<<Do you have a reference for this number, by chance? (Are you with a telco?) And even though every telco and territory is different, I wonder if there are estimated regional demographics on line (load) coils and bridge taps? Any pointers?
"Our local telco will only guarantee 9600 k on this wire now."
What telco is this?>>
Steve,
The reference for the number of splices came from conversations with telcos and research I was involved in looking at the feasibility of remotely staffing our order fulfillment call center. The real problem with remote agents is having the bandwidth, both voice and data, to allow agents to perform at productivity levels as if they were in the physical facility. We now bill 650,000+ minutes per month, so adding even a few seconds per call due to latency wipes out (and then some) any cost savings remote agents might bring. xDSL was something I wanted to know more about, along with other technologies.
I think the post you refer to was me trying to make the point that I didn't see xDSL becoming pervasive due to technical limitations in the typical POTS wire currently out there, mainly, the splices in the copper cause real problems with the bandwidth multiplying xDSL multiplexing routines. xDSL promised a relatively cheap, major increase in bandwidth on plain, EXISTING POTS, with none of the ISDN BRI configuration hassles and none of the T-1 access charges. If clean wire has to be pulled for xDSL to work, it would take years for it to be widely available, because the "last mile" POTS to the home has been "frogged" to death (per contacts at two telcos, including BellSouth).
I think I also indicated that I thought that companies like Ciena would ultimately point people away from xDSL anyway. Ciena (IPO this year) has developed techonolgy to multiplex light in existing fiber backbones to increase bandwidth times 40. Someone replied here and asked if in referencing this I was referring to "fiber to the home". The answer (very late) is no. What companies like Ciena will drive is the ongoing move to a really high capacity data network nationwide, with voice being moved off the current switched voice network to IP. I have seen 2 pieces of research that predict that in less than 5 years this data network will be in place and that the entire voice traffic of the US will amount to 1% of total traffic on the data network. Worldcom is starting to look really smart if this is actually happens. What happens in the last mile to the home? I don't know, but it does look like the players are moving away from trying to cram or jackleg data and voice simultaneously into the current switched voice network.
I am not with a telco, but I have been very close with AT&T, MCI and BellSouth (closer than anyone would want to be) as we try to cost effectively manage and staff a rapidly growing, high volume call center.
Try these sites -
www.teledotcom.com
www.spp.umich.edu/telecom/technical-info.html
jww |
