DSL to miss Santa
By Tim Greene
Network World Fusion, 1/27/98
Washington, D.C. - So maybe DSL won't be under your Christmas tree this year.
When the consortium of Intel Corp., Compaq Computer Corp., Microsoft Corp. and the regional Bell operating companies this week took the wraps off their alliance to push a user-friendly version of the broadband access technology, they had a more modest proposal than initially reported.
The first thing to go was the notion that a DSL standard could be set by Christmas.
But they think they can speed up the standards process and make asymmetric DSL (ADSL) a much more common commodity.
The DSL version supported by the consortium, known as the Universal ADSL Working Group (UAWG), is designed to be as easy to use as the common analog modem. Known generically as splitterless DSL, it would eliminate a box called a splitter that sits at the customer site and filters out a regular voice channel from the high-bandwidth DSL datastream. The datastream would offer up to 1.5M bit/sec toward the customer and perhaps half that bandwidth the other way.
The splitterless feature makes it easier for carriers because they do not have to send someone out to install the splitter. And with help from the likes of Microsoft and Compaq, the customer could buy a PC and software package off the shelf that could configure the service painlessly.
While the group represents an impressive collection of big names, they need to coordinate their efforts to make any difference.
So far, they hope their combined efforts can get a standards proposal before the International Telecommunication Union next month, and get back a stable version of it by year-end. That could get hardware vendors working on standards-compliant modems also by year-end.
After that, it would be up to software vendors and PC makers to develop installation software and modems that the average consumer can use.
Carriers involved with the UAWG said they would not stray from their announced DSL deployment plans regardless of the standard. But when splitterless DSL is standardized, they will blend it in with their offerings, they said.
Their hope is that the splitterless DSL modems they would install at their switching offices would fit into the DSL multiplexers they are already using.
Services would include Internet access and remote LAN access.
Carriers desperately want to stay away from the customer site if possible because of the cost and definitely want to stay out of configuring the user PC for DSL.
Microsoft employees involved in DSL trials had trouble configuring their home PCs to support the service, according to Daniel Steele, a Microsoft business development manager. "Configuring the PC has been somewhat of a daunting task even for some of our people, who are some of the more astute technical folks," he said.
Customers who already have ADSL service say the Internet is becoming a necessity, not just a convenience, according to Mark Hubscher, director of ADSL for Ameritech Corp. The DSL line is dedicated, so the customer spends no time logging in. The connection is up all the time. |
