To: Wyätt Gwyön who wrote (2255 ) 7/19/2000 3:01:40 PM From: pat mudge Respond to The following IBD article probably should be put up on the NT thread as well as here. The highlighted segment is important to SDLI: Data Speeds Pick Up On Net, But Process Must Get Faster Investor's Business Daily Investor's Business Daily about the future of networks.IBD: How will the Internet infrastructure be deployed in the future? Chandran: We see the real blurring of enterprise networks, service provider networks and metro networks. We have a lot of carriers that will build Internet data centers. Inside, there are computer and storage servers. Then you have optical networking and wireless Internet. These Internet data centers are going to become the new central offices where telecoms now have their switching systems. The Internet data centers are going to replace central offices over time.IBD: What's the advantage to the Internet data center? Chandran: A terabit of storage last year was roughly $10,000 to $15,000 and dropping like a stone. A terabit of capacity is 1,000 of your favorite movie titles. As you begin to serve users in metropolitan areas, you don't need to reach right into the Internet or a Web site way down the network somewhere. You can store this content (close to users) and ensure user experience is much (faster and) more satisfying.IBD: What's Nortel doing in the wireless market? Chandran: When you think about third-generation (3-G) of wireless Internet, the promise is to provide the user up to two megabits of capacity on a 3-G wireless cell phone. Compare that with today, where you get about 9.6 kilobits of capacity. With (today's) capacity, it would take 28 minutes to download a typical e-mail. In two megabits, it takes less than a second. So what you need to do is provide an optical interface to 3-G wireless infrastructure. This is going to unleash huge demand for mobile commerce. It's not about content on wireless. It's much more about allowing commerce to happen.IBD What's an example of mobile commerce? Chandran: We built out the current network for (cell phone company)Sunday of Hong Kong. As you're walking through the busy streets, Sunday can pinpoint you and send you a message saying, "I understand you're really interested in (Hugo) Bosss suits. We've got a sale at the Boss Store, and if you tell them that we sent you the message, you get 25% off."IBD: Any contract wins for Nortel in this area? Chandran: British Telecommunication's Cellnet awarded us the 3-G contract to build out their U.K. network. We run 12 of the 14 pan-European 10 gigabit optical networks in Europe, and there's going to be a lot of interface between the optical and wireless networks.IBD: What about Nortel's investments in AirFiber, a company that delivers high-speed Internet access to cities wirelessly? Chandran: This is to see whether or not we could use the rooftop-to-rooftop capability for optical transmission through the air. It's still in its early stages. ******* It might be more cost-effective in densely populated areas to, instead of laying fiber-optic cable in the ground, run fiber-optic cable underwater, yet close to shore, and then have wireless capability from that line into the metropolitan network.******IBD: Nortel recently purchased several software firms. Is Nortel going into the services market? Chandran: We're interested in improving the experience for the end user. How often do you dial into the Internet and go through all these Web pages and go on and on until you finally get what you want? Imagine if software knows the last time you were here and that you're interested in these book titles or these series of transactions isntead of forcing you to wend your way through these huge command trees.IBD: What are the next technologies that we'll see in network gear? Chandran: The fiber-optic and 3-G networks will be around for a long time. The real magic is how we can provide unrestrained capacity in the areas where we live and work and play. We're just at the beginning of the power curve of what's happening on the Internet.
