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DSL Dazzle

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

DSL was hyped to convert the copper wires into gold ones. Many, however,

started to believe that DSL technology promised a great deal, but is yet to

deliver.

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Leaving aside the usual hype factor, the reality is that not only DSL

technology has proven itself by making market inroads in many Asian markets, it

has led to growth in bandwidth available to households around the world. Asia is

now the largest DSL market in the world with about 8.4 million DSL users at the

end of 2001. Korea stands tall by accounting for 7 million of this total with

low consumer prices taking the broadband penetration to a quarter of the country’s

households. This speaks of Korean commitment to bring broadband connectivity to

its population. Similar growth can be seen in Taiwan, Australia, Hong Kong,

Japan and Singapore. Malaysia and Thailand are also seeing growth in DSL

subscribers. The Yankee Group has predicted an average compound growth rate of

28 percent in the years 2000-2005. Even in Europe, ADSL subscriber numbers have

exploded recently with Belgium doubling in the last three months of 2001, France

going from 200,000 at end of September to 430,000 by the end of the year and

Germany having a total of 1.8 million customers, according to Ovum.

Value-added

services are key to making broadband profitable. Besides high-end

services like VoDSL, there can be simpler ones like gaming, and

virus protection

FROM

MY CELL



NIRAJ K GUPTA

Technical Standards



So far G.lite, the simpler and cheaper version of ADSL, has been very

popular. After G.lite are coming the two new members of the DSL family of

standards–G.dmt and G.shdsl. The G.shdsl standard–approved in February 2001–is

being rolled out in certain parts of the world, mainly as a business solution.

Symmetric DSL (SDSL) may eventually be standardized on G.shdsl, but it is yet to

gain popularity with carriers evaluating the market potential and the value that

it brings to the market. SingTel’s DSL network, now mainly based on G.dmt,

also supports G.lite.

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However, for most carriers, reducing operational expenses, provisioning

costs, etc. have been the key issues being addressed by automating the service

provisioning process.

Value-added Services



For managing quality of service and bandwidth costs, one needs to deliver

both IP and non-IP services over DSL (including video). This needs to utilize

network intelligence in the central office. Besides home networking and gaming

as options, investments in voice-over-DSL can bring additional revenue streams

and savings to new providers over the conventional analog voice.

DSL

subscribers in APAC: 2003 (projections)

Where will India be?

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Value-added services are key to making broadband profitable. Besides high-end

services like video-over-DSL (VoDS    L), there can be simpler

ones like gaming, home networking support, security-firewall, virus protection,

and others to bring in additional revenues.

Using the broadband infrastructure, carriers can increase the average monthly

revenue per customer. Adding services makes for more customer ‘touch point’,

and value-added services layered on top of the embedded technology bring the

long-term stickiness of the product besides revenues. The cable companies

demonstrated considerably lower churn for the customers who used voice, data and

video services over the ones using plain vanilla services.

With very high-speed DSL (VDSL) providing both asymmetrical access (up to 26

Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream) and symmetrical access (up to 14 Mbps in

both directions), lots of interactivity and content can be delivered to

subscribers. This gives carriers the ability to bundle even more services. Video

provisioning is poised to be the differentiating factor for telcos in future.

Shall we join the race to bridge the emerging broadband divide?

www.telecombynirajgupta.com

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