The Cable Picks DZS to Bring FTTX Network to Caribbean Island

DZS, a global enabler of access, optical and cloud-controlled software solutions, has announced that St. Kitts-Nevis Cable Communications Ltd. (The Cable), a local provider of internet and television services, is leveraging DZS Velocity Optical Line Terminals (OLTs) and DZS Helix Optical Networking Terminals (ONTs) to replace its existing legacy Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) cable network with a world-class, all-fiber Gigabit Passive Optical network (GPON) capable of delivering gigabit broadband speeds.

This network and services transformation is being enabled by longtime DZS partner Lucas Telecom, and will result in significantly increased broadband speeds, service turn-up agility and improved reliability for The Cable’s residential and business customers which include financial services, hospitality, small-to-medium sized enterprise, and educational and governmental institutions.

The new in-ground fiber infrastructure, which is currently being deployed across the island, included an initial deployment that was completed within six weeks. St. Kitts-Nevis Cable Communications Ltd. has worked closely with the local government and other key stakeholders to ensure that its new fiber-to-the-x (fiber-to-the-home for residential customers and fiber-to-the-premises for business customers) broadband network will meet the unique needs of the island’s residential and business subscribers, including the essential local hospitality industry.

“St. Kitts-Nevis Cable Communications Ltd. is very pleased to be working with DZS and Lucas Telecom to bring leading-edge, high-bandwidth broadband internet and video services to our residential and business customers” said Patricia Walters, CEO, St. Kitts-Nevis Cable Communications Ltd. “The high performance and robust in-ground GPON network that we are building will offer not only a better customer experience but also much lower maintenance, reduced downtime from power cuts and higher reliability, especially during power outages due to storms and hurricanes. To stay on the cutting-edge of services we are rolling out this new network very rapidly throughout the entire island of St. Kitts, and DZS and Lucas Telecom are stepping-up to meet our accelerated timeframe.”

“Internet access has become an essential service in homes and businesses around the world, and traditional cable operators are increasingly turning to FTTx to provide a more efficient and higher performance network infrastructure than HFC,” said Tom Carter, Chief Customer Officer for Americas and EMEA at DZS. “This transformation is even more critical in the Caribbean, where hurricanes can knock out communications networks for weeks, potentially leaving subscribers without cable or internet. DZS and Lucas Telecom are helping St. Kitts-Nevis Cable Communications Ltd. address this challenge head-on, with a rapid shift to not only a much more robust and reliable fiber network infrastructure, but one that can be easily upgraded to 10 gig XGS-PON technology in the future and beyond. We are proud to be working with both The Cable and Lucas Telecom to bring this powerful network to St. Kitts.”

“Our tagline at Lucas Telecom is ‘We make it work,’ and that’s exactly what we are doing for St. Kitts-Nevis Cable Communications Ltd.,” said Chris Lucas, CEO, Lucas Telecom. “There are many challenges to bringing high-performance GPON broadband services to Caribbean markets, and the flexibility and reliability of DZS solutions plus its strong engineering team are ideal to meet what can be very difficult island deployment demands.”

DZS solutions that St. Kitts-Nevis Cable Communications Ltd. is deploying include latest generation DZS Velocity fiber access core network and DZS Helix customer premises solutions, allowing residential triple-play and high-bandwidth business services.

As more cable and internet subscribers around the Caribbean and around the world demand symmetrical gigabit and multi-gigabit service levels so they can work from home, enjoy gaming and participate in videoconferencing and metaverse-type applications, forward-looking service providers like St. Kitts-Nevis Cable Communications Ltd. are evolving to high-performance network infrastructures that are standards-based and cost-effective to upgrade and manage to support new, bandwidth-intensive and low-latency services.

St. Kitts-Nevis Cable Communications Ltd. (The Cable) is a local provider of internet and television services to residents and businesses across the island.