I differ with you opinion. ASND's has ISDL, and I believe CAP and DMT ADSL in the TNT. Now, for UUNet this solution may be fine, but for a carrier, not a chance. I believe ASND is betting on deregulation and being able to sell the DSL capable TNTs to CAPs, where they are going to want an inexpensive solution. However, if deregulation drags along, and it will, and CAPs dont get access to the RBOC copper facilites for a while(and at this point it has not been decided yet as to how the deregulation will work, it could be co-location, it could also be reselling agreements of RBOC services), then ASND will miss out on this market because the TNT is not a product RBOCs will place in their central offices. RBOCS have been placing PAIR and WSTL xDSL solutions in their networks for years now and are very comfortable with those solutions.
Now UUNet I believe has some co-location agreements already in place with a number of RBOCs as a result of there merger with MFS Communications. So for UUNet the ASND solution is a good solution, providing a migration path for a number of DSL services; but once again for carriers, and even to some extent, for UUNet where they may be colocated and the RBOC has a majority of SLC systems in place(the TNT does not address these issues), this solution is not going to cut it.
I think ASND cancelled some products that CSCC was developing for the carrier market in the DSL arena in favor of the TNT solution. At one point I though CSCC was well positioned for this market, especially being they own the frame and ATM RBOC market(carriers love their products), and it will be frame or ATM that provides the uplink from the DSL DSLAM devices to the ISPs. .
I think ASND is placing too many eggs in one basket. RIght now, there solution is only good for UUNet because they are one of a very few set of companies that can now co-locate their equpment and share RBOC copper. This is not good, one customer for their entire xDSL strategy does not make a market. There is no way they can compete in the carrier xDSL market with with the likes of WSTL(who has agreements with DSC and Lucent, and has been trialing their equipment for years) and PAIR(the world leader in HDSL).
Now USWest Interprise is actually USWest's unregulated arm(ie. they do not provide services in the USWest region). They provide integration services and telco services outside of USWest's footprint(basically a CAP/integrator in other RBOC regions). The ASND solution was ideal for this customer. The fact they decided to primarily use PAIR is significant IMHO. IT is a big coup for PAIR to get all of the USWest Interprise business.
GO PAIR
GO WSTL
Good Luck |
