DSL Prime News Briefs

From Vonage to AOL, from Xignal to Verizon, DSL news from all over the world.

by Dave Burstein of DSL Prime and Future of TV [August 26, 2004]

Correction

• I suggested last issue that DSL chip sales are likely to do well starting Q4 as ADSL2+ comes to market heavily. I still think we'll see an upturn in chip volumes, but the prices may by then be falling, and the dollar volume of sales may disappoint. Foundries are reporting more capacity available, which will open up supply.
  
  
• AOL prospects, for the next year or two, are almost surely better than I have implied. I have suggested in several contexts that AOL as we know it is dying as they lose subscribers to broadband providers. I cannot see how the AOL for Broadband is likely to replace even a fraction of the revenue lost. But I've underestimated the short-term effect of sharply dropping costs to serve dial-up customers. The wholesale cost of the bandwidth and modems/remote access servers continues to fall, while little new investment is required in the network. That should give a nice boost to profit margins for two years or so, and gives them more time to re-invent the business. Losing 10 percent of your customers a year is still a tough challenge, and that will likely get worse if North American broadband providers offer less expensive entry level packages.

e-mail

• Al Gharakhanian of Xignal, a friend, writes "Our latest VDSL AFE is fully functional and demonstrates outstanding performance. We have multiple flavors of it such as dual and single for CO and CPE applications, with integrated line driver." Aware has succeeded with DSL design for chipmakers, and Xignal is now offering a device in the (finally) emerging VDSL space.

Briefs

• Subscriptions recently came from Oman, Thailand, SBC, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and others. I continue to be amazed at where I find readers.
  
  
• Carol Wilson of Broadband Edge reports a new "cybernet field technician job category" in Verizon's Texas contract. Like a cable installer, Verizon field techs will be expected to explain the new fiber services, upsell customers, and configure the home network. This keeps the jobs in the union, as will a provision for bringing in temporary union workers to do the initial construction.
  
  
• Verizon's FIOS brochure for customers, with pictures of the ONT, 8 hour battery backup, and operating procedures, is on DSL Reports.
  
  
• A box at the edge of the network is almost essential for intrusion protection, Kip McClanahan of TippingPoint and Broadjump convinced me a while back. I receive over 2,000 spam e-mail daily, and a host of viruses, and your customers are probably as angry as I am. Charter Cable has just ordered TippingPoint's unit to "eliminate malicious traffic." MBlast is also adding a TippingPoint box for protection.
  
  
• "His Master's Voice" commands you to buy Thomson modems and gateways, or at least so I imagine hearing from the RCA stuffed dog they gave me. Their other gift, a remarkable small RCA MP3 player, will make sure I never forget the connection between Thomson and audio.
  
  
• Vonage is advertising in The Register, an interesting online pub that focuses on the U.K. While that could be a preview of international expansion, I used my Vonage phone with a 212 New York number when I was in Germany, and it worked well. There was a minor quality loss, but the sound was better than a typical cell phone call. Through Vonage, you can get a 212 New York number with 500 minutes of calls for $10/month if you supply your own equipment. That has to be a great deal for a company with U.S. customers, or anyone who calls the states often. Makes sense for Canadian companies as well, of course.

People

• Mike Blahnik, a business journalist for the Star Tribune, is becoming an analyst for Piper Jaffray & Co., Power Behind the Pen reports. Enormous overlap in the work makes this a plausible career switch, but it's very rare. The difference in salary is extreme; a junior analyst generally makes more than any telecom reporter. Sometimes I'm at lunch with a Wall Streeter, and wonder whether I should be on the other side of the table.
  
  
• Matt Bross at BT is leading an IEC 21st Century Communications Worldforum in February 21-24, sure to be an interesting event. IEC will also host a BBWF in Tokyo next Spring.
  
  
• Joan Engebretson, recently editor of America's Network, has joined Carol Wilson at Broadband Edge, bringing together two of the field's best reporters. Wilson writes "Joan and I have been intersecting off and on for more than a decade. She was a freelancer when I was editor of Telephony, then she eventually became editor in chief of Telephony, left that job, almost came to work for me at Inter@ctive Week, but took the EIC job at America's Network instead. AN wound up buying The Net Economy (my magazine) and I became a freelancer for Joan. Sort of full circle I guess, until now when we are working together. I like having her on my side."
  
  
• For job ads, see the DSL Prime website.

Copyright 2004 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

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