DSL

DSL Prime News: The Inside Source

DSL Prime examines breaking news on equipment sales in Taiwan, legislation in the United States, pricing in the United Kingdom, financing news from Wall Street, and much more.

by Dave Burstein DSL Prime [February 28, 2002]

Note added Wednesday a.m. Rhythms' liquiquidation was approved this morning, as D.C. votes to "save" the bells from competition. I just got a memo Ed Towns' office sent out this morning, trying to persuade Congressmen to vote for a "compromise" amendment that neither Towns nor any of the folks voting understand. The more I watch the money flow in D.C., the more I worry about America.

Dateline Jerusalem, a week ago as I began this issue: It's humbling to walk a city millennia old, touch the wall of Solomon's Temple, linger in a Church that dates back 17 centuries. The sweep of history is around you—especially the failures. Anyone sane must hope for peace for this troubled land. In our industry, Jews, Arabs, and many other nationalities often work productively together; we must find a way to do make that the way of the world.

The U.S. has lost the world leadership in the fast Internet. My trip is to brief a modem maker on the DSL industry worldwide. Asia is booming, Europe following, the U.S. falling far behind. 80 percent of the world's DSL lines were in the U.S. two years ago; less than 25 percent of installs in 2002 will be. Germany and Japan, countries less than half the size of the U.S., each installed more lines last quarter. Britain can expect a boom, as they just cut the wholesale price in half, as John Davies predicted to me in October. DSL is exploding around the world, the failures of two big U.S. telcos merely confusing journalists focused too much on one country. I live in New York, but I do my best to learn from other nations.

DSL Prime is taking a vacation the week of March 10. We've been traveling so much, I need the time to stay home and take care of things.

The news will break at conferences
First week in March, much of the industry will attend the DSL Forum in Rome, where enormous amounts of work gets done in the member sessions. Look for advancements in auto-logon, power management, higher speed DSL.

It's the best opportunity for folks to make contacts with the folks in the industry who can help you when you need it. The Forum is strengthening the service provider council to share best practices. Same week, the round fellow with a beard, Dave Burstein of DSL Prime, will be in Orlando for Dan Reingold's Telecom CEO Conference.

In Denver that week, the FS-VDSL group will be looking into the future. Expect dramatic results from the video tests recently completed by Bell Canada, Qwest, BT, France Telecom, Telecom Italia Lab, and Telenor. Don Clarke FS-VDSL Technical Director reports: "extremely successful." Douglas C. Shafer, Chief Executive Officer and President of VideoTele.com, who supplied headend equipment, is very happy with the results. Don't be surprised to see a new VDSL chip from a major vendor.

Looking ahead, in April I'm speaking at Jeff Pulver's Voice on the Net Conference in Seattle, where I hope to visit Speakeasy, Microsoft, and meet more of you. DSLCon is the biggest industry show, in San Jose, May 13-16. I've also been invited to Southern California for Vortex, May 19-21, a high level and interesting show, and then to Boston where Dan Berninger is bringing together some of the most interesting folks in telecom and the net.

The trip I really need to make is to Asia. A chip manufacturer is thinking of sponsoring some seminars I would give, and I welcome similar opportunities that cover our costs. Asia long ago passed the U.S. to lead the industry, and I very much would welcome correspondence and to meet more of the people involved.

Copyright 2001 Dave Burstein.
The DSL Prime Newsletter is reprinted with permission.

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