To answer your technical question, it HFC telephony is not an IP based network at all (at least the version I worked on). It is a standard circuit switched network that converts the electrical T1 signal from the CO switch into an RF signal.
DenverTechie,
Thanks very much for clearing that up. I'm pretty certain, from reading all the voice over cable press releases, all voice over HFC systems are like you describe. The term "convergence" has been a little overused(IMHO). It appears there isn't much true convergence at all. It's really amazing how much we read about voice/video/data all merging onto that famous "seamless" network, yet voice has never been successfully digitized, for commercial use, to this day. Now I'm beginning to think it may be ten years out before voice will be packet switched.
So let's think about AT&T/TCI again. IF the deal goes through (I feel pretty certain it will because even the CLECs want it to), then it is pretty certain AT&T is going to complete the conversion of TCI's one-way cable plant to two-way HFC. Hardly any doubt about that. Armstrong made that clear.
Okay, so what type of network are they going to build? They have to offer "voice." Armstrong stated that as a primary reason AT&T made the purchase. AT&T is tired of paying the CLEC's access fees to be able to offer long distance to the CLEC's customers. AT&T wants to go directly to them via TCI's cable network. Armstrong and Malone made this pretty clear.
So you are pretty much saying that AT&T is going to be spending lots of money purchasing the good old fashioned (pseudo digital), voice circuit switches offered by the likes of Lucent, Newbridge, Tellabs, Northern Telecom (traditional telecom suppliers), etc. And then hook these switches up to a two-way HFC network to be able to offer "voice" to TCI's current customer base?
If my question does not make any sense, please say so. Then I'll ask it another way using Time Warners two-way cable network, "Roadrunner" as an example.
Thanks,
MikeM(From Florida) |
