Friends in the loop: AccessLan teams with vendors to converge voice and data

Converging voice and data in the local loop led digital subscriber line concentration and access equipment vendor AccessLan to team with several other vendors to create a carrier-class voice-over-DSL system.

The PacketLoop, as dubbed by AccessLan, combines AccessLan's PacketLoop DSL products with Salix Technologies' switches, Hypercom Network Systems' integrated access device (IAD) and voice gateway solution, and IADs from Nuera Communications and ACT Networks. For the offering, the companies plan to complete a three-phase migration from time division multiplexing-based local loop and circuit-switched public network to a packet-based local loop and packet data network. During the migration, the partners plan to replace the installed TDM-based local loop and the circuit-switched public network with the packet-based loop.

"PacketLoop gives service providers new emerging service opportunities," said Kumar Shah, vice president of marketing for AccessLan. "It also gives a lot more profitability potential." The cost of starting up with the PacketLoop solution would run between $30,000 and $100,000, compared with the more than $1 million cost for a Class 5 switch, said Shah. PacketLoop's goals are to leverage DSL for competitive local exchange carriers' retail business and offer bundled voice and data services, he added.

"Our ETX-5000 is a next generation switch designed for convergence applications, and one of its key capabilities is the scalability," said Lew Bobbitt, vice president of marketing for Salix. The ETX-5000 will scale up to more than 100,000 channels, enabling CLECs to address the next generation local loop, Bobbitt added.

One analyst sees interoperability as the strong point of the PacketLoop partnership. "The fact that they have included several partners reinforces the fact that there is integration going on," said Liza Henderson, director of consulting at TeleChoice. Whenever vendors at different layers in the network come together, it ensures service providers and end users that the equipment will work together, she said.

But one new vendor said PacketLoop still has gaps to fill. "AccessLan doesn't have a GR-303 box - but they are looking for partners in that area," said Jim Grady, vice president of marketing for TollBridge Technologies. TollBridge had "obviously talked to [AccessLan]," said Grady.

"We do have a gap in the GR-303, but a partnership in that area will be announced soon," said Kris Sowolla, director of marketing for AccessLan.