PEDESTAL TAKES ON DSL FOES WITH LINE-POWERED BRICK

Add Pedestal Networks to the list of DSL vendors trying to solve one of the more nagging issues for telcos wanting to provide ubiquitous broadband coverage — distance.

The Freemont, Calif.-based start-up, which includes several executives from nearby AFC Communications and which has raised $14 million in funding so far, this week is unveiling its technology after operating in semi-stealth mode for the past several months. The product, dubbed the Universal Broadband Server, is a line-powered DSLAM in the form of an environmentally hardened “brick” that can be deployed as part of an existing DLC or at a neighborhood node. Inside the unit is an any-to-any physical layer router that maps 24 onboard ADSL modems to any of 50 pre-provisioned copper pairs. The objective is to make all access lines beyond the brick DSL-enabled and capable of being turned up with a software load at a centralized location.

In initial testing, the product proved it could provide full-rate ADSL up to 50,000 feet. The company also is lab testing ADSL2Plus. On the trunk side of the unit, a telco needs a maximum of eight copper pairs for both backhaul and powering, although most applications only need three or four pairs. Next year, pedestal will include a fiber interface.

“It's more of a business proposition than a scientific breakthrough,” said Mehran Musai, co-founder and vice president of marketing for Pedestal. “For the ILECs to beat cable, they have to go to ubiquitous coverage.”

Like other line-powered solutions, the UBS is targeted at the small telco market, particularly in areas where long loop lengths have made it impossible to provide broadband.

In its broadband survey, the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association found that 45% of its members cite excessive loop lengths as one of the primary barriers to wide-scale DSL deployments. Numerous vendors have tried to develop solutions in the past that extended DSL's reach over existing loops with limited success. “A lot of people have gone in there and died,” said Pat Hurley, DSL analyst for TeleChoice.

The need to extend DSL's reach may not be imperative yet, but it will become more important with an overall increase in broadband interest. In a report earlier this year, In-Stat/MDR forecasted subscriber growth in North America to be around 24% per year for the next five years.

Pedestal already has signed on several independents, including D&E Communications in central Pennsylvania; Evans Telephone in California; HunTel Engineering in Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas; Leaco Rural Telephone Cooperative in New Mexico; Northland Communications in New York; and JBN Telephone in Kansas.