[ADSL in the world press]
John --
Thanks for explaining the different products of the different companies and how they interconnect. I'm still not sure how Westell fits into Nortel's press release, but let's leave it for now. If Westell's there in any substantial way, they'll let the world know.
The following is from today's Financial Times. The first ADSL headline I've ever seen in an international paper of this caliber.
It's a fantastic article, but I'm glad we're not counting on BT to boost the stock.
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ADSL: Carriers offer service to lighten the internet load
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 10 1997
The Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line should mean the end of one of
users' biggest frustrations: the length of time it takes to upload and
download web site material, writes Geoff Wheelwright
The low-speed, low-tech world that pioneering internet users have lived with since 1984 is about to be overturned. No longer will pictures take for ever to load when looking at graphics-filled pages on the world wide web - or audio "web-casts" (also known as internet radio) be subject to delays, time-outs and data transmission speeds so slow that they often make the greatest high-tech applications unusable.
ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) technology is going to drive this change. A way of sending data over standard copper telephone wires, it promises transmission speeds up to 100 times faster than those achievable over existing popular personal computer modems.
Most computers sold over the past year have come equipped with
modems that operate at 28.8 kilobits per second (although since Christmas some have offered speeds of 33.6kbps or 56kbps). ADSL-based internet systems offer the possibility of connections that run between 1.5 and 8 megabits per second (equivalent to 1500kbps or 8000kbps).
At those speeds, whole new categories of applications become possible - everything from full-frame video and "TV" transmission over the internet to video-conferencing to high-performance, real-time, "virtual reality" games.
In Canada, for example, many of the big telephone companies are either
already offering ADSL or have well-advanced launch plans for it.
Canada's traditional phone companies are sharing their experience of
ADSL in an industry alliance called Stentor, which includes BC Tel, Bell Canada, Island Tel, Manitoba Telecom Services Inc, Maritime Tel & Tel, NBTel, NewTel Communications, NorthwesTel, QuebecTel, Sasktel and
Telus.
According to Tom Hope, who is president of Stentor's Canadian Network
Management organisation and chief technology officer of Stentor Resource Centre (which handles much of the day-to-day development and delivery of national products and services) there are huge challenges and opportunities in Canada for solutions such as ADSL.
Mr Hope says the environment created by technological changes will be
fundamentally different from today's - and that it will require whole new business paradigms. "Services will evolve from local or long-distance voice and data into an exciting array of new applications," he suggests. "Distance learning, remote medicine, electronic commerce and other innovations will become commonplace. In turn, this could mean that the customer might not be billed according to time, distance or media any more. Rather, billing will be based on the value of the application and the capability used. Perhaps, customers won't have to pay for certain services at all. Sponsors or 'new age advertisers' will pick up the cost instead."
The companies that comprise the Stentor Alliance have been aggressive in backing the quick roll-out of ADSL. It started in Saskatchewan, where SaskTel last year introduced the first commercial residential internet access using ADSL technology on a copper pair (with download speeds of 1.544 megabits per second and uploads of 64 kilobits per second).
The local Saskatchewan service has been implemented as part of Stentor's national Sympatico internet access service. Known as Sympatico High Speed, the service (which includes an ADSL modem and unlimited internet access at ADSL speeds) has been offered to consumers at $69.95 per month. SaskTel has made much of the fact that its ADSL service saves internet enthusiasts from having to take a second phone line: it allows voice calls to be made while the ADSL line is in use for internet access.
Other Stentor companies - including BC Tel, Bell Canada, the Manitoba
Telephone System and the New Brunswick Telephone Company Limited
(NB Tel) - are currently doing trials of ADSL technology in various regions of the country, with some expected to "go live" as commercial services later this year.
Meanwhile, in France, the market leader France Telecom is working to
expand its internet offerings with high-speed services via cable, satellite and ADSL. For internet access using ADSL technology, a special device is installed on the subscriber's telephone line to separate telephone traffic from internet traffic. A data cable connects this splitter and the computer, which remains connected to the phone network via a modem. An additional board (Ethernet) and a connection program are also installed in the computer.
France Telecom says this technique enables use of a single telephone line for data access, while maintaining the availability of a phone service: customers can continue to make or receive calls as they browse internet sites. After a technical test in Lannion, the first full-scale implementation of ADSL will be in the Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand, for both home and business subscribers.
Finally, it has recently been predicted that British Telecom will next spring begin offering ADSL services in the UK alongside the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) data lines it has been rolling out to British customers in recent years.>>> |
