through a Water Heater Load Management Program, a Heat Pump Program and an Energy Savings Loan Program.

For more information, visit www.btes.net.

ABOUT ALCATEL-LUCENT (EURONEXT PARIS ANDNYSE: ALU)
The long-trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a leading innovator in the field of networking and communications technology, products and services. The company is home to Bell Labs, one of the world's foremost research centers, responsible for breakthroughs that have shaped the networking and communications industry. Alcatel-Lucent was named one of MIT Technology Review's 2012 Top 50 list of the "World's Most Innovative Companies" for breakthroughs such as lightRadio™, which cuts power consumption and operating costs on wireless networks while delivering lightning fast Internet access. Through such innovations, Alcatel-Lucent is making communications more sustainable, more affordable and more accessible as we pursue our mission - Realizing the Potential of a Connected World.

With operations in more than 130 countries and one of the most experienced global services organizations in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The Company achieved revenues of Euro 15.3 billion in 2011 and is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.

For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow the Company on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.

SOURCE Alcatel-Lucent