NN spins-off DSL? NEWBRIDGE: Eircom deal boosts DSL
By James Harding, Media Editor
Newbridge Networks, the communications technology
developer, is considering a move to spin off and float its
business that enables telecommunications networks to
offer high-speed internet access, digital delivery of music
and streaming video.
The New York-listed company, which has its roots in
Wales and its headquarters in Canada, expects to
demonstrate the potential for rapid growth of its
networking technology when it today announces a deal
with Eircom, the leading telecoms company in Ireland.
Newbridge Networks has secured a $16m (œ9.6m) deal
with Eircom to provide digital subscriber loop - DSL -
technology that can upgrade the capacity of
old-fashioned copper wires to enable consumers to
download movies, music and the internet as well as
make telephone calls over existing telephone lines.
There is worldwide competition between DSL networks
and digital cable systems to offer broadband
communications. Claims that digital cable systems will
have a larger capacity - a bigger pipe - through which to
pump information and entertainment into the home than
DSL are offset by advocates of DSL, who say it will offer
delivery at the same or higher speed and, as it can
operate over existing telephone lines, will be quicker and
cheaper to install.
The agreement between Eircom and Newbridge is
intended to demonstrate the ease of installation of DSL.
Under the deal, Eircom will make DSL available to its
1.6m customers within a year of initial deployment.
The Irish company says this roll-out of DSL is the first
national adoption of a broadband network and will rapidly
eclipse the 600,000 Irish homes served by cable
networks.
Newbridge expects the deal will be the first this year in a
series of agreements as telecommunications companies
seek revenue increases from their copperwire networks.
Newbridge has also supplied its DSL technologies to
Kingston Communications, which is developing a high
speed internet service in the Hull region. |
