ADSL and frame relay: Now that we have your attention...

The recent newsletters in which we discussed the possibility of Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) services potentially mounting a serious challenge to low-speed frame relay really got the bits moving on our e-mail. For instance, one reader wrote:

"The Achilles' heel of some ADSL services is that they are oversubscribed to the point of insanity, at least for the consumer offerings. Some ISPs want 4,000 ADSL customers on a single DS-3 ATM interface. Offerings targeted at businesses may have improved quality of service [QoS], but the price points will definitely go up. From a technological perspective, ADSL is bitchin', but from the perspective of business realities, ADSL Internet access service comes under the heading of 'a dog with fleas.'"

Our reply: hold off a bit on the flea powder. If the offerings are indeed absurdly oversubscribed, then the perceived QoS (to the extent that it exists) will indeed suffer. However, there might be some mitigating circumstances:

1) If QoS suffers, the competitive landscape will force businesses and consumers to other services. These services might be other ISPs' ADSL-based services. Or another alternative service might even be frame-relay-over-ADSL services, which we've been advocating in this newsletter.

2) In the case of some services, such as those from BellSouth, there is no distinction between business and residential service in terms of QoS options or price. This is probably good for business from a price perspective, though there could be some performance degradation during the time period from when school lets out until the close of the business, when residential and business usage overlaps. Most business applications can't hold a candle to the bandwidth demands of a bunch of surfing kids with multimedia. But so far, we've found, even the worst ADSL response times beat the heck out of 64K bit/sec ISDN.

The controversy over this topic will rage on. In fact, we've found this discussion to be so interesting that we've opened up a portion of the Public Forum at Webtorials.Com for continued commentary. Please feel free to participate by visiting www.webtorials.com/forum.htm.

ADSL lines may be oversubscribed, but that's the same issue that was raised for five years about frame relay (and is inherent in the design of any shared public network services). The antidote is that carriers generally continue to build out their networks to meet the demand because the competitive nature of the industry mandates it. Even so, ADSL is still a heck of a deal for now.

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Steven Taylor, consultant and broadband packet evangelist, and Joanie Wexler, an independent networking technology editor and writer, team up to bring you this analysis and commentary. Taylor specializes in education and market analysis, and Wexler adds incisive reporting and research. For more detailed information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter, connect to www.webtorials.com, the first Web site dedicated exclusively to market studies and technology tutorials in the Broadband Packet areas of Frame Relay, ATM, and IP. Feedback and additional topic ideas are welcome. Please contact taylor@webtorials.com or joanie_wexler@mindspring.com>

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