STINGER by Lucent - DSL on existing phone lines.
An end to HSAC?
biz.yahoo.com
Tuesday September 7, 12:01 am Eastern Time
Lucent launches new high-speed dial-up Internet product
By Ilaina Jonas
NEW YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:LU - news), on Tuesday said it is poised to pierce the area of high-speed, high volume voice and data telecommunications sent over traditional telephone lines with the introduction of its new product, the Stinger.
Lucent said that with the Stinger, Internet service providers and local phone companies, can offer DSL service -- high speed video, data and voice sent over traditional phone lines -- without compromising the quality of the voice that telephone callers have come to expect.
The high speed service can send information using the already connected copper phone lines at speeds of about 30 times faster than traditional phone service. With the extra capacity, the Stinger, can also split the line making it capable of carrying upto 16 different lines using one connection.
Although other DSL service offering both voice and only data transmissions has been available, Lucent's entry marks the first time a major player, such as Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent, has entered the market, with a competitive voice product.
The Stinger, which uses technology Lucent acquired when it bought Ascend Communications Inc. for $24 billion in June, also was designed to prioritize those packets carrying voice, which means voice calls won't hear any type of drop-outs or disruptions, said Kevin Oye, vice president of strategy and business development for internetworking systems.
Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO - news) also offers systems for DSL service but only for data, Dzubeck said.
''The 800 pound gorilla is entering the business,'' said Frank Dzubeck, president of industry analysts Communications Network Architects.
Lucent said French telecoms equipment company Alcatel also has begun to enter the field.
Dzubeck said the entry of the giant won't mean the end of the smaller firms, who also offer systems to Internet Service Providers and local exchange carriers to provide the high-speed service. Some, such as privately held Moorpark, Calif.-based Accelerated Networks Inc. offer systems that can carry 24 private connections one line. Copper Mountain Networks Inc.'s (Nasdaq:CMTN - news) lines can offer 16.
''They're not going away,'' Dzubeck said. One reason is there unsatisfied for demand for the service.
''There are 200 million telephone lines for just the consumer,'' Dzubeck said. Only about 150,000 have tapped into DSL service. Only about 1 million small business have the service. Experts in the field said they expect there will be about 2 million DSL subscribers by 2001.
''They're really bringing their product into a very high demand space,'' he said.
''It's still in an early adopter market,'' said Claudia Bacco, director of DSL Consulting for Telechoice. ''There's still a customer eduction market.''
To realize a demand, providers have to get customers to realize that they will see a difference, unlike when dial-up modems went from 33kps to 56kps, Bacco said.
Both analysts and Lucent said the Baby Bells have been slow to hop on the DSL service train, partly because in offering more phone service over one line they could be cannibalizingtheir own per line charges.
However, Lucent's Stinger system can connect to other systems, so a carrier can establish systems to the Stinger system, which offers the eight different types of DSL service in one box.
The high speed transmissions sends data and voice converted into digital information in packets over traditional copper phone lines. The packets are put back together before they reach the recipient. Different packets from different calls can be sent over the same line. That contrasts to traditional phone service that picks up a voice and leaves the entire line open just for that call.
The product was also designed to accommodate thousands of customers, or more than three times the number of hookups than systems available today, Oye added. That lowers the cost for providers and may help to make DSL more prevalent and more widely offered, Bacco said.
However, the cost to the consumer or business is expected to still run at about $30 to $40 per month, Dzubeck said, until there's a major breakthrough on the price of the computer chips that run the system.
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and News: Cisco Systems Inc (Nasdaq:CSCO - news)
Copper Mountain Networks Inc (Nasdaq:CMTN - news)
Lucent Technologies Inc (NYSE:LU - news)
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