[Performance Telecom press:]
<<<"As a result, we are partnering with a number of large vendors, which will remove the proprietary obstacles from the DSL rollout efforts that are rapidly increasing. In less than nine months weve gone from having no phone companies with announced DSL service plans, to nearly all major phone companies worldwide with DSL initiatives. And the phenomenal growth of this industry will be even more fascinating in the next nine months.">>>
Dave --
I was also impressed with the announcement until I got on the phone and asked a few questions. Performance has been known to announce more products than they deliver and as for the quality of their ADSL modems, they make Aware's look like Bugatti's. Before getting too excited, find out how many trials they've been in and with what results. Then find out who their "large vendor" partners are. I might be impressed had they named them. Note, too, how cleverly they've worded their press release. Right after talking about their partners, they say, "weve gone from having no phone companies with announced DSL service plans, to nearly all major phone companies worldwide with DSL initiatives," as if the "we" were Performance Telecom and not the industry as a whole.
This may be an extremely talented company with potentially fine products, but I'd want to learn a little more before pronouncing them the winners in the ADSL race.
Where is Amati's product? Why don't you call the ADSL directors at GTE and MSFT (Redmond, WA), NEC/Telstra (Australia), Siemens (Germany), Ericcson (Sweden), France Telecom (France), Swiss PTT (Switzerland), Tadiran (Israel), BT (United Kingdom), Iatalia (Italy), PacBell (California)and (Jim, help me out here). . . .
A recent article in NetWorld says it all when they say the only modems without distance problems are those MCI is using in their trials in Iowa, supplied by NEC/Australia---Amati's Overture 8:
<<<<Basic Rate Interface ISDN, the 128K bit/sec dial-up choice for many telecommuters and Internet users, works over 18,000 feet of two-wire copper, and that can be doubled with a repeater. But users continue to complain that they cannot get it because they are too far away.
Ameritech's ADSL trials show that ADSL modems can support 1.5M bit/sec over a local loop that is 13,000- to 18,000-feet long. They expect technology developments to push that distance to more than 18,000 feet by the time they roll out service toward the end of the year.
****The most optimistic bandwidth/distance result is from MCI
Communications Corp. trials in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa. MCI reports that NEC Australia gear is delivering 6M bit/sec over 13,000 feet.
Rosy picture
Other carriers are reluctant to reveal numbers, but most say the
optimal scenario MCI paints is the exception.**** The rest are still trying to understand the restrictions imposed by the gauge of the copper wire in the local loop and whether the line is festooned with load coils and bridge taps that are used to enhance lines for voice.>>>
It always surprises me when few notice what I consider to be the second biggest industry endorsement since the TeleLabs tests proclaimed Amati's Overture 8 "a model of consistency," and over-all the best product. Being chosen for the second phase of the GTE-MSFT trial was the other.
This is a long way of saying, read between the lines. I take words seriously and have little patience with misleading press.
Regards,
Pat
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