Gregory  McCray, CEO of Alphabet Access, the unit that oversees Google Fiber, has been appointed to the board of Adtran, the Huntsville, Ala.-based network equipment and software provider.

Adtran said the addition of McCray will help the vendor as it focuses on expanding Gigabit-class broadband speeds and supporting other areas such as smart cities, the Internet of Things and software-defined networking.

In February, Alphabet has tapped Gregory McCray as CEO of its Access division, taking over a role previously held by Craig Barratt and coming on board amid a restructuring at Google Fiber and a shift in focus toward less expensive wireless-based broadband alternatives.

RELATED: Google Fiber Taps New Leader Amid Restructuring

Prior to joining Alphabet, McCray was CEO of Aero Communications, chairman and CEO of PipingHot Networks, and an exec at Lucent Technologies. He is also a former board member of CenturyLink Communications.

“Over the past decade, the telecommunications market has undergone several fundamental shifts in terms of how networks are designed, services are developed and what types of organizations deliver those services. Greg brings tremendous management and international experience that will greatly benefit our team as we look to leverage these shifts to create shareholder and organizational value,” Thomas Stanton, chairman and CEO of Adtran, said in a statement. “The pace of change in our industry has accelerated, requiring more nimble and flexible approaches as we continue to drive innovation, expand our reach and transform the way people live, work and play. I believe that this is a perfect time for someone of Greg’s vision and experience to join our board.”

Taking more direct aim at the cable sector, Adtran announced this week it has acquired a set of “active” fiber access products from CommScope.

Products tied to the deal include CommScope’s active EPON and 10G-EPON platforms that support DOCSIS Provisioning of EPON, a CableLabs spec that enables MSOs to tie their provisioning systems to new EPON networks.

Adtran is also getting CommScope’s line of Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) products line, including versions equipped to mitigate optical beat interference (OBI)  that can impair performance when multiple modems attempt to communicate over the same fiber at the same time.

RFoG, now an SCTE standard, allows MSOs to deliver traditional RF-based video and data services over FTTP architectures while preserving their legacy backoffice systems. MSOs have been using RFoG in targeted situations such as low-density greenfields and rural deployments.

The deal gives Adtran, a top supplier of FTTP and DSL gear, including new 1-Gig-capable G.fast technology, a clearer path into the cable sector as MSOs continue update their networks and evolve toward more programmable architectures.

CommScope said the deal will also tighten its business focus.

“The transition of these active product lines to ADTRAN sharpens both companies’ focus to benefit our customers and the cable industry as a whole,” said Jim Hughes, CommScope’s vice president of North American MSO sales, said in a statement, noting that the company will continue to provide passive PON products to MSOs and other service operators.

“Our goal is to help our customers build and offer competitive broadband solutions, and this acquisition demonstrates our commitment to the MSO customer base,” added Robert Conger, Adtran’s associate vice president, cloud and portfolio strategy.

The deal also comes ahead of the SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo, set to kick off September 26  in Philadelphia. 

Setting its sights on a next-gen FTTP platform that can deliver 10 Gbps to the home, Verizon said it has tapped two vendors as it kicks off testing of NG-PON2 technology at its Innovation Lab in Waltham, Mass.

Later this month, Verizon will start to test equipment from Ericsson (in partnership with Calix) and Adtran. The tests will focus on NG-PON2 features such as tuning performance, the ability to carry residential and business services on the same platform, and interoperability and conformance tests against Verizon ONT specs.

The coming lab trials follow Verizon’s tests of NG-PON2 conducted in 2015 and the issuance of an RFP, holding then that the next-gen platform could “easily provide” symmetrical speeds of 10  Gbps to homes and business locations. 

Verizon noted that NG-PON2 supports up to 40-Gig of total capacity and up to 10 Gbps per customer, both up and down, on a single fiber.  Verizon said it plans to deploy NG-PON2 initially for business services in 2017, and then follow with residential rollouts “as the technology matures and the market demands.” The ITU-T approved NG-PON2 specs last year.

