Show to focus on broadband ROI

Amid the din of product announcements this week at SuperComm 2003, you can expect to hear a strong call for more readily available broadband access that will bring less-expensive connections to small corporate offices and telecommuters.

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The root cause for any delay of such offerings might be that service providers need convincing that the investments they make will pay off relatively soon.

"They have a concern if they will make money off [these new services]," says Marie Hattar, chairwoman of the Broadband Content Delivery (BCD) Forum and a marketing executive for Nortel. "Just doing a technical demonstration is not enough. Everyone's question is, where's the ROI?"

She says her group will back up that assessment at the show with the results of a survey of providers that it commissioned from TeleChoice about barriers to broadband deployment. The BCD Forum also will disseminate business cases for new services such as IP voice and data over a broadband connection such as DSL or cable modem in an attempt to sway providers.

Similarly, the DSL Forum will push specific services that the technology can support, such as video streaming, distance learning and gaming, says Tom Starr, the organization's president and a network executive at SBC.

"The issue is getting DSL available to more customers. There's still a number of communities that don't have it," Starr says. Service providers need the confidence that customers will buy the services if they are made available, he says.

Broadband will be dominant at the show, with more than half of the 450 exhibitors displaying broadband products or services. Technologies represented will include DSL, cable modems, Ethernet, Fiber to the Home and broadband wireless.

Availability of services, not technology, is the issue, experts say.

One contributing factor is competition, according to the FCC. The argument goes that if a competitive provider offers a broadband service in an area, the established carriers also are more likely to offer some form of broadband service. Part of the competition equation is the degree that the established carriers must accommodate competitors by leasing lines and switching capabilities.

Addressing this will be FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin, the renegade Republican whose vote shot down a federal rule that would have given competitors less favorable terms for leasing lines and switching. Martin will be the keynote presenter at a session on broadband regulation. The panel he is anchoring will consider faster access technology such as fiber and whether it, too, must be shared with competitors.

In addition to business and regulatory issues, SuperComm 2003 will be the debut of broadband products that range from Catena Network's hybrid fiber and copper access gear, to Larscom's equipment for delivering Ethernet services from SONET rings.

SureWest, a service provider in northern California, will announce its "triple play" services - voice, data and digital TV - and how that is supported on its fiber network in Sacramento.