Vectored DSL - How It Works

Cancelling noise can double short loop speeds. Telco networks are generally built with 25 lines joined together in a binder like the picture. Each active wire generates crosstalk "noise" which interferes with the lines around it, reducing their speed. Cancel the noise and the lines can run faster. In practice, speed doubles to 70-100 meg down, 10-40 meg up, over short loops up to about 300 meters. Up to about 100 meters, a related standard G.fast, promises 200+ megabits. Bond two pair and you inexpensively (less than $125/home) double the speed again. As loops get longer, the crosstalk noise becomes less of a factor and the speed is limited more by the resistance of the copper wire itself and other kinds of noise, like AM radio. Over about 1,000 meters, vectoring has almost no impact. So vectoring matters if and only if you have a box fairly close to the customer. These "neighborhood nodes" can be small; you can connect 48 homes with a "pizza box" DSLAM. The boxes themselves are usually connected by fiber to the exchange. "Fiber" is a magic word and a brilliant AT&T lobbyist came up with the name "fiber to the node," FTTN. It worked; AT&T's node DSL build, U-Verse, got major government concessions. Stanford Prefessor John Cioffi and his former student George Ginis developed the idea back in 2002. The name comes from the vector mathematics used to calculate the noise cancellation. They couldn't demonstrate at the time because the calculations for 25 pairs running at 100 megabits were impractical. As Moore's Law improved chip performance, demonstration systems from ECI and Lantiq began showing in 2009. By 2011, Alcatel demonstrated production-oriented systems that were tested in 2011-2012 at carriers including Swisscom and Belgacom. The results were outstanding, confirming the 70-100 meg speeds. European carriers including Deutsche Telekom and Telecom Italia abandoned fiber plans and switched to the much cheaper vectored DSL. By late 2012, numerous problems emerged from early field trials. Carriers including Belgacom and Deutsche Telekom decided to delay substantial deployments until late 2013 or even 2014. Everyone is confident the problems will be quickly resolved with minor changes in the gear and the software managing the networks. Deutsche Telecom remain confident of deploying 12M to 24M lines in four years. The Germans in particular are anxious to deploy quickly because the cable guys are kiling them. DOCSIS 3 in Europe can offer "up to 200 megabits" down because EuroDOCSIS uses 8 MHz channels. Kabel Deutschland's standard offer is "twice the speed of Deutsche Telekom DSL for the same price." Kabel committed to early deployment of gigabit DOCSIS, perhaps by yearend 2013. Deutsche Telekom's estimate of cost is EUR 6 billion for 24 million homes, less than $450/home passed. Telecom Italia and AT&T have lower estimates. I use a figure of "about $400" for short discussions. VDSL DSLAMs sold for an average price of $38/port in 2012, although if you aren't buying in the millions you'll likely pay a much higher price. Adding vectoring raises the bill of materials by only a few dollars per port, but first to market Alcatel is looking to charge a 100% premium for vector. As Huawei, Adtran, ECI, Calix and others ship systems, the price will come down. Those DSLAMs need to be installed in field cabinets and connected by fiber to the exchange. Most customers need new modems. But at $50/month, three year revenue for VDSL is $1800. The investment is so quickly paid off it fits within the typical telco capex budget. The saving compared to fiber is at least $500/home and possibly $1500-$2000/home. Thursday, 04 April 2013 16:03 First tier telecomm accessories supply Original Article here

A-L supercharges DSL with vectoring

Alcatel-Lucent announced new VDSL2 line cards that include vectoring, which DSL service providers can use to significantly boost data rates on bonded lines to speeds faster than 100 Mbps.

In addition to line cards with vectoring capability built in, A-L also has a vector processing card.

The company claims this to be the first commercial vectoring product for VDSL2. The vectoring process resolves crosstalk on adjacent wires, enabling DSL signals on copper lines to operate at close to theoretical bandwidth rates.

A-L senior marketing manager Keith Russell noted that VDSL2 without vectoring is capable of 20 Mbps at 1,000 meters and 40 Mbps at 400 meters. That can be adequate for today's needs, but various projections suggest that consumers are going to need or want 50 Mbps by 2015 and up to 90 Mbps by 2020.

VDSL2 with vectoring can get service providers there, Russell said. "We can go to 100 megabits per second at 400 meters."

The company is introducing a line card that has 48 ports, with board-level vectoring across those 48 ports. Another set of 48-port line cards provide system-level vectoring.

