BBO, which was launched in July 1999 by a venture capital firm and some of the country's largest real estate companies, provides access to services such as local, long-distance and wireless, as well as Internet access. The provider's footprint spans 20 percent of all the commercial office space in the United States.
BBO executives say they will deploy ASC's A-1240 throughout BBO's nationwide network to speed the delivery of next-generation services to hundreds of BBO buildings by year-end. BBO is installing ASC's platforms to create a "micro" CO that can facilitate delivery of high-speed, bundled voice, data and application services to individual businesses within a building or office park. ASC's system-in-a-box aggregates multiple services onto an optimized high-speed connection into BBO's network.
"ASC's unique product architecture packs the functionality and flexibility we need into a compact and scalable product line," said Johnson Agogbua, BBO founder and vice president of engineering, in a press statement. He added that the deal allows BBO to deliver broadband communications services and accommodate future bandwidth demands.
"BBO has the leadership and vision to become a premier in-building service provider," said Asghar Mostafa, president and CEO of ASC, in a statement. "By leveraging ASC's next-generation access network technology, BBO is bringing a new class of enhanced communications services to the enterprise customer that will result in more bandwidth options, higher bandwidth speeds, faster provisioning, and cost-savings for voice and data services over incumbent providers."
Mostafa said that BBO's deployment of ASC products marks a strategic shift away from existing in-building equipment solutions to provide a platform for both high-speed broadband access and advanced application services. The additional broadband capability, he added, will significantly reduce customer-provisioning time and doesn't require changes to existing customer equipment.
Mike Wolf, manager of enterprise and LAN services at Cahners In-Stat Group (www.instat.com), a digital communications research firm, said the total U.S. MTU broadband access market for building-centric equipment and services will reach nearly $2 billion annually by 2004.
"A new class of MTU service providers is looking to strategic partners to help them to deliver integrated voice, high-speed data and Internet services to office building tenants in the rapidly emerging MTU space," Wolf said. "Today's announcement between ASC and Broadband Office is a great example of how such a partnership will help this market move forward more quickly and ultimately benefit the end consumer by providing broadband access connectivity and services."