Verizon’s current high-end residential tier for Fios delivers 500 Mbps up and downstream; the telco has not announced when it might bump speeds up to 1-Gig to match up with the speeds being offered by AT&T (via GigaPower), Google Fiber, and various MSOs that are using DOCSIS 3.0 to offer downstream burst speeds approaching 1-Gig.

Verizon is also moving ahead with NG-PON2 as it braces for DOCSIS 3.1, a next-gen HFC platform that is capable of delivering multi-gigabit speeds. While the initial D3.1 specs envisioned capcities of 10-Gig down and at least 1-Gig up, a “full-duplex” flavor of D3.1 that can support high-capacity symmetrical speeds is under development at CableLabs.

Among MSOs, Comcast has kicked off advanced consumer trials of DOCSIS 3.1 in two markets – Atlanta and Nashville – and plans to expand the platform to three more markets (Chicago, Miami and Detroit) later this year.

Troy Cable has tapped Adtran to power a fiber-to-the-premises network that will deliver symmetrical 1 Gbps broadband service to more than 40,000 homes in southeast Alabama.

The GPON-powered service will reach more than 20 communities, the operator said. 

When bundled with other services, Troy Cable is selling its symmetrical FTTP-based broadband tiers as follows:

-50 Mbps down/50 Mbps up: $52.95/month

-200/200: $65.95/month

-500/500: $99.99/month

-1 Gbps/1 Gbps: $199.99/month

Pricing on stand-alone FTTP service was not immediately available.

Update: Here is the stand-alone pricing: 

-50/50: $105.90/month

-200/200: $131.90/month

-500/500: $199.98/month

-1-Gig/1-Gig: $399.98/month

“Our customers expect the fastest internet connection possible for telecommuting, video streaming, gaming and more. Add to that the growing number of devices in each household, launching a Gigabit Internet Service offering was a logical next step. We have the fiber infrastructure in place and are delivering the fastest, most reliable Gigabit service available in Alabama,” said Jake Cowen, general manager of Troy Cable, in a statement

“As Troy Cable remains dedicated to enhancing the community’s broadband infrastructure, they’re changing the way customers look at cable companies,” said Mitch Fleming, regional vice president, sales, ADTRAN Carrier Networks Division. “Beyond offering standard cable services, Troy Cable is thinking long-term by offering its customers a complete portfolio of solutions,” added Mitch Fleming, regional VP of sales for Adran’s Carrier Networks Division. “They are taking broadband service offering to the next level, as well as finding a competitive differentiator in a demanding marketplace.”

Broadband access tech specialist Adtran said it’s playing a significant role in the rise of 1-Gig deployments, claiming that its technology will help to enable more than 50 “Gigabit communities” by the end of the year, a figure it expects to quadruple by the end of 2015.

Adtran, which has launched a Web site – www.gigcommunities.net – to track and advocate 1-Gig developments, said its  architecture is being used by a variety of players, including tier-1 carriers, cable operators, utilities, municipalities and rural service providers.

Among those customers is C Spire, which is using Adtran gear for a fiber-to-the-home initiative that will span the Mississippi portion of its service area, and utilize a demand-driven “Get Fiber First” deployment model that borrows a page from the Google Fiber playbook

“Over the past year ADTRAN has worked with hundreds of service providers to introduce Gigabit services as part of our vision to help reinvent communities around the country,” said Jay Wilson, senior vice president and general manager of the company’s Carrier Networks Division. “ADTRAN’s Gigabit broadband platform will serve as the foundation for our partners’ community economic growth and development for years to come.”

“Gigabit broadband is quickly proving to be the economic catalyst in communities of all sizes around the country,” added Teresa Mastrangelo, principal analyst with Broadband Trends. “Beyond attracting new businesses and job creation, a robust broadband infrastructure can deliver improved education, healthcare and governmental services while also providing residents access to a wealth of new services and applications.”