Raleigh, you don't seem to completely grasp the benefits of the USR Total Control Solution...
The facts are, USR already has the market share of access devices at the ISP level. Ascend is next major player as I understand it at this time. Cisco, Bay, and a whole host of others are competing for market share. Obviously, Cisco's advantage is that it has the market share in the router business and many customer's feel comfortable w/ their solutions. You clearly state why a company like FTEL might be able to make significant inroads into the Access Device market -- comparable product (USR will argue w/ you) at a better cost.
The major point is, most ISP's already own the USR infrastructure. Instead of a new chip, or hardware replacement, one of the primary benefits of the Total Control is the fact that they provide Flash-ROM upgradability/scalability. They will be able to support 56k at no additional cost to their existing customer base. What remains to be seen is whether or not it will support other manufacturers' (esp. Rockwell chip set) 56k modem calls.
USR has tested competitive products on behalf of one of my Federal contracts. They are constantly testing their solutions in order to meet spec, be as "open" as possible and provide benefits that they currently don't own. As I mentioned in an earlier post, they purchased several companies in the past year. Generally this appears to be their strategy in order to obtain technologies that they don't own. If FTEL has something proprietary and patented that USR needs, I would assume an offer would be made at some point. I am not privy to such information at this time, but I will keep digging.
You know how I feel about FTEL, and It appears to be a good long-term, and maybe even sort-term, play.
M |
