The group is set to partner in order to address the challenges of building and scaling access networks to meet growing consumer demand.
The work will focus on improving interoperability and diversity in the access network, accelerating innovation and boosting capacity in the last mile through the transition from GPON to XGS-PON.
Paolo Pellegrino, access innovation project manager at TIM said: “The disaggregation of OLTs represents a valuable opportunity to broaden the telecoms supply chain, which we’ve seen has become more important than ever during recent times.
“TIM is excited about the opportunities to work with a new generation of hardware and software suppliers who can bring innovative solutions that will help us build more cost-effective and efficient networks.”
The operators will move to develop the technical requirements for their first use case; a ‘pizza box’ OLT that can be deployed in a local exchange environment.
They expect to issue an RFI to establish the technical capabilities and readiness of suppliers to deliver such a solution later in the year, with test and validation to follow.
