To All, I know ADSL works,and that the RBOC's have great engineers. Will ADSL displace T-1 lines,causing a loss of revenue?or displace ISDN? Who will install ADSL first,the RBOC's,CLEC's,or the ISP's? The ISP's don't heve the engineering background,or technical experience,that Bell engineers have. But the ISP's have the desire,and the entrepenuerial spirit that the RBOC's do not.
ADSL service in 10 COs beginning in September.
Other carriers are sure to follow close behind. Driven by the real or
perceived threat of cable modems, customer demand and the need to
unburden voice switches tied up by long Internet calls, the RHCs are
bullish on ADSL.
The RHCs already have been beaten by some ISPs that have begun to offer
ADSL service. CADVision in Calgary, Alberta, is offering service at
about $70 a month to customers. In the U.S., InterAccess in Chicago was
the first to offer service.
InterAccess has hooked up five COs in the suburban Chicago area for
about a dozen customers, according to President Tom Simonds. Although
encouraged by the initially favorable results and response from
customers, he admits it hasn't been a cakewalk.
"It's been wonderful once it's in," says Simonds. "But the set-up is
atrocious. It's really a hard service to install because it's complex.
There are complex inside wiring issues on both sides."
Telcos probably have an advantage over ISPs when it comes to wiring, he
concedes, because they have been doing it for years. But at least one
analyst says the difficulty of installation will probably become an
issue for everyone this year.
"Reality is going to hit this year, and we're going to see that it's not
easy to install," says Lisa Pelgrim, an analyst with Dataquest. "Phone
lines are messy. It's a case of theory vs. reality."
InterAccess isn't giving up on ADSL, though. "Feedback has been very
positive. People are definitely interested," says Simonds.
At a cost of about $10,000 for each new CO location, Simonds says his
company can add more users and plans to do so. The end users have to buy
the modem--Westell Technologies' FlexCAP in this case--at a price of
$1500. If several customers in a CO serving area demand ADSL service,
InterAccess will consider adding the corresponding CO.
InterAccess is not seeing the full throughput of 1.5 Mb/s for its ADSL
connections, but rates are as high as 800 kb/s with some applications,
says Simonds. Bottlenecks in InterAccess' own infrastructure are
responsible for the decreased throughput, he says, adding, "It's still a
magnitude of performance over ISDN."
Tim |
