Additional service drivers

Written on 1:35 PM by ooe

Voice is currently provided to users as POTS in parallel with the ADSL broadband capability. There is, however, a demand both from business and residential users for more voice channels to be provided. There are a number of options on how this could be achieved. Voice over IP (VoIP) and Voice over ATM (VoATM) are two options for carriage of the service, but many other questions remain. Exactly what services are required? What voice quality is acceptable? How many derived voice channels are required for users? Is ADSL capable of supporting the service, or is there a need to use SDSL? At what point is the connection to the narrowband network? What interfaces need to be made available for interconnection to other players? The list can go on and on. The point to note is that there is a possible market here if appropriate products can be defined. It is therefore likely that developments in this area will lead to service offerings, but it is currently too early to suggest how this might be done.

One of the evolutions currently being discussed in various broadband fora is the requirement for triple-play. The three parts being voice, data and video, i.e. all business, information and entertainment services being delivered through the same broadband connection to the user's home. Such a capability is really a development of the existing broadband video and data products with the addition of derived voice all in a single product. Depending upon the capacity requirements of the individual parts of the product, this may well have a significant requirement to increase the capacity of the DSL channel to the user. This could be achieved by providing DSL services at higher speeds to a smaller percentage of the population, or if demand is sufficient, it could drive the introduction of VDSL. The key question to resolve this dilemma is how many video channels need to be delivered simultaneously.