The Tantalizing MTU Market—continued

Service providers using the OfficeLINK service driver bundle, for example, can easily offer video conferencing services that allow even relatively low-bandwidth customers to order an ad hoc IP video conferencing session on very short notice.

The customer tells the online client application the number of participants, their locations, ids and passwords. OfficeLINK looks after all the background activities including establishing quality of service (QoS) priorities for the call, temporarily provisioning additional bandwidth and billing.

"We provide everything needed to do everything from generating service ideas to activating paying customers," says Bellinger. "And we offer better services than our competitors, and allow customers to include more policy attributes."

Make juice or squeeze dough?
Okay. Let's assume for the moment that the MTU broadband services market is attractive and that Atreus xLINK is the right platform to help ISPs tackle it. But do ISPs have a real chance at this juicy market—even with xLINK?

Lots of different kinds of service providers, some of them very well heeled, are already starting to discover this market opportunity - including CLECs, ILECs and specialist building local exchange carriers, or BLECs—these companies are also all target customers for Atreus, incidentally.

And can the average ISP afford to go after MTUs?

"There's definitely an opportunity," Bellinger insists. Even for local and regional ISPs. The high-speed infrastructure to and through buildings is available to lease or use once you're in.

And the fact that BLECs are already in a lot of the biggest MTUs doesn't preclude other players competing, Bellinger insists. "BLECs absolutely have not sewed the market up. Landlords won't tolerate any kind of exclusives. And ILECs will also be looking for partners to help them tackle this space," he points out.

And what about cost?

Bellinger won't guess at the consulting costs involved to plan and implement a system. And he doesn't even mention the considerable cost in internal management time to learn about the market and plan strategy and tactics. Or the cost to market new services.

The costs for Atreus's platform sound at first like the least of an ISP's worries. The company's software licenses are priced based on the number of paying customers using the system.

"The result is that it's possible to get started with very little," Bellinger says. "We make our money when customers are successful."

That said, he estimates that with "a couple" of servers—typically Sun UNIX or Linux boxes—and "a few blocks of licenses," the price for a starter platform could easily mount to $100,000. This is for a "decent-sized" carrier implementation. And of course costs rise as you add users.

Bellinger points out that this is chicken feed compared to what some carriers pay for OSSs, such as billing systems. But it's probably more than chicken feed for the average tier three ISP.

ISPs that are, as Bellinger puts it, "better-features-and-services guys," or aspire to be, obviously need to be considering broadband services—including but not limited to application services.

It doesn't have to be broadband services to MTUs. It's just that the economics of offering services to MTUs—with their lower customer installation costs and higher probability of selling premium services—is a safer bet. The catch is, you have to have the stake to play.

— End

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