A vector processing card with 192 ports (servicing four line cards) is scheduled to be introduced before the end of the year. Next year, the company intends to release a larger version with 384 ports (servicing eight line cards), Russell told CED.

In 2010, the company developed the first vectoring prototype, allowing the company to engage in extensive lab and field trials with service providers worldwide, including Belgacom, Telekom Austria and Turk Telekom, A-L said.

Specialize in telecommunication and internetworking accessory


Original Article Right Here

Bell Labs achieves 300Mbps over just two traditional DSL lines

“DSL Phantom Mode” lab test maximizes the value of existing copper networks by pushing the envelope on DSL capacity

PARIS — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that its research arm, Bell Labs, has successfully demonstrated a technology that boosts the transmission speeds achievable over just two digital subscriber lines (DSL). In a lab test of “DSL Phantom Mode”, Bell Labs achieved downstream transmission speeds of 300 Megabits per second (Mbps) over distances up to 400 meters (or 100Mbps at 1km). At these speeds, service providers will be able to maximize the ability of the existing copper infrastructure – widely deployed around the world – to satisfy demand for bandwidth-intense residential triple-play and business services, for years to come.

At its core, DSL Phantom Mode involves the creation of a virtual or “phantom” channel that supplements the two physical wires that are the standard configuration for copper transmission lines. Bell Labs’ innovation and the source of DSL Phantom Mode’s dramatic increase in transmission capacity lies in its application of analogue phantom mode technology in combination with industry-standard techniques: vectoring that eliminates interference or “crosstalk” between copper wires, and bonding that makes it possible to take individual lines and aggregate them.

“Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs’ DSL Phantom Mode lab test adds a whole new dimension to the ongoing ‘100Mbps for all’ debate. The fact that existing copper loops can facilitate 300Mbps at 400 meters reshapes the whole next-generation broadband competitive environment – and will open up a wide range of new business opportunities for ‘traditional’ DSL players,” comments Kamalini Ganguly, Analyst from Ovum. “This announcement shows that Alcatel-Lucent is seriously looking at all possible innovations to help its customers speed up the deployment of next-generation access networks, through a smart mix of advanced copper and fiber technologies.”

“We often think of the role innovation plays in generating technologies of the future, but DSL Phantom Mode is a prime example of the role innovation can play in creating a future for existing solutions and injecting them with a new source of value,” said Gee Rittenhouse, head of Research for Bell Labs. “What makes DSL Phantom Mode such an important breakthrough is that it combines cutting edge technology with an attractive business model that will open up entirely new commercial opportunities for service providers, enabling them in particular, to offer the latest broadband IP-based services using existing network infrastructure.”

Further research is being conducted to refine deployment models and determine a specific set of customer premises equipment (CPE)-models compatible with the DSL Phantom Mode technology.

Alcatel-Lucent leads the DSL space on a year-to-date basis – according to Dell’Oro’s latest Access Report*. The vendor recently announced the unique milestone of having shipped its 200 millionth DSL line, and serves one out of three fixed broadband subscribers around the world through its access network technology.Wednesday, April 21st, 2010


Minority-Owned Business by Supplier Diversity, Public Utilities Commission-State of California

Original Article Here

Corning to lay off 200 contract workers worldwide and 85 employees in Kentucky

from DIGITIMES: IT news from Asia

Corning has denied speculation that it would lay off salaried employees in Taiwan. But the glass substrate supplier has revealed that it plans to discontinue about 200 contract workers worldwide and lay off 85 employees at its Kentucky facilities in the US because of the impact of the global economic downturn on retail demand for LCD TVs and monitors.

Verizon Cuts Pricing on DSL Packages - Expands 7.1-Mbps Servic

Verizon expands 7Mbps DSL to compete with cable

By Justin Mann, TechSpot.com
Published: November 3, 2008, 6:28 PM EST

Shortly after Comcast announced plans to incorporate DOCSIS 3.0 with speeds approaching 50Mbps and higher, Verizon is seeking to retain their DSL customers with faster speeds as well. Verizon will be expanding their fastest-tier DSL service, making it available to around 6.6 million people, significantly more than the less than 1 million it was available to prior.

The increased DSL speeds will go as high as 7mbps, and apparently is only being targeted in areas where FIOS isn't available. Those speeds still fall short of most cable offerings.

