BOSTON, Oct. 18 -- Verilink Corp., with the help of venture capital firm Beacon Telco, is establishing a product development center within the Photonics Center at Boston University that will provide it with access to laboratories and other resources and technology aimed at developing new optical access solutions for the broadband access market via optical fiber. Beacon Telco is a venture capital development company focused on creating and developing ventures in the optical networking and broadband communications market. My belief is that within the next five years fiber will replace copper as the access medium of choice for both business and residential data communications. This strategic alliance with Beacon Telco and The Photonics Center at Boston University is aimed at quickly establishing Verilink as a leader in broadband optical access, said Graham G. Pattison, president and CEO of Verilink. Verilink's new optical product development center will also provide our company a strategic R&D presence centered in the world's hot bed of optical networking activity, Boston Massachusetts. The Photonics Center at Boston University has more than $110 million of infrastructure in place, which includes more than $25 million of capital equipment, including a fiber optic draw tower. The center has a net total of more than 235,000 sq ft of usable space, as well as 17 separate laboratories designed specifically for photonics technologies.