DSL Prime News Briefs

DSL news from around the world.

by Dave Burstein DSL Prime [June 11, 2003]

E-Mail

• "How can you write that—it wasn't in our press release?" or "we never announced that" would seem ridiculous questions to ask a journalist, but that's essentially what happened, yet again. My response is "Do I have a mistake?"
  
  
• "Massimo Sorbara is respected by everyone," I wrote last issue, so I was very surprised to get an e-mail "I know [Massimo Sorbara] will perform his duties as T1E1.4 Chair as fairly as any human can. On a scale of 1-to-10, Massimo's professional ethics are a 10. " from a distinguished member of the committee. If anyone took what I wrote as a criticism of Sorbara, please read it again. "Massimo Sorbara, Chair of T1E1.4, is respected by everyone" I added he "is on the spot because his own employer, Globespan, has been a supporter of one camp, DMT, for a year." John Egan, one of the strongest proponents of QAM, went out of his way to compliment Sorbara as well. I personally believe the committee should take extraordinary steps to counteract any perceptions, however, given how high the stakes may be and the many assertions already made by both sides.

Briefs

• Kazaa may scare the record companies, but major corporations know what people want. Dell, Hilton, and a major telco were recent advertisers on the service, perhaps not directly.

People

• Mark Kersey of ARS writes, "Is it possible that they're positioning [newly promoted] Stankey or Blase as Whitacre's heir apparent?" Everyone's watching hard. SBC, for better or worse, is what an insider calls "a command and control environment", which has the unfortunate effect that strong independent folk rarely get near the top. The CEO at SBC has near total power, so the very close knit team at the top is surely lobbying hard to keep the job in-house.
  
  
• Sean Belanger of Paradyne surprised me when reviewing some recent bids. I would have assumed that Asian manufacturers had a major cost advantage, but he's been able to stay very close despite producing the DSLAMs in the U.S.
  
  
• For job ads, visit the DSL Prime website.

Wall Street

• ADC is "actively shopping for a $100-300 million annual revenue business that would closely complement one or more of its existing product lines, possibly its fiber connectivity business" Rich Church of Wachovia reports after speaking with their CFO. ADC has had a core business in HDSL/T1 service, and I can think of a few candidates with complementary technology if not the revenue.

Stories not written. (Suggestions and comments welcome, although I never seem to catch up.)

• Bell fiber—why they will or won't, and how to win the contract of the century.
• Bruce Kushnick views, as the press looks to him for the Bells past promises. (Note—my best guess is the build is finally on, but very slow.)
• Little telcos that can: Arrival, Surewest,
• SBC Yahoo customer tracking (David Lazurus in the SF Chronicle has been devastating.)
• Rural Carolina finding its own way
• Beyond Yahoo BB: Japanese ISPs build VOIP interconnects.

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

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