From a global perspective, even these speeds are rather unimpressive. The U.S. is still ranked fairly low for average broadband speeds worldwide along with Internet propagation. The size and layout of the U.S. makes broadband for everyone hard to accomplish however, so the stats looked at as absolute numbers only paint one side of the picture.

Verizon Cuts Pricing on DSL Packages

Telco Drops Pricing on Bundles With DirecTV; Expands Availability of 7.1-Mbps Download Service

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 11/3/2008 8:49:00 AM

Verizon Communications, after suffering net losses in its digital subscriber line business for two straight quarters, is renewing its focus on the segment by cutting pricing on its DSL, phone and DirecTV service bundles as well as expanding the availability of its fastest DSL tier.

The moves are designed to slow the defection of DSL users to cable. Despite Verizon’s aggressive push behind FiOS Internet and TV services, DSL remains its most widely deployed broadband service, available to about 25 million households nationwide compared with 9.1 million for FiOS Internet.

Verizon is introducing an entry-level triple play with 1-Mbps DSL, phone and DirecTV service with 150 channels for $79.99 per month and dropping prices of its other DSL-based bundles by up to $18 per month.

In addition, Verizon said its top-speed DSL tier -- with downloads up to 7.1 Mbps -- is now available to 6.6 million households nationwide compared with 3.4 million in mid-June.

Verizon positioned the promotional pricing and renewed focus on DSL as catering to value-conscious consumers facing economic uncertainty.

"In strained economic times, maintaining a high-speed Internet connection remains at the top of consumers' discretionary spending lists," Verizon vice president of consumer product management Susan Retta said, in a prepared statement.

The telco boosted the speeds of its entry-level DSL Internet service to 1 Mbps downstream and 384 Kbps upstream, up from 768 Kbps/128 Kbps, and is offering the service for $9.99 per month for the first six months with a one-year contract. After the six-month promotional period monthly pricing for the remainder of the annual plan will range between $19.99 and $25.99 depending on the market.

While Verizon has delivered solid growth in its FiOS service -- after investing billions building out and marketing the high-capacity fiber-to-the-premises network -- its DSL and traditional landline businesses have deteriorated. In the second and third quarters of 2008, the company reported a net decrease of 133,000 and 96,000 DSL subscribers respectively.

As of the end of the third quarter, Verizon had approximately 6.3 million DSL subscribers, compared with 6.7 million a year prior. The company had 2.2 million FiOS Internet customers as of Sept. 30, versus 1.3 million in the same period last year. Verizon noted that a certain number of DSL-based Internet customers have adopted FiOS.

Verizon said the new DSL-based bundles mark the first time it has offered standardized packages nationwide that are priced the same regardless of state.

Moreover, the telco said it is the first time it is offering bundles with “Freedom Value” voice service, which provides only unlimited local and long-distance excluding calling features such as caller ID, call waiting and voice mail.

Verizon’s two new entry-level double plays are: 1-Mbps DSL plus Freedom Value voice service for $49.99 per month, and the 150-channel DirecTV tier with Freedom Value for $64.99 per month.

Broadband Users See Service As A Must

By Mike Sachoff - Thu, 10/30/2008 - 5:18pm.

Not loyal to providers

High speed Internet customers like their service but 30 percent are willing to ditch their provider if they can find a more affordable service elsewhere, according to a report from J.D. Power & Associates.

Cost savings is cited by 69 percent of high-speed Internet customers and 40 percent of dial-up customers as the main reason they would consider switching providers.

"Even when customers aren't necessarily dissatisfied with their current provider, they're willing to switch to another provider if they find a better deal," said Frank Perazzini, director of telecommunications at J.D. Power and Associates.

"With the current economic uncertainty, and the introduction of several competitively priced high-speed service offerings, building customer loyalty should be at the forefront of every Internet provider's 2009 initiatives."

The study found that the percentage of Internet customers who subscribe to a cable modem service has increased to 41 percent in 2008 from 36 percent in 2007. DSL penetration has also increased to 30 percent from 27 percent in 2007. The number of Internet users that still use a dial-up service has continued to decrease and now accounts for 25 percent of Internet subscribers, a drop of 10 percentage points since 2007.

"Customers now view Internet service as a necessity -- not a luxury -- and they're looking for faster products capable of handling higher bandwidth," said Perazzini.

