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

To: Darren DeNunzio who wrote (3327)	4/7/1999 4:44:00 PM
From: lml	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12823

DD: I am not certain that the telco's are keen on investing a large chunk of change to upgrade their copper delivery system. I am. SBC/Pacbell is planning a complete redesign of their copper network. As far as the other telecos, there aren't many left. Bell Atlantic/GTE? I'm sure they'll be following the same path. USWest seems to made some headway, I dunno about Bell South. Probably waiting to be acquired. [Y]ou can see how little xDSL has penetrated this area That's not the case. xDSL offered by CLECs is quite ubiquotous about the City. If one happens to live in a residential area, far from the CO, one can still get IDSL from a # of CLECs. Believe me, the telecos are working profusely to overcome the distance problem of ADSL. Perhaps we'll see some relief before year-end. Longer term, it is unquestionable that we'll see an upgrade to the existing copper network. They'll have to if they are to compete with HFC technology. JMO.

To: Darren DeNunzio who wrote (3327)	4/8/1999 11:00:00 AM
From: WTC	Read Replies (7) \| Respond to of 12823

RE: < I am not certain that the telco's are keen on investing a large chunk of change to upgrade their copper delivery system.> I concur with the response from lml. I see clear evidence that decisions in at least one other ILEC TO make upgrades that support higher bit rate, more ubiquitous coverage with ADSL is a done deal. The really sticky questions that remain to be flattened are implementational: vendor and technology selections, target data rates for the planning period, and roll-out priorities and obstacles. The data rate question is especially complex, in that there are so many options. Is full rate (8mb/s) ADSL enough for the planning period, or should the plant be prepositioned for 26+mb/s VDSL from the get-go? Is 8mb/s for 60% and less than that, say, 4mb/s for another 30% of homes, enough coverage, if that implementation saves, say, $2B? These are not the details that get close attention if the decision is still up in the air to "upgrade the copper network." The upgrade, of course, involves substantial additional tranches of fiber placements in the subscriber feeder plant, so it is a bit of a misnomer to term the current or future network the "copper network." In one possibly typical ILEC, the work activities to effect the more aggressive upgrade (a very high percentage of households would have access to 8mb/s ADSL) involve outside plant construction and rearrangements at over 35,000 individual locations (DLC RTs, SAIs, CEVs, etc.) That is a lot of equipment procurement and construction activity to kick off without some very clear insight as to what the FCC expectations will be insofar as remote site collocation access for CLECs. The last FCC collocation order was oddly silent on the whole issue of remote collocation, but is seems to be a next shoe to drop. This is a great opportunity to get thousands of sites built wrong if an ILEC jumps the gun on the FCC pronouncements and guesses wrong.