May 1999
xDSL. Cable. Broadband Wireless: As the battle for
consumer broadband access heats up, which technology do you see as the frontrunner and
why?
We asked several industry-leading vendors for their views on the Internet telephony
industry. Their responses appear below.
Any of the three technologies can deliver on the promise of increased bandwidth to the
consumer. The challenge for broadband data is as much an issue of network infrastructure
design as it is an access link technology issue. Cable is currently the frontrunner
because it can spread its transmission plant capital expenses across multiple services
(digital video, data, telephony), and because it has already begun deployment at a viable
price point for the consumer market. Economies of scale for cable modems are already being
realized through volume manufacture by multiple vendors to a common DOCSIS standard.
Today, DSL technologies suffer from too many standards and a lower number of homes already
passed by upgraded plant. The proposed G.lite DSL standard will help, but it is 2 years
behind the DOCSIS standard created in early 1997. In addition, DSL pricing has to consider
cannibalization of existing telephony service offerings. Wireless technologies have not
yet reached the maturity needed to realize economies of scale. If cable can execute its
broadband data rollout well, it can establish a self-sustaining leadership in its
installed base that will be difficult to overcome.
- Buddy Snow, Sr. Director, Product Management, General Instrument Corp., SURFboard
Cable Modems
In my view, operators offering broadband access are best served with a hybrid
fiber/coax (HFC) solution than with competing choices such as xDSL and broadband wireless.
xDSL is a point-to-point connection, requiring a modem on each end of the line. While this
is practical for a dedicated link, it is a costly network solution for multiple
connections requiring a modem per subscriber in the headend. In contrast, an HFC solution
takes advantage of modern digital multiplexing techniques and TCP/IP protocols to minimize
the amount of equipment per subscriber required in the headend.
In addition, it is estimated that only 30 percent of today's copper plant can support
xDSL, requiring a significant up-front capital expenditure for plant upgrades. In total,
xDSL solutions are capital intensive when compared to other broadband technologies.
Wireless also possesses significant technological challenges for operators, not only
because of line of sight issues, but also because of unexpected interference inherent with
rain fade and foliage-generated seasonal variations. And, wireless has not proven to be
cost-effective in high-density applications.
Hybrid fiber/coax is a cost-effective, reliable broadband solution leveraging an
existing and ubiquitous facilities-based infrastructure to allow operators to
incrementally generate added revenues by offering bundled cable TV, high-speed Internet
access, and premium-quality telephone service to their subscribers. In fact, the prospects
to gracefully merge voice, video, and data onto a single platform inherent in an HFC IP
scenario offers the prospect of ultimately changing the landscape with respect to how
these services are delivered.
- Jim Lakin, Vice President, Arris Interactive
Although most of the hype these days would lead users to believe that some flavor of
wired DSL or cable modems will be the answer to users' demands for high-speed access, the
only real ubiquitous high-speed access to both homes and businesses will come from
wireless solutions.
A wireless solution using MMDS frequencies is not dependent on a wired infrastructure
and thus, can be deployed easily to both residential and business customers across a
70-mile coverage zone by putting up a single radio wave transmitter. Competing
technologies such as DSL and cable modems will take years and billions of dollars to yield
the same potential coverage areas because they will have to tear up the streets and
recondition hundreds of thousands of miles of outdated cable plant.
To make things worse, the RBOCs seem to be stalling their rollout of DSL due to fears
of cannibalizing their existing T1 business as well as stifling competitors who are trying
very hard to deploy DSL solutions using leased local loops.
Cable modems are making better progress, but they still place users in a bridged or
shared network environment where everyone on a network has the ability to sniff packets
destined for their neighbor's PC. Security will become more and more important as
e-commerce grows. A shared environment also means that as more and more people install
cable modems, the available bandwidth will shrink and users could quickly be reduced to
speeds comparable to dialup 56K modems. Sad, but true.
As pointed out in earlier, high-speed wireless access is a much more flexible
technology to deploy and also provides a much more secure environment to compute in due to
the fact that every wireless modem has its own static Internet Protocol (IP) address.
Being first to market with high-speed access data/Internet service for both business
and residential customers will be a major factor in who wins market share in the local
access market. Regardless of what the cable companies or the RBOCs are saying, wireless
has a major speed-to-market advantage over any wired solution.
There are many classic examples driving broadband such as telemedicine, CAD/CAM, and
telecommuting. Instead of focusing on existing on these high-bandwidth applications, it
might be more interesting to consider the new era of products and services that would
arise if 1.5 Mbps connections were available to everyone.
- Matt Oristano, CEO, SpeedChoice
The broadband turf wars are only beginning. Cable modems have the early lead and, I
believe, will continue to dominate the consumer market because the technology is easy to
use and, most importantly, is inexpensive. Residential users are very cost sensitive and
the $30-$40 monthly cost is all the average Web surfer is willing to pay (if that). In
addition, the costs involved for CLECs to penetrate the consumer market with DSL are
prohibitive for most to gain significant market share, as well as the RBOCs being slow in
rolling DSL services out. Those factors are joined by the fact that cable companies are
the obvious winners in bringing video to the home, and are leveraging that existing data
pipe to include Internet access.
With that said, however, the larger market for broadband services is with business
customers and, in this market, DSL will dominate. The primary reason is security but the
technology also provides business customers with value-added enhanced services, including
virtual private networks. In-building, multi-tenant unit, and campus applications will
further expand the business customer market for DSL and also eliminate the most pressing
major problem for DSL service providers - distance limitations.
- Chris Whalen, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Interspeed, Inc. |