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

To: DenverTechie who wrote (1651)	7/23/1998 4:59:00 PM
From: MangoBoy	Respond to of 12823

[Industry Leaders Drive Toward Mass Market ADSL Availability] Alcatel, Analog Devices and Texas Instruments Reach First Milestone Toward Multi-Vendor ADSL Interoperability PARIS, NORWOOD, Mass, and DALLAS, July 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcatel (NYSE:ALA), Analog Devices (NYSE:ADI) and Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) have accomplished the first milestone in their partnership designed to achieve multi-vendor asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) interoperability. The companies have successfully completed two-way interoperability testing between Alcatel's ADSL central office solution and TI's customer modem silicon solution. In addition, testing has also been completed between TI's central office modem and Alcatel's customer modem. This is the first step in a broader interoperability program designed to confirm a three-way ability to connect, send and receive data, and disconnect without compromising the integrity of the system. The joint program is on schedule to demonstrate this full multi-vendor interoperability later next month. This technological breakthrough is expected to accelerate ADSL service deployment worldwide by creating an open market for telecommunications, personal computer, and modem equipment manufacturers ensuring equipment manufacturers will have multiple sources of standards-based chipsets that work together across various ADSL platforms. Service providers will be able to deploy with confidence central office equipment that will interoperate with a variety of customer premise equipment. Personal computer and modem consumers will now be able to purchase equipment and high-speed Internet services without concern for the type of equipment used in the telephone network. In March Alcatel, Analog Devices and Texas Instruments announced plans to conduct interoperability testing based on ANSI T1.413 Issue 2 discrete multi-tone (DMT) ADSL at the physical layer, using asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) as the transport protocol. In accomplishing this first milestone, the companies have successfully demonstrated two-way interoperability and expect to complete the final round of tests in late August, per their original agreement. While testing was based solely on full rate ADSL, the participants believe that much of this effort will be transferable to other versions of ADSL such as Universal ADSL as those standards become available. "The rapid success of this testing demonstrates the benefits of having a worldwide standard for successful mass deployment of this technology," said Mike Gorman, Ameritech's vice president, Strategic Standards and Business Development. "This achievement is a testimonial to the role of the ANSI T1.413 standard and the interactions with the T1E1.4 Working Group in developing the Issue 2 standard. This accomplishment is a major victory for consumers of high speed Internet access utilizing ADSL and the adoption of open standards." "Our position has always been firmly focused on providing standards compliant, interoperable equipment as the path to least-cost solutions. The ability of commercially deployed Alcatel DSLAM equipment to operate with other silicon destined for CPE applications validates the idea of alternative sources" said Martin DePrycker, vice president and general manager - Internet Access and ADSL, Access Systems Division at Alcatel. "Alternatives in CPE will create market competition which will drive mass-market ADSL availability. With the software programmability of our central office solution, the same card in the DSLAM will support either full-rate or UADSL modems on any port, which will lead to significant operations savings for our customers." "We are focused on the ultimate result of this work that will, in the very near future, serve to minimize the inherent risks of incompatibility, firmly establish a true open-market environment for ADSL, and speed the benefits of this technology to millions of end users around the world," said Mike Ziehl, director of marketing for broadband products at Analog Devices. "As a leading provider of high-volume ADSL chipset solutions, we're especially encouraged by the team's work to verify and prove semiconductor interoperability within the physical layer framework of T1.413 Issue 2." "The new world of broadband access is now truly at our fingertips," said George Barber, vice president of TI's worldwide Broadband Access Group. "This is a tremendous step in delivering a high-speed Internet connection. As the worldwide leader in DSP solutions, TI is dedicated to speeding the deployment of affordable ADSL CPE worldwide. The programmability and software upgradeability of our DMT-based chipset solution enabled TI to rapidly achieve interoperability. As new versions of ADSL become standards-based, TI will once again strive for interoperability across these silicon platforms."

To: DenverTechie who wrote (1651)	7/23/1998 5:25:00 PM
From: MikeM54321	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

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)