Actiontec Electronics, a developer of broadband-powered solutions, announced the launch of a new wireless broadband router that will support Verizon's new FiOS service. The new FiOS (News - Alert) router will be deployed in Verizon's newly launched 150 Mbps downstream, 35 Mbps upstream service, said officials.

For those unaware, Verizon FiOS is a bundled home communications (Internet, telephone, and television) service, operating over a fiber-optic communications network, which is offered in some areas of the United States by Verizon (News - Alert) Communications.

Precisely, Verizon’s FiOS services are delivered over a fiber-to-the-premises network using passive optical network technology. Voice, video, and data travel over three wavelengths in the infrared spectrum.

According to a press release, the new FiOS wireless broadband router will support multiple concurrent HD video streams and will also increases in-home networking speeds up to 1 Gbps wired (with the Gigabit Ethernet interface) and 300 Mbps wireless.

Actiontec is already a key vendor in the FiOS architecture. Since the early days of FiOS deployments, the Actiontec has been providing broadband customer premise equipment for Verizon.

Officials with Actiontec said in a press release that the company has continually upgraded its broadband home routers to handle faster speeds, multiple HDTV streams, as well as popular valued-added widgets and Java-based applications.

The latest FiOS Router launched for Verizon's FiOS service can not only handle multiple high-throughput media streams simultaneously, such as standard and HDTV-based video programming, but can also feed personal video recording functionality from multiple HD set top boxes or other digital storage devices to multiple televisions in the house.

In addition, the new smart home gateway can also administrate many Internet activities such as online gaming, music, live sports, children' entertainment, on demand TV, movies and more.

Apart from featuring an enhanced end user experience with simple diagnostic tools and self-healing features, the new router also features robust enterprise-level security features. Some of the security elements include WPA/WPA2 encryption, a fully customizable firewall with Stateful Packet Inspection, denial-of-service protection, and intrusion detection.

Some of the diagnostic tools and self-healing features of the new FiOS router includes self-monitoring, reporting to the end user when any error occurs with a short description of the problem, steps on how to repair simple errors, contact information for technical support in more complex cases, and more.

Dean Chang, CEO of Actiontec, said in a statement, "The role of the home gateway is evolving from a simple router to become the focal point for home entertainment and emerging broadband services. Our latest router characterizes this shift; its increased performance enables seamless access to multiple enhanced services and gives consumers greater entertainment and communication choices."

In the recent news, Actiontec announced shipment of triple play VDSL2 routers to several North American service providers. According to company sources, many telecommunications service providers have deployed the company’s portfolio of ultra-broadband VDSL gateways including the Q1000 and V1000H Wireless N VDSL Modem Routers.

Jayashree Adkoli is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Jayashree's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jaclyn Allard