DSL Prime News: The Inside Source

Cable should maintain its advantage over DSL in the near future, but only in the U.S. where the RBOCs seem determined to price themselves out of competition and maintain monopoly margins.

by Dave Burstein DSL Prime [June 11, 2003]

"DSL additions were nearly double the 7.8 million cable modem subscribers added in 2002, while Europe passed the United States"
—Wachovia

IP Telephony works. It cost me about 15 cents for a crystal clear call from New York to London to arrange an early checkin when I get there tomorrow, and about a dollar for a long call with Hutchinson in Hong Kong for details on their VDSL deployment. (They have 116,000 subscribers, more than the entire U.S. except for BellSouth.) Two million Japanese on Yahoo BB can call New York for six cents for three minutes, and every country with effective competition will see phone rates plummet because of the technology.

In London this week at VON, I'll get to talk with Free.fr about video, Dan Gilmorr of the Gavin Young of the DSL Forum about whether competition is working, BT about how an early technical leader can convert that into millions of satisfied customers, and many of you as well, I hope. Jeff Pulver's set next spring's VON for Santa Clara March 29—April 1st, and I hope many of you will join me for another Fast Net Futures. Some great speakers this year made for a great conference.

"Remember, when a great story breaks out, go like hell," Howell Raines, New York Times editor said as he resigned. Wish I found more great stories to go after. The VDSL line code debate is too boring to be a great story, but is important enough to our industry I've tried to cover in depth. VDSL is suddenly a hot topic in the U.S., because 10 percent or more of the Bell FTTP will have VDSL on the end, and that the contract of the century. A vote may happen as soon as June 18th—you're a carrier technical person, check the article at the end.

Next issue, June 16 with more news from Europe and I hope some VDSL answers.

DSL Forum wants the home
Free home networking is an advantage over cable
Nothing gets cable modem customers angrier than companies snooping into their home setup to see whether they have another computer, a smart stereo, or even an intelligent printer. So DSL companies that encourage home networks, without charge, have a true selling proposition, as opposed to just selling on price or taking out ads with senseless blabber. DSL is a tech product, where even non-technical buyers look to their tech friends for recommendations. The most attractive marketing campaign I've seen in DSL was for Telecom Italia two years back, but the company's sales were far below plan until they lowered the prices a year later. DSL ad campaigns in the U.S. have generally been total flops, because they don't have real advantages to promote.

So the DSL Forum is on track with new efforts on:

• LAN side DSL customer premise equipment (CPE) configuration specifications
• Dual port router requirements
• WAN-side DSL CPE management specifications
• Interface & System configuration for ADSL on customer premises
• Privacy and Protection Security

Cablelabs has money and backing from the top of their industry. The DSL Forum deserves the same in ours.

Copyright 2003 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

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