Celite brings cable concept to telco plant

One of DSL’s selling points over cable modems—-its ability to provide guaranteed bandwidth to end users—-is out the door. And according to start-up Celite Systems, it won’t make a bit of difference.

Celite, an Austin, Texas-based vendor, is bringing the concepts of cable modem broadcasting to the telco world with what it calls a DSL head end device.

The company’s CSx00 broadband access platform, consisting of a remote terminal and a CPE unit, is designed to give carriers an inexpensive method of deploying DSL. Using a point-to-multipoint architecture, carriers can cut operating expenses by enabling DSL in entire neighborhoods in much the same way that cable’s neighborhood nodes cover large geographies with a single deployment.

Based on initial studies, carriers can reduce their capital and operating expenses associated with provisioning and activating DSL subscribers by more than 75 percent, according to Timothy Waters, vice president of marketing and business development for Celite.

Moreover, by reducing cost, telcos can slash prices, which is the only way they will get beyond the 10%-15% penetration rates the most successful have been able to achieve, said Waters, who previously was vice president of data product management for Ameritech. “We’re saying, ‘go get the 30%-40% take rate and you don’t have to take a build it and they will come approach,’” he said.

So far the company has gone through interoperability test with DSLAMs from Alcatel and Cisco Systems.