Negen gear could spell inexpensive services for branch offices

By Tim Greene
Network World, 12/11/00

MARLBOROUGH, MASS.. - Start-up Negen Access says it has a new way for service providers to support inexpensive Internet access, phone and data service packages that are suitable for corporate branch offices and small businesses.

Using a single phone line and very-high data rate DSL (VDSL) technology, Negen equipment can support two phones, eight 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet connections and Internet access in a single, customer-site device in a remote office. Negen's version of VDSL supports bidirectional speeds of 10M bit/sec on regular phone wires.

This configuration would eliminate separate phone lines and data lines as well as a WAN router. While the savings passed on to customers will be up to individual service providers, carriers could provision services for as little as half the cost of traditional technologies, the company says.

Negen makes two boxes: one for customer sites called Convergence Branch Gateway and one for service provider points of presence called Broadband Access Switch, which aggregates traffic gathered from customer sites.

The access switch forwards the traffic to service provider switching offices via Gigabit Ethernet uplinks.

The gateways feature analog phone ports and 10/100 Ethernet ports. The boxes are stackable and come in different configurations to support greater or fewer phone ports.

Other vendors, such as Alcatel, Cisco and Nortel Networks, make customer-site gear that integrates customer traffic onto a single access line. But they don't support VDSL and don't include a PBX as part of the box, as does Negen.

However, the company faces competition from another start-up, Kenetec, which has announced a similar family of devices that will be available next year, says Jack DaQuano, an analyst with the Hurwitz Group.

In addition to VDSL, Negen plans to support fiber, satellite and other WAN technologies using a modular WAN port. Negen plans to demonstrate this equipment at the ComNet 2001 show in Washington, D.C., in January, and will ship later next year.

A down side

On the negative side, customers will face the possibility of losing all branch communication if the gateway fails, DaQuano notes, so Negen will have to demonstrate that the box is highly reliable. The customer site gateway can be configured to support a separate regular phone line that would still work even if the box failed.