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Technology Stocks : LAST MILE TECHNOLOGIES - Let's Discuss Them Here -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (7118)	5/29/2000 12:56:00 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 12823

Mike, that was an interesting account on the cable telephony issues (in the uplinked message), thanks. What comes to mind is the incentives for going with any form of packet, i.e., ip tel, or voip. These approaches would ordinarily from an Internet mindset be considered enabling of future IP-related applications. This is what is commonly referred to as application convergence. But I've been of the opinion for a long time now that the main incentives from the MSOs' perspective would be, if and when the packet IP voice quality becomes commercially viable, one of enormous bandwidth and some switching fabric efficiencies as opposed to the usual DS0 channel bank, switching and discrete line handling architectures demanded by the circuit-switched alternatives. However, now we see that some of the MSOs, most notably, and not so coincidentally T, are improving --or at least claim to have plans to improve-- the number of homes passed and other clustering metrics. Lightwire comes to mind here. Also, some MSOs are now making better use of optical spectrum to the head end in the upstream direction through various wdm techniques. The latter initiative may very well point to a decrease in the urgency to improve bandwidth utilization -but not the switching fabric, necessarily -unless softswitch were used in the packet mode- for voice. Switches can be bought without necessarily going into unpredictable r&d and trials. But previously, when homes passed ranged into the thousands, bandwidth could not be bought, when the HFC design was not so forgiving on bandwidth availability. To some extent, the bandwidth situation seems to be getting a reprieve if we are to believe what lies in store at some of the large MSOs. These will be, IMO, temporary at best. But they will allow a window that might allow circuit switched to be introduced more gracefully. Am I reading too much into this b-w efficiency angle? Or, is there some merit to my thinking here? Certainly, it plays into the voice selection calculus, somehow. Comments and corrections welcome. FAC