Critical Telecom, a privately held company based in Ottawa, introduced its Full Rate Extended DSL (FRED) platform designed to transparently extend DSL up to 82 kft (25 km) from telecom providers’ central offices. The platform comprises central office and outside plant equipment. ADSL data streams from a central office-based DSLAM are converted into a multiplexed optical signal and, using 1 or 10-Gigabit transport components, the optical signal is sent from the central office to an existing cross-connect cabinet. At the outside plant cabinet, the electrical signal is reconstructed and demultiplexed, restoring the original ADSL signals for distribution to subscribers over existing copper connections. FRED uses digital transmission so that ADSL signal quality is not affected by fiber-optic cable length.
Critical Telecom said its platform supports full-rate 8 Mbps ADSL for tiered and broadcast services to all customers simultaneously. The system is DSLAM independent and does not require new environmentally hardened enclosures, concrete pad or power trenching. The company believes its Full Rate Extended DSL will be substantially less expensive than remote DSLAMs.
Separately, Critical Telecom announced US$12.7 million in new funding. The financing was led by VenGrowth Capital Partners Inc. Other investors include TELUS Ventures, Business Development Bank of Canada, and Crown Ventures Fund Inc.
http://www.criticaltelecom.com
