ADSL: ADSL Forum Makes Strides toward Bringing Broadband Access to the Masses; Coming Year Promises to be Significant Milestone for DSL Deployment - Industry Trend or Event

EDGE, On & About AT&T, March 15, 1999

The ADSL Forum Summit and working meetings in the Nation's Capital took giant steps toward resolving issues related to the mass market roll out of DSL (digital subscriber line). The meetings highlighted avoiding risks to the seamless, borderless and international nature of the Internet and global e-commerce. "The telecommunications industry needs a regulatory framework which is clear, stable, and stimulates business opportunities worldwide. Whether it is for business, education, entertainment or information exchange, the world is demanding speed," said Hans-Erhard Reiter, the Chairman of the ADSL Forum. Regulatory Developments

In his keynote address, Congressman Rick Boucher (D-Virginia) of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee remarked that the advent of the current digital world is the most significant communications trend since the 100-year-old copper network was deployed. He informed over 300 delegates from telephone companies, equipment manufacturers and computer businesses from around the world that resolving bandwidth scarcity will be a priority of the Congressional agenda during the 106th Congress.

"In the last mile, the vast majority of users still access the Internet with dial-up modems operating at 56 Kbps or less," said Boucher. The deployment of last mile broadband services will allow DSL to address the significant demand for "always on" high-speed access. The Congressman also touched on preventing spam, the privacy rights of citizens, and the legalities surrounding digital signatures.

Congressman Boucher invited ADSL Forum Summit meeting delegates to contribute to current thinking on new U.S. legislation which he and other members expect to offer in the next month or so to facilitate development of the Internet backbone and deployment of "last mile" broadband services throughout the country.

Industry analysts, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and telecommunications service providers each addressed how to accelerate mass market deployment of DSL worldwide at the Summit, setting the scene for three more days of intensive technical and marketing working meetings for Forum members. Technical Progress

An ADSL operations and network management workshop united more than 100 service providers and over 100 other industry players to progress the technical work of the ADSL Forum. The 230-strong crowd debated and brainstormed creative approaches to provisioning, fault management, and network management systems. According to the Forum's Technical Chair, Gavin Young, "This is the first time a group of this scope and magnitude gathered face-to-face, with so many service providers adding enormous value and impetus to our technical work. The opportunity for this sharing of information and collaboration from so many perspectives is essential for effectively transitioning from trials to full-scale service deployments."

That workshop and the opportunities for automated provisioning software (creating an automatic process from customer order to service switch-on) were major topics for technical work throughout the week. Current progress on automated provisioning has focused on G.lite, the "plug and play" entry level DSL that is expected to be ready for consumer launch later in 1999.

In preparation for this mass market deployment, the Forum's members are addressing interoperability testing issues using ITU standards, the development of which was accelerated by the efforts of the Universal ADSL Working Group (UAWG). The UAWG's focus is the ongoing task of accelerating time-to-market for interoperable, standards-based products. The Forum's members also began consideration of the next technical developments. Tracking emerging DSL technologies is a continuing mission for the Forum to ensure that their requirements are evaluated and integrated into its technical and marketing program.

Hans-Erhard Reiter, Chairman of the ADSL Forum, closed the week with acknowledgement of the progress made and the steps still to come, "Demand for ever-faster access to the Internet is accelerating around the world. That is just one application for DSL technologies. In Washington, we have made further significant strides toward enabling mass market deployment. As we progress our technical work, we must also ensure that the worldwide regulatory framework is clear for both the industry and end users. Those regulatory issues include privacy and protection of personal data; intellectual property rights; encryption; e-commerce; digital signatures and taxation."

The next ADSL Forum Summit meeting will take place in Vienna, Austria on 25 May 1999, preceded by a day long workshop open to members and non-members on 24 May regarding voice over DSL.

The ADSL Forum represents over 300 of the world's leading companies from all sectors of the global communication and computer industry, governed by a Board of Directors elected by its members. In this year's annual election, the membership voted to appoint two new luminaries and re-elected four others whose two-year term on the Board had expired. Jim Southworth, Director of Advanced Network Services and Technologies for Concentric Network Corporation, and Kevin Kahn, Director of Communication Architecture for Intel Corporation and co-chair of the UAWG compliment the nine incumbent members.