"As more movies, television shows and videos are being offered online, Internet users are looking for faster, higher quality connections to view content. With both cable modem and DSL service providing faster Internet capabilities than dial-up, users are interested in finding the best service, at the best speed, between the two connection types."

J.D. Powers ranked providers by region based on a 1,000-point scale.  In the East region Cablevision ranks highest with a score of 650.

In the South region Road Runner was tops with a score of 670. In the North Central region WOW! Had the highest score in the survey with 702. In the West region Cox Communications was the leader with 641.

Broadband subscriptions up 14% in Europe

Denmark, Netherlands, Norway have highest penetration

By Leo Cendrowicz

Oct 29, 2008, 12:12 PM ET

BRUSSELS -- Broadband subscribers in rich nations reached 251 million by June, an increase of 14% from June 2007, according to figures released Wednesday. 

Broadband penetration rates rose to 21.3 subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in the 27-nation Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Fiber subscriptions accounted for 9% of the broadband connections, overtaking even DSL/cable in Korea and Japan.

However, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway had the highest broadband penetration rates, each over 30%. And the U.S. was the largest broadband market, with 75 million subscribers.

Fiber Broadband Big in Japan & Korea, Sustainable Potential for 2Wire DSL Filters

Fiber Broadband Big in Japan & Korea

from GigaOM by Om Malik

In Japan and South Korea, fiber-based consumer broadband connections now represent the most popular Internet access technology, ahead of DSL and cable, according to a report issued by OECDearlier today. Around 45 percent of connections in Japan use fiber, while in Korea that number is around 39 percent – about 12.2 per 100 inhabitants.

In 30 OECD countries, DSL is still the most popular technology, with a 60 percent market share, but fiber is growing fast and now accounts for about 9 percent (or roughly 23 million) of the total 251 million broadband subscribers in OCED countries at the end of June 2008. Nineteen percent and 18 percent of subscribers in Sweden and Slovak Republic get access via broadband. In Denmark and Norway, 9 and 8 percent of connections are over fiber, respectively.

Total number of Fiber-LAN connections (Millions)

In comparison, about 3 percent of U.S. subscribers get their broadband via fiber, many of them customers of Verizon. With more than 75 million broadband subscribers, the U.S. still remains the largest broadband country. The OECD has seen a 14 percent gain in the total number of broadband subscribers since it issued a report in 2007.

If you use the broadband-subscribers-per-100-inhabitants metric, more popularly known as broadband penetration, then Denmark leads the rankings with 36.7, followed by Netherlands (35.5), Norway (33.4), Switzerland (32.7), Iceland (32.2), and Sweden (32.3). The broadband penetration number is a bit unfair, because many of the OECD countries are small and have much fewer total number of connections in comparison to larger markets and, as a result, achieve higher penetration rates more easily. 

For instance, South Korea (31.2), U.S. (25) and Japan (23) rank at 7, 15, and 17 respectively, even though they have many more broadband connections than the top-ranked countries by penetration.  (see chart)

Ed: Market potential for 2Wire DSL filters.

DSL Broadband News

Comcast doubles speed of Net service Boston Globe - United States But demand for DSL, a slower broadband service offered by Verizon and other telephone companies, has fallen much faster. Orders for Verizon DSL dropped 81 ...

Westell Technologies Reports Fiscal Second Quarter 2009 Results MarketWatch - USA During the quarter, a major customer announced it was running a special campaign to promote its DSLoffering. As a result, they increased their orders for ...

AT&T's iPhone Mojo Won't Last, Better Fix Slow DSL PC World - USA At some point AT&T must begin to suffer as a result of updating its ADSL technology to deliver higherbroadband speeds. In fact, I would argue, ...

Japan, Korea lead in fiber-optic broadband: OECD Reuters - USA ... followed by DSL with 9.6 percent and cable with 3.1 percent. The only country to come close to Korea and Japan is Sweden with six fibre-optic broadband ... See all stories on this topic

AGL, Queensland Gas enter trading halt ahead of a possible ... Business Spectator - Melbourne,Victoria,Australia This series shows how far behind Australia is in terms of its broadband supply. The OECD identified one DSL and one cable broadband offer from each country ...

Stick a fork in it: a broadband over powerline post mortem Ars Technica - Boston,MA,USA BPL encodes information on high-voltage and medium-voltage powerlines, and has speeds that were (at one time) competitive with cable and DSL. ...

