[Secret Meetings]
Hi Pat,
Looks like the fog will burn off an we'll have a bright new year day here in Central Cal. Did ya catch the culprit last night?
C ya later, Steve
<<The difference in views between service providers and computer manufacturers may be best summed up by Bill Rodey, vice president of strategic planning and technology management at Westell. "Computer manufacturers want to make ADSL a mass market by Christmas 1998," Rodey says. "Telcos want this to evolve in the way a telco network evolves." In other words, next year's wish list may just be that--a wish list.>>
Now, That's Thinking Out of the Box
The PC industry gets tired of waiting and decides to take DSL into its own hands
By Rachael King.
Rachael King is public network editor for tele.com. Her Internet address is rdking@teledotcom.com.
For all the talk about a crying need for high-speed services, telephone companies haven't exactly been pushing the envelope in rolling out asymmetric digital subscriber line services. That leisurely pace apparently has driven the PC industry into action in what amounts to an attempt to prod telcos to make critical commitments to ADSL.
On December 2--the day before a scheduled meeting of the ADSL Forum consortium in San Francisco--PC heavyweights Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., and Compaq Computer Corp. (Houston) held a secret meeting with service providers. At that meeting, the PC players and telcos discussed what could be done to speed ADSL to market, according to one industry insider who signed a nondisclosure agreement about the meeting and requested anonymity.
According to that source, the meeting focused on the need to simplify ADSL modems so that computer manufacturers can easily bundle those modems into their computers and distribute them through retail channels, just as they do with standard dial-up modems. Talks at the meeting reportedly revolved around supporting a single standard for ADSL so that equipment can be made interoperable.
Although Intel will not confirm that the meeting took place, the company says it is in strong agreement with companies like Microsoft and Compaq that there should be an ADSL standard. Intel admits that it has talked to those companies but says it is not ready to make any announcements at this time.
One source at Intel also acknowledges what may be a growing impatience on the part of manufacturers with the normal telco service development cycle. "In the PC industry, we understand what it takes to get technology out of a niche and into mass deployment," says Kevin Kahn, Intel fellow and director of communications architecture at Intel Architectural Labs (Hillsboro, Ore.). "It takes an interoperable, ubiquitous standard. We'd like to see the same kind of standard for ADSL."
Masked Markets
ADSL, which was supposed to take the residential data market by storm, has yet to muster more than a few scattered raindrops. This past fall, Southwestern Bell, GTE Communications Corp., US West Communications (Phoenix), and Ameritech Corp. all announced long-expected consumer DSL offerings. However, those offerings--limited to one or two cities per telco--turned out to be more like marketing field trials than wide-scale commercial service rollouts. In fact, in GTE's commercial rollout, service was limited to a single apartment building in Marina del Rey, Calif.
Although there is an official ADSL standard from the American National Standards Institute, equipment vendors have developed many types of ADSL modems, many of which do not adhere to that standard. Customer modems must match up to telco central-office equipment; without interoperability, modem makers would find it extremely difficult to sell ADSL products through retail channels. For PC makers like Compaq, integrating ADSL modems into their boxes would be almost impossible because different customers would require different kinds of modems, depending on their service provider's central-office gear.
PC providers also are concerned about simplifying ADSL installation and reducing costs--two topics that were on the table for the December 2 meeting, according to several sources. NetSpeed Inc. (Austin, Texas), a DSL equipment vendor, estimates that each truck roll to install ADSL costs service providers $400, with an average of 1.5 truck rolls needed to set up ADSL service. With initial consumer offerings averaging $50 per month, it would take service providers a year to recover that cost, NetSpeed estimates.
To bring installation costs down, PC suppliers are pushing for telcos to adopt splitterless ADSL modems, which don't require a POTS (plain old telephone service) splitter to separate voice and data traffic. Splitterless ADSL modems can be plugged directly into a phone jack like other modems, theoretically making installation easier. They also eliminate $50--the typical price of a POTS splitter--from the installation cost. A number of ADSL equipment vendors have announced splitterless ADSL products, including Alcatel Network Systems Inc. (Richardson, Texas), Aware Inc. (Bedford, Mass.), Diamond Lane Communications Corp. (Petaluma, Calif.), NetSpeed, Northern Telecom Ltd., and Westell Technologies Inc. (Aurora, Ill.).
Accommodating splitterless modems might require some scaling back of ADSL speeds--splitterless technology typically maxes out at about 1 Mbit/s downstream (from the customer to the central office). NetSpeed says it has created technology that lets its splitterless modems operate at 6 Mbit/s downstream.
Wait and See
Whether the presence of Intel, Microsoft, and Compaq will help telcos speed ADSL service to consumers remains to be seen. "For a long time, the computer folks have been publicly criticizing telcos for being slow and asleep at the switch," says Mike Gorman, vice president, strategic standards product development at Ameritech. "ADSL is a new technology and a new market. We want to make sure that when we do this that we do it right for the customer, and that we're not just throwing technology out there."
Service providers and analysts say the customer equipment portion of ADSL is only one part of the problem when it comes to service deployment. While standard ADSL modems sold through retail channels could possibly simplify installation, there are still other issues with ADSL that need to be resolved, including operational considerations, quality of the local loop, regulatory issues, and cost.
"Going splitterless doesn't provide a universal no-truck-rolling business process," says Barry Nalls, assistant vice president of business marketing for GTE Communications, the competitive local exchange arm of GTE Corp. "If inside wiring doesn't have characteristics for DSL, you'll have to roll trucks." Competitive providers have to deal with regulatory issues such as interconnection agreements, Nalls adds. One reason GTE chose to roll out in one apartment building was that the property owner owned the copper on the premises, which meant that GTE didn't have to sign any interconnection agreements.
The difference in views between service providers and computer manufacturers may be best summed up by Bill Rodey, vice president of strategic planning and technology management at Westell. "Computer manufacturers want to make ADSL a mass market by Christmas 1998," Rodey says. "Telcos want this to evolve in the way a telco network evolves." In other words, next year's wish list may just be that--a wish list.
Text Menu
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tele.com Home Page |
