Ernie, your question on power is coincidentally one of the first things that came to my mind when listening to the ATT+TCI engagement event. Some of the other replies to your question have suggested that a backup battery supply at the customer premises will most likely be the source of power for -48dc for the phones in a home. I agree that is the most likely, and by far the least expensive way for ATT+TCI to handle that issue in the home in event of a power outage.
A prior job assignment of mine involved a full service hybrid fiber coax network with thousands of telephone and video customers, where all telephone equipment in the home was network powered. That involved a need for the network to provide about 3 to 4 watts per home . Although that sounds trivial, it adds up to many kilowatts when you want to serve a group of 400-500 homes, taking into account voltage drop over coaxial cables and consumption of power by the fiber node and strings of two way RF amplifiers along the coaxial cable. Providing uninterruptable network power to homes and equipment in a HFC network can cost $50 to $100 per home. I don't think this is in any of the network upgrade costs for ATT+TCI.
The majority of existing cable TV systems, including most of those within TCI, lack what can be considered as robust backup power systems for their remote optical nodes and amplifiers in the outside plant. When a power outage occurs, these components rely on distributed battery strings that may last a couple of hours, if they are in good condition. When those batteries hit a certain minimum voltage, a low voltage cutoff usually shuts them down so they don't get ruined. Then the amplifiers and optical node ceases functioning, and the cable system goes dead. However, the power may actually be "on" at many homes in the serving area of the cable plant, depending on how extensive the power outage is. For cable TV service, this is an annoying, but not life threatening deal. However, this type of a power arrangement for a full service telecommunications network including telephone services, would deny dial tone to customers until the power is fully restored. And that can be a bit more serious than just losing the TV picture.
Bellcore recommends that remote power systems in local loop telecommunications equipment have an 8 hour backup supply. That is usually able to handle 90+ percent of all power outages, and gives the telecom provider time to reach the remote equipment site with some kind of backup generator if a more prolonged outage is likely (such as after a natural disaster). I don't think we will see ATT+TCI rushing to this type of power reliability until they get some cash flow moving in the direction of telephone services. But it is a chicken and egg thing, because the local telcos will certainly market their service reliability during power outages to their advantage, and maybe discourage some customers from signing up for ATT+TCI phone service.
BTW, the "box" for offering circuit switched telephony over a hybrid fiber coax cable system is available from several manufacturers today, and is being used on a relatively small scale by several cable and telcos around the globe. Here in the USA, Cox is probably the most ambitious. Nortel is one of the better known system vendors in this area, along with ADC, Motorola, and a few others. However, ATT+TCI is not talking about widespread circuit switched telephony over cable. They have cast hook, line and the kitchen sink in with IP over cable for voice services. What kind of box would that be? Hmm, I think it might be something like a Com21 cable modem/VoIP gateway combined with a General Instruments digital settop cable box, sort of an all in one digital communications hub in the home. That box doesn't exist today, so stay tuned, film at 11.
Ray. |
