Celite’s cool DSL gear

Today we’d like to highlight a winner in DSL equipment, start-up Celite Systems, and give it our “Coolest Thing at ComNet” award. DSL brings voice and data together on the same set of physical wires.

Celite’s DSL headends last week also received ComNet’s “Best of Show” award for new products. 

The Celite Systems CS 200 and CS 400 are designed to work at the telco cable cross-connect, sitting between the DSL access multiplexer and the customer’s DSL modem. They are “strap-on” devices, bolted outside the cross-connect terminal and powered by central-office power, eliminating the need for any external power supply and for their own space as an external device.

What’s really cool about this system is that it can reduce the local DSL provider’s capital expense and operating expense per DSL subscriber by “up to 75%” according to Hamid Jahromi, Celite Systems’ director of marketing. This system aggregates up to eight DSL ports or T-1 ports, and provides a statistically multiplexed connection of the 200 or so potential subscribers served by the cross-connect. Since all potential DSL users are now “prewired” no truck roll is required at the time of subscription. Furthermore, the DSL provider can get 200 connections from eight ports.

We’re willing to bet that we won’t see any 75% price reduction in the final DSL service price. But by reducing the service providers’ plant-related expenditures, this could bring down the price of DSL by as much as 25% to 50%, allowing the DSL connection to be very price-competitive with current cable modem services.

Next time: the other highlight of the show – Steve’s tutorial session on VoIP’s New Enhancements.