Ray, SteveG, et al,
If we can dodge the news reports for a moment, here is what I think is an interesting article that links VoIP with Cable TV delivery systems. Seems to me that we discussed this possibility about six months ago or more, right here in Last Mile.
When you read this, keep in mind the current chatter and concerns about the FCC's pending involvement in regulating voice services on the Internet, and those which are only "perceived" to be Internet-related by those investors who don't want to hear that VoIP protocol-supported Tie Lines are not actually 'Internet' connections.
And as your read this, try to answer whether Cable System-initiated VoIP calls would be candidates, in your opinion, for such regulation. If so, under what conditions, and if not, why not.
Later, Frank
ps - RJ, look for email on Monday. Great Holiday to All!
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Cable takes second look at voice services -- Industry
wants to add voice-over- IP capabilities to new cable
data standard
April 10, 1998
Internet Week via NewsEdge Corporation : The
cable industry is launching another salvo at the
telephone industry, this one aimed at a fat and
lucrative target: voice services. While IP telephony
currently is more of a wish than a reality for most
cable operators, they are working hard to add
voice-over-IP capabilities to recently adopted cable
data standards.
The industry late last year agreed on the Multimedia
Cable Network System (MCNS) 1.0 standard. This
latest guideline-backed by the industry research and
development group known as CableLabs-promises
to expand the cable data business by making cable
modems and head-end equipment interoperable.
Now, the cable industry is working to add
voice-over-IP extensions, including details on
quality-of-service issues, to version 1.1 of MCNS.
"Standards go through evolutions," said Rich
Nelson, director of cable TV marketing for cable
modem chip-set manufacturer Broadcom Corp. in
Irvine, Calif. " They get better. And one of the areas
cable operators are clearly interested in is voice."
An industry initiative called PacketCable, headed by
Comcast Corp. vice president of strategic planning
Mark Coblitz, has set out to establish quality-
of-service standards for a variety of IP-based
services.
Meanwhile, some manufacturers have begun to add
features such as voice-over-IP capability to their
products. Broadcom's chip set allows modem
makers to support quality-of-service features such
as constant bit-rate flow, which could make cable
service more closely resemble traditional telephony.
"I think [for now] what you'll have is manufacturers
offering these options as value-added features," Mr.
Nelson said.
Still, few major cable operators have launched
serious telephony initiatives, though some are trying
local loop services over hybrid fiber-coax plants and
others are experimenting with IP-based technology.
One of the most active voice players in the cable
arena is MediaOne Inc., which plans to roll out cable
telephony services in Atlanta, and Hazel Park and
West Bloomfield, Mich.
If cable operators manage to roll out a full-scale
voice offering, they could attract consumers by
offering lower prices than the local exchange
carriers, according to a study by Yankee Group, a
Boston consultancy. About 68 percent of
consumers surveyed said they would switch
local-loop providers if the price was 10 percent to 15
percent lower than their existing lines, said Bruce
Leichtman, Yankee Group's director of media and
entertainment strategies.
The question is whether cable operators can deliver
good enough service to keep those customers. Even
with the help of MCNS 1.1's proposed constant
bit-rate extension and other technical modifications,
cable operators will still be hard- pressed to
duplicate the quality of the existing voice network,
analysts said.
"Over the years, operators have been saying that
they want to do local phone service," said Gary
Arlen, president of Arlen Communications, a
Bethesda, Md., consulting company. "It's high on
their agenda, but they realize that it's not easy to
do."
The major obstacle? Cable systems were built to
carry video one way- into the home-and can be quite
expensive to retrofit to carry switched voice services,
Mr. Arlen said. What's more, most cable networks
have not yet been upgraded to hybrid fiber-coax
infrastructure, he said.
Given these obstacles, industry observers suggest it
will be a long time before a large-scale cable
telephony rollout takes place, either for IP- or
facilities-based services.
Anne Zieger is a Gaithersburg, Md.-based free-lance
writer. |
