Hand in hand: DSL vendor helps carriers develop marketable services

Who better to help carriers bring high-speed access to market than the people who make equipment for it? This is the idea behind Paradyne's new Hotwire Services Creation Program, an effort that lets carriers use vendor expertise to enhance their services.

This is the third program in Paradyne's FastForward Innovation Series, which also includes a service to help companies reach competitive local exchange carrier status and another that helps carriers make the most out of the shared tenant market.

Paradyne has gained vast expertise in the high-speed access market through these programs, which are free to carriers, as well as through its relationships with value-added resellers. It has also benefited from being one of the first vendors to market for digital subscriber line (DSL) services, said Ron Stein, Paradyne's marketing director for DSL.

"In the early days of these programs, we realized that CLECs knew a lot about DSL, but implementing it was really something else," he said.

>From talking to its new carrier partners, Paradyne's marketing department began to see how important it would be for carriers to differentiate themselves with services. One carrier in particular-Maritime Tel & Tel, Halifax, Nova Scotia-said it had developed an intriguing new software-on-demand program because managers knew "if they could provide value-added service, they could endear themselves to customers and build new revenue," Stein said.

The only problem was that the carrier wasn't sure how to bring the service to market. Paradyne said it would do the market research, investigate technological issues and have extensive discussions with the carrier to make the new program work. Thus, the Hotwire Services Creation Program was born.

"We couldn't have offered Mpowered the way it is without Paradyne," said Sean Sears, general manager-international for MT&T's sales group, referring to the program that includes the software-on-demand service. The service allows customers to rent software from an extensive, central office-based library over Paradyne's rate-adaptive DSL.

"It prevents people from having to buy software, and the speed is so amazing, it totally changes the way you use your computer," Sears said. MT&T is now trying to license Mpowered to enable Paradyne's other partners to "get into the business," as well, he added.

Paradyne gets a lot of the "hard market" information it needs by working extensively with industry analysts, Stein explained. Additional information comes from strong communication between Paradyne's marketing and sales departments.

This kind of service is unusual for a company the size of Paradyne, said Raymond Keneipp, an analyst with Sterling, Va.-based Current Analysis. But it's a good indication of what's going on in the market.

"There are a lot of savvy vendors out there, and then there are a lot of carriers out there who know so little about using DSL, they're going to need a little help."

However, he questioned whether Paradyne will have the resources to provide so much hands-on assistance. Although it may sound as if Paradyne jumped at the chance to work with MT&T because of the carrier's viable product, Stein is quick to explain that it's an unusual relationship.

"We're going to limit looking for a customer with service X that we want to market," he said. "This program is really about helping carriers and walking hand-in-hand with them into the marketplace."

Such services are a good indication of the "maturation" of DSL, Keneipp said. "It looks like it will be like frame relay was in that people will stop talking about all the great things the product's going to do and start talking about how to make money with it."

Hotwire Partners Program Designed to help companies learn how to attain CLEC status

Private Copper Program Helps carriers establish service in the shared tenant and campus environment markets

Services Creation Program Carrier partners work with Paradyne to bring DSL-related services and products to market

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