Ry, both LU and NT, a well as some of the other second tier players, have already released enhancements to (and replaced, in some cases) the line cards that define the nature and being of last mile line protocols. They have taken measures, in other words, to ensure that they can support both DSL and VoIP standards when the time is right (which translates to when the LECs choose to buy or implement these features, which is the greater issue), and moving closer to what the next gen switch would resemble. I wouldn't right them off just yet for the reasons you imply, although there are other attributes which characterize the traditional end office model, itself, that I would be concerned, about if I were one of these companies still manufacturing these things.
Another item worth mentioning is this. If the LECs do invoke these features, it will be interesting to see how well they are able to sustain their 4 or 5 nine claims. At issue may not be the actual robustness of their own wares, but instead, the viability of the user community to integrate their personal and commercial end-point configurations in ways which are reliable and robust.
Today, voice is a very straighforward matter, and most ILECS, along with the more developed CLECs, can probably tell you you have a problem on your POTS line even before you encounter it yourself. With VoIP and other virtualized forms of application access, a lot depends on the provisions which you implement yourself at the residence or business, and these are both outside of the "view" of the service provider's surveillance capabilities, and their concerns which are dictated by the tariffs they operate under.
The latter goes not only goes current Class 5 switches which have been upgraded, but for other forms of future application provisioning, as well. It's got to do with the separations of services and areas of reseponsibilities, which heretofore have been very straightforward in the voice only space.
Regards, Frank Coluccio |
