Crosstalk Slows Rollout of DSL
By Carmen Nobel
January 23, 1998 3:35 PM PST
PC Week
DSL deployment problems facing RBOCs run deeper than mere splitter installation woes.
Pacific Bell Corp., which has rolled out ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) in San Francisco, has refused the service to several customers in business offices because of problems involving crosstalk with existing T-1 lines. Crosstalk, or interference between the lines, tends to make ADSL run slowly.
One customer said he couldn't get service in his building because of crosstalk problems--even though the building is only 1,150 feet from the Regional Bell Operating Company's central office.
"It was unfortunate, as a small business, not to be able to order DSL services, which would fit very nicely into our Internet needs," said Greg Howard, an analyst at Infonetics Research Inc., a San Jose, Calif., company with 20 employees.
"Disturber problems have been an issue with DSL from the very beginning," said David Cooperstein, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., in Cambridge, Mass. "It's an old problem that didn't go away."
Other RBOCs--SBC Communications Corp., Ameritech Corp. and BellSouth Corp.--are counting on their DSL equipment provider, Alcatel Networks Systems Inc., to address the problem, said officials at those companies.
Alcatel will release the 3.0 version of its DSL access multiplexer by the third quarter, according to Alcatel officials in Raleigh, N.C.
The new release should improve speed and distance and help, if not solve, the crosstalk problems, officials said. Upon release of Alcatel's new multiplexer, SBC will deploy DSL in several additional cities, including Los Angeles and Orange County, Calif., Dallas, and Houston, said SBC officials in Houston. |
