Tango,
Regarding Taiwan try my post #6513, unfortunately the URL listed only works for the day it's printed (I found this out today) because it is a daily news service. Amati's modems were included, as well as Westell. They mentioned Taiwan's extensive copper-wire investment and were very enthusiatic about ADSL.
The Following was from that news source so I won't include the URL again. It states that Alcatel doesn't have the last word on the gang of four contract. Good news for Westell and Amati:
<<MAJOR ALLIANCE FORMS TO
BATTLE ALCATEL FOR ADSL
PROVISION IN THE UNITED
STATES
Source: ISDN NEWS
ISDN NEWS via Individual Inc. -- When Paris-based Alcatel
Telecom won a request for proposal (RFP) in October to develop an
asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) solution for a consortium
of four baby Bells, that did not sit well with equipment
manufacturers in North America. But, no one is throwing in the
towel yet. BellSouth , PacBell , Ameritech, and Southwestern Bell
have said they can still buy ADSL modems and products from other
companies, which has stirred a move from Westell Technologies
and Nortel.
In early November, the two companies penned an agreement jointly
to develop a turnkey ADSL solution for carriers and Internet service
providers (ISPs). "This is a direct response to the decision of the joint
procurement consortium," says Broadband Consultant Kieren
Taylor of TeleChoice, Verona, N.J. "Alcatel was selected because it
can provide an end-to-end solution, from the consumer's modem to
the central office. The consortium wanted this level of integration."
On their own, neither Westell or Nortel is ready to manufacture a
turnkey package, Taylor reports. Westell has focused on ADSL
modems, while Nortel has targeted central office gear and private
branch exchanges (PBXs). "They could have an advantage in the
North American market together," adds Taylor. "From a pure service
point of view, they have tons of manpower in the area. Alcatel would
have to do a lot of hiring to catch up. This alliance is a very
significant development for the marketplace."
For its part, Nortel says the decision to team with Westell was easy.
"Westell has the No. 1 deployed ADSL modem in the U.S. right
now," explains Gary Bolton, Nortel's senior manager of ADSL
business management. "We have also had a teaming agreement with
Westell over the past year. We have pulled together parts of our
product lines on occasion to respond to RFPs. The difference is, we
are now doing joint systems development within a more formal
alliance."
"We have identified a whole range of areas we could work on with
Nortel," says Rob Saw, president of global operations at Westell.
"We're even looking at joint manufacturing. Our initial focus will be
on providing a complete ADSL solution for telcos and ISPs, but even
where you have PBXs, there is an opportunity for ADSL to be
terminated. It's feasible, but not our initial focus right now." Campus
environments may be able to use PBXs in conjunction with ADSL
for remote LAN access and other functions, he adds.
...Westell and Nortel to Side-Step an ADSL Dispute
What will the ADSL system produced by Nortel and Westell look
like? The equipment manufacturers are trying to avoid entanglement
in an industry controversy over which line modulation standard
should be used for ADSL. "We're line-code agnostic," Bolton
reports. "We're going to be independent and support both of the
major line modulation standards in the field, discrete multi-tone
(DMT) and carrierless amplitude phase (CAP)."
This will surprise some because the American National Standards
Institute (ANSI) has only approved DMT as a line modulation
standard for ADSL, and Westell has deployed CAP-based modems
to date. But, "Bell Atlantic, Nynex , and U S West are all pushing
ANSI to make CAP a standard," says Bolton. "Nearly all of the
ADSL modems deployed today are CAP-based. Between 10,000 and
12,000 lines of CAP are on the market, with less than 2,000 lines of
DMT. ANSI will feel a lot of pressure to make this change."
"Westell is one of the first customers of DMT for Motorola," Saw
says. But, considering that CAP is used in 90 percent of deployed
ADSL products, it may already be a de facto standard, he adds.
The new solution will include everything from the Westell FlexCap
ADSL modem to the Nortel Passport, Concorde, and Vector ATM
switches. Nortel has also proposed to bundle in its Entrust family of
encryption and digital signature services to provide security to
computer networks using ADSL. And, Nortel will offer its service
controller systems, which manage switched and permanent virtual
circuits.
New Westell modems can also be expected, says Saw. "We want to
support everything from 384 Kbps [symmetrical digital subscriber
lines] to [very high-rate digital subscriber lines]," he explains.
"VDSL will operate at 12 Mbps downstream, and 1 Mbps upstream.
But, customers have to be close to the central office, or carriers must
run neighborhood hubs out to meet them."
Interestingly, both Westell's and Alcatel's solutions use ATM as the
ADSL backbone. "ATM offers an economy of scale that will be
needed once ISPs start pumping Web pages to end-users at 1.5
Mbps or more," says TeleChoice's Taylor. "Frame technology won't
give them (telcos and ISPs) the same type of multimedia coverage."
A Westell ADSL modem currently costs $1,500 to $2,000, Saw says.
But, the cost should drop to about the $1,000 level at the beginning
of 1997, and the $500 level by the end of '97. During 1998,
consumers could see Westell modems in the $300 to $500 range,
Saw predicts. (Contact: Nortel, 919-992-7851; Westell Technologies,
813-376-9666; TeleChoice, 201-239-0700) *
[12-03-96 at 18:00 EST, Copyright 1996, Phillips Publishing, Inc.]>>
Regards,
Richard |
