ATLANTA - Dozens of service providers and their equipment suppliers will gather this week to show off the latest in digital subscriber line (DSL), optical networking and voice/ data convergence technologies.
The good news for users is that after months of hype, real services based on these technologies will soon be available.
Industry observers say this year's SuperComm conference in Atlanta may be the busiest one ever in terms of new technologies, product announcements and interoperability demonstrations.
Established equipment makers and well-heeled start-ups are finally starting to deliver the gear that will provide faster carrier networks that are less expensive to build and run.
Those networks will support new services such as:
Voice-over-DSL, which offers 16 voice connections over a single telephone line with room left over for a data channel.
DSL.Lite, which provides digital downloads at 1.5M bit/sec using a modem preinstalled in your PC.
Passive optical networking (PON), which delivers 100M bit/sec fiber connections directly to your home.
Voice over DSL will be among the most visible technologies demonstrated at SuperComm, and carriers such as Rhythms NetConnections say they will sell services based on it by year-end.
The technology is suited to supporting voice and data needs of branch offices using just a single regular phone line. A single voice-over-DSL line carries multiple compressed digital voice channels, leaving bandwidth that can be used for data traffic, such as Internet access.
Voice-over-DSL vendors, including CopperCom and Jetstream, are announcing alliances to promote interoperability among their DSL voice equipment and other equipment located at customers' sites and carriers' switching offices.
Less exotic DSL will also get a boost with an interoperability demonstration of DSL.Lite, the easiest to install flavor of DSL. Some observers say DSL.Lite will fuel a boom in demand for the technology that will triple the number of DSL lines in use by next year. Regional Bell operating companies say they are ready to embrace the technology as soon as it hits the market.
More than 30 vendors plan to demonstrate that their gear will interoperate, making it possible to buy a PC with a DSL.Lite modem installed and plug the modem into any carrier's DSL.Lite line. Carriers will provision the service from their switching offices without visiting the customer site, much as they provision regular phone service.
Taking the idea of widely available broadband services a step further, BellSouth is introducing Fiber to the Home, a service capable of delivering 100M bit/sec fiber connections to houses.
Initially, the service will be offered to just 400 homes in the Atlanta area. But as BellSouth learns more about the technology supporting it - dubbed PON - the carrier may expand the service area.
PON technology shines a laser into a fiber-optic distribution network that starts with a single fiber and branches off into two, then four fibers and so on until the single fiber feeds 16 others.
For all the upbeat spin of the show, the appearance of new services will still come down to the carriers' bottom lines. o
RELATED LINKS
Key DSL flavor faces big compatibility test
Network World, 4/19/99.
DSL modems on tap from Ascend and Alcatel
Network World, 3/22/99.
BellSouth to give a taste of DSL.Lite
Network World, 11/18/98.
DSL.Lite on trial in Oregon
Network World, 10/29/98.
ITU endorses G.Lite
Network World,
10/26/98.
Can't get enough DSL
Early implementers tout the easy installation and attractive pricing of digital subscriber line service - when they can get it. Plus a review of Paradyne Hotwire MVL. Network World, 11/16/98.
DSL Net Resources
Primers and additional DSL info.
