[quick note]
Pat lost her net connection last nite just as I did. Just got mail from her. She said to mention that she has spoken with JS and Bill Kula after the conference and she is "walking on air."
I think she means the positive conference, even if a disappointment to day traders, but perhaps she has more.
here is something from Bruce Byall, who is with us here. Sorry for the format. Amati is mentioned:
<<DSL: Many Questions, Few Answers (05/07/97; 8:45 a.m. EDT) By Salvatore Salamone, CommunicationsWeek LAS VEGAS -- Network and IS managers looking to Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology to meet the high-speed connectivity needs of their users may have to wait until next year to get some basic questions answered. Very basic. Such as: Which carriers will offer services and in what time frames? There are still several hurdles to be cleared before managers will have DSL services widely available to their users. That's despite two significant developments at the NetWorld+Interop show here. One was a limited rollout by Pacific Bell in September of 384-kilobit-per-second symmetrical service bundled with Internet access for less than $200 a month. The other was an announcement that Copper Mountain Networks is licensing Intel technology to integrate into a series of DSL products. In a roundtable discussion Monday on the DSL market, about the only things participants could agree on was that DSL is coming and the forces that'll drive its adoption have changed during the past year. But there was a wide range of opinion as to when DSL will be deployed on a wide scale and which flavor of the service will dominate; such questions largely mirror the state of the DSL equipment market. For an IS or network manager, the fractured market could further delay DSL's arrival. Although the PacBell offering will give DSL more respectability, most of the panel's participants said they don't see serious DSL deployment picking up until next year. "Is it profitably deployable today? Will there be more than 10, 20, 30 thousand lines this year? No," said Benjamin Berry, vice president of marketing at equipment maker Amati Communications, in San Jose, Calif. "In 1997, there is no volume level to make a business case." One factor that should give the market a boost is strong interest in DSL services from competitive local exchange carriers, according to participants. "The CLECs will be the driving force," said David Helfrich, vice president of sales and marketing at Copper Mountain Networks, in Palo Alto, Calif. "They will be to the late 1990s what the ISPs were to the early 1990s." What will help the CLECs is the opportunity to get access to the copper lines in the local loop. Thanks to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the incumbent local phone company must provide access to the lines. And, in most cases, the rates are considered relatively low if those lines are to be used for what is perceived as a high revenue-generating business such as DSL service. "You can buy the lines for $10 per month and sell services for $200" as PacBell has proposed, Helfrich said. Such opportunities for the CLECs should give telcos the incentive to roll out DSL services. One factor that might hold them back is their operational service and support systems (OSSes). "You need to provision and bill for [DSL services]," said Edward Kennedy, vice president of marketing at Alcatel Data Networks, in Ashburn, Va. "If we're talking about a small number of lines, that's OK. But if we're talking about ubiquitous service, you have to deal with the OSS issue." Some think competition from the CLECs will force the local phone companies to address the shortcomings of their OSSes. The incumbent phone companies "have to become more efficient," said Marc Zionts, senior vice president of DSL systems sales for Westell, in Aurora, Ill. "They will need to automate to consider the task [of wide-scale DSL deployment]." Another potential obstacle to DSL deployment is the local loop's ability to support DSL traffic. Specific issues include whether the telcos' cable plants are in adequate condition to carry the signal and if distances are within the limits required to maintain acceptable signal quality. PacBell said this isn't likely to be an issue. "Based on our technology field trials, we believe we will be able to serve about 70 percent of loops out of a [central office] without any conditioning of the loop," said Paula Reinman, director of product development at Pacific Bell Internet Services.>> |
