April  2001

In response to Robert Hashemian's February 2001 Reality Check column, Broadband & The 'Burbs.

It was very educating to read your article today. Thanks! I do hope that you get your better Internet connections at the earliest. I have heard that a few companies in U.S. are offering Internet via an Optical FTTH method. Can I ask your opinion about the feasibility of this method? Also, if DSL/Cable companies are taking so much time to implement their connections, do you feel that Optical FTTH companies will be able to reach their critical mass soon enough to sustain themselves? What in yousr opinion should be the revenue model for such companies?

�- Gurmeet Singh

With recent reports estimating that Internet traffic is expanding by up to eight times per year you can imagine the growing strain on the traditional voice and data infrastructure. Optical technologies at work in the core of the network are constantly scaling to solve bandwidth constraints there. Most would agree that the major bottlenecks occur on the access side of the network. These problems are likely to be exacerbated further by bandwidth hungry multimedia applications including video conferencing and collaboration, distance learning, and more.

While FTTH technology is still in its infancy, we are starting to see some early work being done by service providers. For example, The Daniel Island Media Company announced that a community in Charleston, SC is set to receive FTTH technology for telephone, television, and Internet services. To build the state's first FTTH network, the company selected solutions from Optical Solutions, Inc., of Minneapolis. The plan is to deliver voice, video, and high-speed data directly to homes in the Daniel Island community. Residents will receive state-of-the-art telephone service as well as access to additional broadband services including 60 channels of analog cable television and high-speed Internet data up to 8Mbps. Over time, DIMC anticipates offering 100Mbps data capacity, unlimited analog and digital video selections and pay-per-view services.

So, to answer your question, yes, FTTH is becoming ever more feasible and we're even seeing the first field trials. As far as DSL and cable go, these technologies are ready today, and are being adopted readily by a bandwidth-starved population. As FTTH becomes more prevalent, the cost of existing technologies will drop to combat encroachment into their markets, but I think it will be some time before we see FTTH deployments ramp up to levels that would constitute "serious" market share. But hang in there! It's definitely coming.

�- Greg Galitzine, Editorial Director

I've read your article and face the same situation as well as having to deal with the insane issues of Ameritech, which has become a shambles since its purchase by SBC. But that's another story -- possibly for you.

The situation I would like to have you take to task is the company Web developers that have T1 lines or are on a LAN to their development systems. It would be interesting for you to challenge them to go out to the "Burbs," possibly your house, and have have them access their sites in the 20kbps environment. And, chain them to the chair.

�- Sam Battaglia

PS: Today is a good day for me -- I'm connected at a whopping 28,800 bps!

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We recently had the opportunity to read the article "Building The MGCP Gateway" by David Fridley, in the February 2001 issue. The article mentions that most companies will deploy MEGACO/H.248 in the future. But there is also a study of ETSI called "Tiphon" and at this study MGCP is foreseen as a future standard.
We kindly ask opinion of the author on this subject.

�- Atalay Borbay & Cengiz Dogan

David Fridley responds:

The International Softswitch Consortium is also using MGCP. Whether MGCP will remain a standard in the long run, or drop out and be totally replaced by MEGACO is a tough question. The reason is that there are a good number of companies that are supporting MGCP right now while MEGACO is just coming out. But, most companies that are leaning towards MGCP, including us, say that they will support MEGACO in the future. The real weight behind MEGACO is the International Telecommunications Union, who is standardizing it as H.248. The large, existing, telephone companies are leaning toward H.248 rather than MGCP.

So, I don't have a definitive answer for you and although I am not involved in the ETSI TIPHON work I would say it just adds more fuel to the fire, and doesn't lead to anything definitive.

But let me ask you why are you asking this question? Are you working on some project and trying to decide between MEGACO and MGCP? To answer that question I would need to ask two others: Is the customer an ILEC or CLEC; and is this something you want to deploy in the next six months or later? ILEC and later would imply MEGACO. CLEC and sooner would imply MGCP. Other combinations would be hard to call at this point.

�- David Fridley, Anatel Communications

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