High Demand Continues For Global Broadband Services

High Demand Continues For Global Broadband Services

Global broadband sub growth remains strong, attracting millions of new subscribers worldwide each month, according to a report.

Over the past 12 months, approximately 80 million new broadband subscribers signed up for high-speed access to the Internet, according to market research company In-Stat. At the beginning of 2008, DSL, mobile wireless, and cable modem service were the leading broadband access technologies, providing 93% of all worldwide broadband connections.

“The increasing popularity of online applications such as downloading music files, watching TV programming, and playing online video games, are driving demand for ‘fatter pipes’ that provide ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth,” explained Mike Paxton, an analyst for In-Stat. “Being able to use these applications, combined with the basic consumer desire to surf the net, is fueling global demand for broadband services.”

In terms of broadband access technologies, digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies continue to serve the greatest number of broadband subscribers worldwide, according to In-Stat’s figures, accounting for 55% of total broadband connections.

As of September 2008, there were 452 million broadband subscribers worldwide. In-Stat predicts that by 2012 worldwide broadband subscribers will reach 876 million, almost twice the size of the current subscriber base.

AT&T is Sitting Pretty with iPhone and U-verse

AT&T is Sitting Pretty with iPhone and U-verse

from GigaOM by Stacey Higginbotham

AT&T reported a slight boost in profits this morning, and the carrier has quite a bit to boast about, especially on the wireless side. iPhone activations reached 2.4 million during the third quarter, and 40 percent of those iPhones were sold to new subscribers who activated on the AT&T network. And despite what analysts say, AT&T also seems on track to reach 1 million U-verse subscribers by the end of the year, gaining 232,000 subscribers this quarter for a total of 781,000 signed up at the end of September.

Total revenue for the carrier was $31.34 billion, up from $30.13 billion the same period last year. That led to profits of $3.23 billion for the quarter, up from $3.06 billion from the third quarter of 2007. AT&T should retain its wireless lead with 74.9 million subscribers after gaining 2 million during the quarter. We’ll have to see how many Verizon added to the 68.7 million it had at the close of June, when it reports earnings on Oct. 27.

For the first time, AT&T also broke out the total number of wireless and wireline broadband subscriptions, signaling the growing importance of wireless broadband data. Total broadband-capable connections increased by 2.9 million in the third quarter to reach 20.7 million. Since the iPhone data plans count as a broadband subscription, many of those adds look to be iPhone related. Wireless data revenue was up by 50 percent from the third quarter of last year at $2.7 billion and accounted for 24 percent of total wireless services revenue. Postpaid annual revenue per user (ARPU) on the wireless side was $58.99.

AT&T earlier this month reorganized its business into consumer and business related segments as opposed to wireline and wireless, but still reported wireless and wireline sales separately for the quarter. The carrier is watching its landlines and DSL lines erode further, but U-verse subscriptions are taking up some of the slack on the wireline side. IP traffic is continuing to increase as part of the wireline business, with 44 percent of AT&T’s sales coming from IP services such as broadband, rather than analog phones. AT&T should welcome the digital — and data driven — future.

h2>AT&T's Broadband Growth Recovers, But Cable Should Still Dominate Market

by Dan Frommer

As telcos and cable companies report Q3 results, don't expect much to change from last quarter: The cable industry, which offers faster Internet service in most markets, should continue to dominate new subscriber sign-ups.

AT&T, which posted Q3 earnings this morning, signed up 148,000 net new broadband subs last quarter -- in line with expectations, and an improvement from its 46,000 net sub adds in Q2. But that's still down significantly from a year ago, when the telco signed up 499,000 net broadband subs in Q3.

AT&T (T) probably got a lift from its fiber-based "U-Verse" broadband service, which it offers in 69 markets. Likewise, Verizon's (VZ) broadband results, due next Monday, will get a lift from its fiber-optic FiOS broadband service. But Goldman analyst Jason Armstrong notes today that fiber-based telco service is only available in about 10% of the cable industry's footprint.

So what does that mean for the Q3 broadband market? Armstrong expects cable to represent 68% of overall net subscriber additions -- down from last quarter's 78% share, as telcos increased promotional activity, but still strong.

We'll follow this battle closely and once a few more companies report, publish a chart like we did last quarter.

iPhone Hits AT&T Margins

from Unstrung

Strong iPhone 3G sales force AT&T to lower its full-year operating income margin forecast, but the operator says the cost is worth it