IP: RE: AT&T Sees a Future in DSL (and HomeRF 2.0)

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

> Date: Wed, 09 Jan 2002 06:56:17 -0600
> From:
> Subject: RE: AT&T Sees a Future in DSL (and HomeRF 2.0)
> To: farber@cis.upenn.edu
>
> Dave,
>
> If you forward to IP List, please post without attribution.
>
> Please note that I use swbell.net (DSL) only because my Sprint ION service
> went away.  Disclaimer, I am a Sprint employee who did not work on ION.
> This response is my own opinion and DOES NOT represent Sprint in any manner.
>
> XXX
>
> This will be a very steep challenge for AT&T.  Sprint unsuccessfully tried a
> similar offering with their proprietary "ION" product suite.  They
> encountered problems with AAL2 voice quality and ILEC roadblocks to delay
> access to customer lines.  ILEC strategy was successful in blocking Sprint's
> CLEC challenge and Sprint has shut down ION as of end of this year. So long
> as ILECs control access to the final mile and FCC continues to grant ILECs
> easy access to long distance in state after state, this picture will not
> change, for AT&T or any other CLEC group trying to challenge ILECs over last
> mile.
>
> AT&T's best option would be to go with VoDSL offering to the customer
> premises using a VoDSL gateway that sits in front of a class 5 switch.
> Various VoDSL vendors have Integrated Access Devices (IAD) that sit at
> customer premises and default to lifeline POTS when power is lost.  VoDSL
> gateway and IAD use same split analog/digital bandwidth as does a normal
> ADSL offering, except that the derived voice lines dynamically use the
> digital portion of the spectrum when derived voice phones go off hook.
> Typical home customer would be OK with 2-4 derived voice lines (each at
> 32kpbs compressed voice), except that data rates will significantly slow
> when derived lines go off hook.  If lifeline POTS line is off hook, there is
> no impact on quality of DSL because the POTS uses the Analog portion of
> bandwidth.  Key for VoDSL users is to obtain sufficient digital bandwidth to
> support both digital data and derived voice circuits.
>
> VoDSL vendors have several configurations available to both CLECs and ILECs.
> AT&T may encounter the same problems as Sprint and other CLECs when they
> start to execute this plan.  It will be interesting to see if AT&T has
> sufficient horse power to obtain any better results than others who are no
> longer competing with ILECs on their own turf.

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