FROM EDN EUROPE: Broadband for all

The Broadband World Forum came to London in September and provided insight into one of the bright spots in the telecommunications universe. Installation and growth-of-traffic graphs in broadband depict two of the only sectors in which all the charts are "up and to the right." But the event painted a picture of a business sector that is all too aware of the formidable challenges ahead—only some of which are technical.

Not that the technical challenges are trivial. In some aspects, the broadband business has its act together: It knows where its next (few) megahertz are coming from, and the standards process is well-established. Silicon is now becoming available to provide both central-office (exchange) and customer-premises equipment with support for ADSL2 and, particularly, ADSL2+ (see "Integrated ADSL chip set drops analogue traces," this issue, pg 20). When blended with a plethora of other DSL formats and initiatives, these two standards should equip the industry with as much as several megahertz more bandwidth, further reach, or both. The silicon is in place ahead of any meaningful deployment of the faster standards and continues to gain momentum.

However, when high-density deployment of ADSL, especially at higher rates, becomes widespread, the technical issues may mount up. Take interference. The whole point of DSL is to use and reuse existing copper subscriber loops. Those loops are invariably unscreened twisted pairs combined in bundles that may comprise many tens of pairs. When several pairs in a bundle are running ADSL, both near- and far-end aggressor signals intrude on every other one. Researchers have modeled these conditions, of course, but you may suppose that service providers will be surreptitiously crossing their fingers until the industry reaches widespread deployment to see whether the standards measures will maintain good bandwidth for all users.

A notable aspect of the forum was the disparity between the content of the conference and the products displayed in the accompanying exhibition. Most of the exhibition was about hardware, software, and delivery mechanisms—the "how" of ADSL provision. Conversely, the conference focussed heavily on the "what": What ADSL products should we sell to the mass market, and what will convince consumers to buy them? In other words, the conference concentrated on service providers and dedicated much discussion to the sort of DSL service that will enable such connectivity. This connectivity must also appeal to a mass market to persuade providers and users to do what needs to be done to make the economic case for connection. Some (very) old favourites, including video on demand, feature significantly in the list of services and form the basis of hopes for the technology, including the hope that it does not become the disappointment in DSL that it has been in other domains. An encouraging sign is that the ADSL community recognises that a divide exists between the technology- and computer-literate communities that has until now fueled the growth of deployment and the new potential user base.

An entertaining paper by Rob Butler, PhD, of Emotum Broadband Solutions began the conference session entitled "Challenges of driving broadband mass-market adoption and reaching the nontechnical majority." Highlighting the "hassle level" of dealing with PC and connectivity issues today, compared with the user-friendliness that will be necessary in the future, the paper featured a spoof Windows error-message dialogue (on a slide titled "Dialogs of Terror") with the mock text, "We are aware that your computer skills are limited and as such are not prepared to let you continue using our software. Please run this program again when you worthy!" Summing up his message about the need to package services in a more user friendly fashion, Butler concluded, "We have a small window of opportunity to make a difference before the masses arrive; let's not waste it." We can only agree with such a sentiment.

Overall, however, this sector of the communications business is just one more that finds itself in a familiar chicken-or-the-egg quandary. Until the service provision and user experience and expectation reach a certain threshold, the new services that underpin all of the expectations for a bright future remain grounded. And, until the services are in place, getting the consumers to sign up may be a significant challenge. Unlike other fragments of the business, the positive signs are that this time, the vendors understand the problems and are devising workarounds in good time.

Contact me at gprophet@reedbusiness.com.