Gary,
What is your opinion on HDTV over IP or ATM in the local loop? I was just reading this and am curious.
Brian
HDTV REVOLUTIONARIES FACE LONG WAIT FOR RECEPTIVE CUSTOMERS
.TEXT
Thanks to marching orders from the FCC, over the next decade all
television networks and, eventually, TV receivers themselves, will
trade in their analog ways for high definition television (HDTV).
For broadband service providers, this federally mandated metamorphosis
could mean new customers, a strategic position in a hot market and
lots more revenue.
But is this dazzling scenario for real? Depends how convincingly
telcos make the case that technologies like ATM and DSL are reliable
enough to transmit television programming. After all, two seconds of
a commercial spot lost due to a glitch could deliver a crippling blow
to broadcasters' bottom lines.
Of the two broadband choices that service providers have for
delivering television, ATM seems a more likely candidate than DSL - at
least for now.
"They are becoming comfortable with ATM," says Don Preston,
product manager for MCI WorldCom [WCOM] video and multimedia services,
of the media industry.
MCI has conducted "several" HDTV-over-ATM trials during the last
year. The results of these trials were so compelling, says Preston,
that the long-distance carrier is launching HDTV-over-ATM as a
bonafide commercial service next month though MCI execs will not
reveal the exact day.
Preston sees the HDTV market becoming "extremely large" at some
point in the near future. He envisions competition heating up in this
space within the next two to three years. "Especially with Monday
Night Football being broadcast on HDTV," he adds.
The MCI HDTV-over-ATM service will target broadcasters and other
types of businesses - though Preston would not say what industries the
businesses hail from for fear of disrupting his marketing strategy.
As for what the service will cost, Preston says it "runs on our
standard ATM pricing."
I also just saw this...
TAMPA, FLA. - 2nd Century Communications wants to win your business away from the local monopoly phone company - and not by just undercutting prices.
The start-up wants to offer a raft of services, all over a single connection to the customer site. These services will include Internet access, e-mail, Web hosting, local and long-distance phone service, unified messaging, virtual private networks and network-based applications.
To deliver these converged services, the carrier is banking on a new breed of equipment and suppliers. Unlike existing carriers, 2nd Century has the luxury of being able to start from scratch with the latest and greatest technology.
The carrier is also purchasing network elements, such as long-distance trunks, local T-1 access lines and a voice signaling network, from other providers.
Using this combination of network facilities and equipment is the best way to build a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) network that will remain viable even after the regional Bell operating companies start selling long-distance services, says 2nd Century Chairman Mike Viren.
Viren, a former economics professor and ex-head of strategic planning for frame relay carrier Intermedia Communications, says the key to 2nd Century's success will be the company's use of ATM in the local loop.
The link between a customer location and the phone company is the most expensive in any phone network, Viren says. ATM can make local-loop bandwidth usage more cost-efficient by cutting up each link between a carrier and its customers into virtual circuits that support separate qualities of service and don't waste any bandwidth.
************IP does offer class of service, but you still need to throw extra bandwidth at your traffic to guarantee a certain level of delay. And that can get expensive, Viren says.
"I really need to sell all my bandwidth in the local loop and even oversubscribe it," Viren says.********************
The 2nd Century network design calls for a server at the customer site that consolidates traffic from LANs, phones and other sources, and then converts it to ATM for transport across a T-1. The company is considering gear from newcomers such as Mariposa, Woodwind and Praxon.
The traffic will then be collected by an ATM concentrator/switch located in a 2nd Century point of presence, perhaps in the local switching office of an RBOC. That device takes in multiple T-1s, sorts traffic by type and passes it along. Start-ups Convergent Communications and Tachion are among contenders to provide these switches.
The concentrator/switches have time-division multiplexing ports for carrying voice traffic to traditional local and long-distance voice networks, and IP ports for Internet traffic.
Viren says 2nd Century can make money using this network model with as few as 125 customers per switch.
That's because the switches cost only one-tenth as much as traditional voice switches.
"We get revenue right away, and that cash flow leads to profitability sooner," Viren says.
One switch means one operations and support system (OSS) to gather data about traffic for billing - one of the more complicated aspects of being a service provider.
The more different types of switches there are in a network, the tougher it is to handle OSS, Viren says.
Traditional carriers, including some CLECs, require voice switches, frame relay switches and large routers.
They also need a separate signaling network to complete voice calls to customers of the established phone carriers.
"That's expensive. That's too many protocols," Viren says. "I need to choose one and put all my traffic on that."
2nd Century plans a two-year rollout of services in 50 cities in 40 states starting in October. |
