ARS Outlook: Dejected DSL Providers on the Verge of Gladness

It's not all doom and gloom for ISPs that provide DSL services. One analyst sees a bright future ahead for the industry segment that has been down in the dumps lately.

by Heather Mark of ARS, Inc. [January 17, 2001]

DSL providers are in a war for the hearts and minds of subscribers. They are not just competing with rival broadband platforms—they are competing with their own infrastructure costs and connectivity.

In order to win the war, DSL providers must continue to quickly deploy services and conquer installation issues, which have sent potential residential customers fleeing to the cable side of the battlefield.

Telecom blues
Telecom firms, reluctant to share their lines with other service providers, are log-jammed with back orders to connect new customers. The companies simply do not have the manpower to fulfill their own incoming orders, which further hinders DSL deployment by independent service providers.

The result is that business customers can spend months waiting for a technician to determine whether a copper line is qualified and conditioned for DSL access. Meanwhile, residential customers have been sacrificing speed for convenience. Cable modem hookups do not require the lengthy wait, so in this skirmish of the war—whoever gets the line live first—wins.

Cable Internet access is not hampered by geography, although deployment is slowed due to infrastructure upgrades. In order to subscribe to DSL services, however, customers must be within a predetermined radius, usually about 12,000 ft. to 15,000 ft, of the telecom company's central office equipment. Deployment of DSL service is further hampered if a DSLAM installation for ISP access equipment is required.

Self-setup woes
While some ISPs claim the self-installation kit is helping home users connect to their DSL services, new PC users often find the kit too difficult to install, get frustrated, and no longer want a DSL connection. How can these subscriber-side problems be solved?

OpenDSL and DSL Forum are industry wide organizations dedicated to the deployment of DSL services. The two organizations are pushing for industry-wide standards in DSL customer premise equipment.

OpenDSL encourages pre-certification testing, allowing manufacturers to test and debug their equipment prior to releasing units for sale. The group believes that establishing testing procedures will reduce cost to the end user—ultimately increase profits for the manufacturers. Some connectivity solutions currently under review include auto-configuration kits and no-brainer self-installation kits for DSL subscribers.

While interoperability is essential to the rapid deployment of, but remains illusive to both groups, DSL Forum likes the way that several companies are extending the reach of high-speed copper-based services. DSL Forum demonstrated a number of these ventures at the CES 2001 in Las Vegas this month.

Solution set
Among the solutions exhibited were several products that have achieved interoperability with all of the major DSLAM equipment manufacturers. Interoperability is the linchpin to accelerating DSL deployment and easing the pain of self-installation for users.

For example, a customer of a well-known ISP recently received one of the provider's DSL self-installation kits. The user followed the directions completely, but was unable to connect to the Internet. Upon calling the help line, the user was told that the modem that was sent to him may not be compatible with the DSLAM equipment near his home.

Additionally, the ISPs server was down, so the technician could not tell the customer whether the problem could be attributed to incompatible equipment or the company's faulty network. The customer was told to wait a couple of days until the server was functional—then he could call the help line again for further instructions. How many customers, when faced with the same situation, would keep the kit and the company as their service provider?

Both auto-configuration and wholly interoperable equipment make DSL deployment easier for both end-users and service providers. Auto-configuration would allow compliant devices to seamlessly connect to any DSLAM equipment, which would automatically configure to match their default settings, thus allowing the ISPs to fully automate the installation process—from line qualification through to installation.

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