DSL Prime News Briefs

Industry news from around the world, plus a correction.

by Dave Burstein of DSL Prime and Future of TV and the Web Video Summit [June 7, 2007]

Correction
Last issue, I wrote "Broadcom had jumped ahead of Conexant early last year in DSL modem chip sales, forcing them to fight back." I should have said "ADSL modem sales," based on the data I had from an analyst. Since Conexant but not Broadcom had substantial VDSL chip sales as well, I don't know the relative total "DSL" chip sales. I've urged both companies to share exact figures with me or one of the analysts so I can give you a precise report.

Briefs

• Kudos to Verizon for reducing energy use in three call centers by switching from desktop PC's at every station to 4 watt Sun Ray thin clients. I double-checked that 4 watt rating, because it seemed likely a typo. In fact Sun has remarkably reduced the power required for some basic computing. More than 3,000 stations in Arizona, New Mexico and California switched.
  
  
• If you bet lotteries, don't play 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0 . That's become one of the most popular numbers on the net, because it breaks DVD encryption (and prompted a revolt on digg).
  
  
• North Cyprus, the Turkish controlled fraction of the island, is now getting DSL service in Nicosia, Famagusta, and other cities. About 60,000 Cypriots now have DSL. Penetration is half of the Western European rate.
  
  
• Zhone's new FiberSLAM offers wave division multiplexing for multiple gig-E's or other wavelength services in an existing telco network. It's a small, comparatively cheap way to backhaul DSL and fiber remote terminals as video and other traffic demands grow. The minimum unit is a single RU less than two inches high, field hardened, and typically costs a few thousand dollars per connection. One more example of how the equipment makers are inexpensively solving the problem of getting more bandwidth to the people.
  
  
• Hanaro, which operates both DSL and cable, ordered 150,000 120 Mbps down/30 Mbps up bonded cable modems from Ambit for delivery in the next 90 days. It costs perhaps $60 upfront and $1 per month to raise cable modem speeds to 3 to 5 times what's common today, including downloads that will often hit 50 Mbps. Videotron, J:COM, Noos, and others are also ready to deploy pre-DOCSIS 3.0 rapidly.

Press

• James Enck of EuroTelcoblog has discontinued one of the world's best blogs because of his new job. Andy Abramson writes "I feel like I lost a friend. Like someone died...only no one did, except a blog." James going private diminishes the public discourse. I remember a VON where I was with James, Om, and Anton and told them I was talking with three of the five best telecom reporters in the world. That broke into a discussion of who the others might be, which I kept vague. No individual stands out at the Wall Street Journal, where they do generally the best work in the world, even if some majors errors have made the front page lately. Om is building a team that may match the Journal, but none of the other major papers comes close. Ray Le Maistre of Light Reading is the only obvious English speaking European consistently accurate and perceptive at world level. Pip Coburn is one of the few Americans with that kind of depth, but now writes for a very restricted investor audience. David Isenberg, Martin Geddes, Susan Crawford, and a few others I read religiously are probably better considered "commentators" than reporters.

People

• Mike Ricci takes over as CEO of Ikanos today. He rode the early boom of DSL at Level One, which sold to Intel for $2 billion at the peak. He rose to the top of Intel's Communication Group. Unfortunately, Level One/Intel SDSL chips never found a market, and at least two plans to bring Intel ADSL chips to market were cancelled after major investments. One major market Ikanos has is consistently underestimated: half of Japan's 8 million "fiber to the home" subscribers really are "fiber to the basement + VDSL." Ikanos has $100 million in cash and equivalents, allowing Ricci time to turn around the company.

Copyright 2007 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

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