Nortel's Shasta Integration System Brings Broadband Providers Together with ISP's

Growing your ISP beyond narrowband dial-up services is attainable, but the price of adding broadband services might be high for some.

by Michael Singer of siliconvalley.internet.com [October 19, 2000]

As more and more ISPs are looking to move beyond the dial-up stage, the demand for integrated system management grows. Of course, it wouldn't hurt if you had a large partner to help weather the competition.

Nortel Networks authorized South San Francisco-based network integration firm, United Telecom, Monday to market the Nortel Networks' Shasta 5000 Broadband Service Node. As a part of the deal, Nortel will also provide technical support to help United Telecom's ISP customers build their broadband infrastructures and services.

Currently, United Telecom's site is being revamped to include the Shasta technology. A company spokesperson says it should be up and running in about two weeks.

"In San Francisco, we are targeting 2nd and 3rd tier ISP's who are looking to upgrade their systems from a dial-up to something with DSL or wireless applications," United Telecom's Bill Freeman said.

The boxes started shipping this week to the tune of $50,000 to $1 million apiece, but Nortel's Peter Wainwright said ISP's can offset the startup costs with the number of high-speed users they can now add.

"We're talking about adding anywhere from a few hundred to 10,000 new users," says Wainwright. "This type of IP industry is expected to jump to $10 to $30 billion by 2003."

The Nortel Networks' Shasta 5000 provides firewall, encryption, IP-VPN, QoS and content switching capabilities within a single, easily managed system. Shasta is the IP services component of Nortel Networks' end-to-end IP architecture, and integrates with DSL, cable, wireless and wireline access products in the Nortel Networks' portfolio.

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