Optical Switching

What a Telco Needs- Optical Switching

by Carol Wilson

The hottest product category right now isn't terabit routing or an optical switch or any such next-generation gadget. What carriers want most right now is the ability to speed up and simplify their service-provisioning process, particularly for in-demand services such as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Internet access.

Service providers, including incumbents, new competitors and Internet service providers, need new gizmos less than they need the ability to make the ones they have work better, and to reach customers faster and at lower cost.

That's why Cisco Systems' announcement this week of a package of products under the clunky name, Order-to-Service, is by far the biggest news in the access arena this week. Cisco rounded up some of
the better vendors in the DSL service delivery game, came up with one new software product of its own and produced a system that automates delivery of DSL service from the time the customer places the order until the service is up and running.

The new product - they call it a solution - addresses several key factors that are slowing DSL deployment today, starting with the customer order.

At that early stage, a customer either enters a phone number into a Web interface or speaks to a service representative at a CLEC or ISP. Assuming that information is entered correctly, the Order-to-Service system uses Quintessent Communications' DSL Xchange to send the order
to the incumbent telephone company, without sending faxes or using human beings who can screw things up. Quintessent specializes in electronic connections into the operations systems of large incumbents.

The next stage is qualifying the customer's loop for DSL service, and for that segment, Order-to-Service uses Turnstone Systems' Copper CrossConnect CX100 and CrossWorks Back Office Automation Software.
Cisco's own Network Order Manager, the one new product in the mix, does the actual turnup of the DSL circuit in concert with DSL gear such as a DSLAM. At the customer end, Broadjump's innovative Virtual Truck system helps configure the customer's personal computer and
Portal Software's billing system get information from the Cisco Network Order Manager to start billing when the service itself starts.

Enzo Signore, director of DSL marketing for Cisco, believes the Order-to-Service system can cut DSL provisioning from a weeks-long to a days-long process. By automating many steps of the process and reducing the number of times trucks must carry technicians out into the field, Cisco also expects to save service providers money.

That's a key issue at a time when DSL service is being sold for $39 a month by incumbents, who may be spending well above that to put the service in place.

"Our research shows service providers are spending $1,500 to $1,700 per customer to install DSL," says Signore. A carrier making $39 a month waits more than three years to earn a profit on the service.

Cisco is also again encouraging network operators to consider the all-Cisco solution. The Order-to-Service system will work with network gear from other vendors, says Signore, but it will work better with Cisco switches, routers and DSLAMs. Go figure.

Wireless data at last?

Wireless data is a service looking for an application. More equipment vendors are joining the search. This week, Nortel Networks teamed with InfoSpace to add a wireless data service platform to its existing and upcoming wireless transmission systems. Novatel Wireless partnered
with Cerulean Technology, a wireless mobile software vendor, and VisionAIRE, a developer of wireless data applications for vertical markets, to develop wireless apps for the mobile workforce.

Apparently corporate data folks are feeling the heat as well. In its latest Linux Developers Survey series, Evans Data reports a 50% increase in Linux applications being written for wireless devices within the last six months. Evans Data interviewed 300 Linux developers in August 2000.

Going soft at the edge

Woodwind Communications, which makes integrated access devices, has developed what it calls a "Soft IAD" because it offers CLASS and Centrex services today, with the ability to be software-upgraded to support softswitches in the future. This software upgradeability is critical because while service providers want to put intelligent devices on the
customer premises today, they can't be certain what tomorrow's network architectures will look like. Maintaining flexibility at the edge becomes crucial.

Small town hero

ASC Communications continues to rack up supply wins among small telephone companies. Yadkin Valley Telephone Cooperative of North Carolina and Ben Lomand Telephone, a Tennessee cooperative, are both using ASC's A-400 to concentrate Internet traffic to make use of a single high-speed connection.
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