xDSL Getting There

Kind readers,

In the next two months both Hayes and Aware prepare to roll out their DSL products which offer about 1 to 1.5 Mbyte downstream speeds. Others are on the way also as the third generation products come out of the labs. New chip sets are making this and other advances possible. The principal holdup has been the availability of the components to make the products. This is about to change as the products proliferate in search of a market.

This puts the next step firmly in the hands of the disparate telcos and their implementation of the technologies available. With all the bandwidth possible with these devices, how will the telcos carry such volume? There is still the problem of cross talk with other lines if they are on copper trunks. All telecommunications providers are busy burying and leasing OC (Optical Carrier) trunks in anticipation of their use. Pricing structures are still up in the air as the 'bean-counters' shuffle the numbers around trying to figure out how to pay for this major infrastructure expansion.

Enter a couple of entrepreneurial start-ups both with innovative visions of how to build their own infrastructure to satisfy the upcoming needs. They are Qwest and Williams Communications. Qwest has been 'gobbling' up unused railroad right of ways and running their own trains and specially built railway cars burying OC-48 and OC-192 trunks on these right of ways. The bandwidth available is mind boggling and already has attracted some of the major telcos to signed on the dotted line to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The other Williams Communications has an equally innovative approach by gaining access to natural gas and oil pipeline right of ways and doing the same thing. They too are attracting telcos who are also signing on for big bucks.

Each will have 14,000 to 16,000 miles of high speed monstrous backbones in place by 1999 and promise to be major players. Incidentally, watch for investment opportunities in these two if and when they go public. They are the "darlings" of the venture capital community at the moment.

Aware

Hayes

Quest (com) And Quest (net)

And, Charlottesville, VA has a ADSL trial in progress by Sprint using Fujitsu equipment. The Fujitsu info is on their Australian site, I think.

Peace,
Clarke