ADSLite = Another-Dead-Service-Lease?>Trials Expose Dark Side Of ADSL Lite
February 4, 1999
The new "lite" version of Asymmetric Digital
Subscriber Line technology that was
supposed to be easy for consumers to buy
and install on existing copper phone lines is
facing one definite kink.
Early trials show most consumers who want
to use Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
(ADSL) Lite to get faster Internet access for
their computers also must install microfilters
-- tiny devices that can be plugged into a
phone line -- to keep their voice service from
interfering with their data service, and vice
versa.
Fujitsu Network Communications, GTE, Intel
and Orckit Communications tested ADSL Lite,
also known as G.Lite in the international
standards arena, in 47 homes in Hillsboro,
Ore.
In 81 percent of the homes, at least one
phone needed a microfilter to share a phone
line with a G.Lite modem; in half of the
homes, multiple microfilters -- as many as
five -- were required.
Fujitsu (www.fnc.fujitsu.com) officials were
neither surprised nor terribly dismayed by the
findings, considering that microfilters are a
low-cost solution to sending out telephone
company technicians.
But other vendors aren't so sure.
"We tell our customers to take a similar group
of homes and trial ADSL Lite with half, and
full-rate ADSL with the other half, and then
compare costs of installation, phone support,
technician dispatch and other problems," said
Steve Makgill, ADSL product line marketing
manager at Alcatel (www.alcatel.com).
"We're not convinced that ADSL Lite will be
easier or less expensive."
[Copyright 1999, Ziff Wire] |
