In an effort to be recognized as the leading supplier of advanced voice and broadband access solutions, AFC this quarter launched a new campaign and brand positioning tagged “AFC — The Acronym for Access.”
The $1 million effort encompasses national trade and business print and online advertising, targeted customer programs and a redesigned Web site (www.afc.com), among other initiatives.
AFC’s ads will appear in Fortune magazine as well as trade magazines Telephony and xchange. AFC is also running online advertisements with Telephony, The Wall Street Journal and newsletters including USTA’s Telecom dailyLead.
The company also plans to promote its campaign through new technology, public relations, trade shows and internal initiatives, says Teresa Novak, AFC’s director of marketing communications.
Calise and Sedei, based in Dallas, is designing the campaign.
“The goal of this is to clearly articulate AFC’s position in the marketplace,” Novak says. “We’re the largest U.S. business solely focused on access. We just want to clarify our position. It’s a good time to be talking about this and to be talking about solutions. It’s not about boxes anymore.”
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| Two advertisements from AFC’s new campaign. | |
AFC says it is one of the earliest and now largest manufacturers solely focused on network access. The company reports it now has more than 800 customers, including IOCs, ILECs and RBOCs.
John Schofield, chairman, president and CEO of AFC, says carriers are approaching a “critical crossroads, spurred by competitive pressure, the need for additional sources of revenue, and subscriber demand for new features and services but at lower price points.
“The beginnings of the broadband home are already apparent: The proliferation of home theaters, personal video recorders, MP3 servers and new video delivery services are just the first markers of the information economy to come,” Schofield says. “We’re making clear that AFC is shorthand for pure-play access solutions that will make this happen. AFC stands for excellence and innovation in the access network.”
AFC notes that the access portion of the network has become key given the heightened interest around the triple-play offer of bundled voice, video and high-speed data services; the highly publicized push by Verizon, BellSouth and SBC for FTTP solutions; and the growing trend by large incumbent carriers to migrate to packet voice. AFC says it is well positioned to take advantage of these opportunities.
Verizon — the RBOC that seems to be the most serious about deploying FTTP in a significant way — recently tapped AFC to provide the central office and premises optical electronics for its FTTP project. Verizon’s initial deployment plans involve passing about 1 million homes with the new technology in 2004, with the deployment pace potentially doubling in 2005.
AFC is providing Verizon with its FiberDirect FTTP solution. The FTTP product is an enhancement to its popular AccessMAX product line. The new FiberDirect FTTP enables service providers to utilize their existing investments in the AccessMAX, which has more than 100,000 shelves and more than 8 million lines deployed with carriers industry-wide.
Every AccessMAX that AFC has shipped since 1996 can be upgraded to FiberDirect. That means service providers with existing AccessMAX products not only maximize use of their existing boxes, but also can easily convert customers from copper to fiber and can leverage the time they’ve put into tech training, processes and support systems already in place to support AccessMAX. FiberDirect supports PON, IP voice or TDM voice in a single shelf.
AFC also provides a variety of other solutions including DSL, telco video, network management and outside plant equipment and professional services.
And in early January, AFC announced an agreement to acquire North American Access, a business unit of Marconi Communications Inc., for $240 million in cash. The company says the pending acquisition supports its strategy to expand its optical access portfolio and serve the needs of large carriers including the RBOCs and other large North American incumbents.
While AFC doesn’t sell softswitches or gateways for voice over packet deployment, Corey Geiger, vice president of marketing, says the company is working with other vendors that are providing such solutions. “We’re showing our AccessMAX solution can interwork with some of those folks,” says Geiger. “We don’t have the softswitch, but most vendors that have softswitches don’t have a way to allow people with [traditional] phones to talk to it.”
