A hotel/motel solution: 3Com enters MTU market

3Com jumped into the multi-tenant unit game last week by announcing a new line of high-speed access equipment and a new company division to sell it.

Called the Visitor and Community Network, the equipment will allow hotel and MTU owners to offer tenants high-speed Internet access with existing telephone lines. 3Com created a new Visitor-Based Networking division to market the VCN, which is immediately available.

Built on Ethernet over very high bit-rate DSL, the new product line enables Ethernet-based data, voice and video services to travel over existing single-pair wiring alongside traditional phone traffic.

"Fast deployment of fiber optic infrastructure, the use of dense wave division multiplexing technology and the drive for IP directly over fiber brings the metropolitan area closer and closer to the subscriber," said Amir Eldad, 3Com's vice president and general manager. "Fast progress in Ethernet-based technologies drives the use of gigabit Internet-based networks as a replacement for Sonet and ATM in the metro area network."

VCN is unique among Internet access systems, said Bruce Claflin, 3Com's president and chief operating officer.

"VCN will deliver a new breed of facility-based, Internet access services," Claflin said. "The VCN system relies on Ethernet technology - one of 3Com's longtime strengths - and existing copper telephone wire to make high-speed access possible."

Deployed by ISPs and individual building operators, the system will bring fast Internet access, e-mail capability and IP fax capability to hotel rooms, airports, offices and apartment buildings. It lets providers add future services to the same platform - including voice over IP and video-on-demand (VOD).

The system includes a VCN access point that gives computers 10 Mb/s access to the Internet via an RJ-45 connector - or an in-room DSL modem for hotel guests; an access concentrator in the wiring closet that concentrates up to 24 access points; and a VCN server that provisions users' bills for access and provides authentication.

Besides showcasing the new product line, 3Com has signed deployment deals for the VCN line. Partners include Cincinnati Bell, which will roll out the product as part of its Suite Advantage MTU solution, and MDTV, a Canadian provider of digital satellite video and high-speed Internet access targeting the North American MTU market.

CAIS Internet also will use the VCN system with its IPORT server and will work with 3Com to develop VOD systems for the 1 million guest rooms and 10,000 U.S. properties that CAIS currently has under master agreement.

3Com's entry into the MTU market appears to be a `follow the money' strategy. According to Cahners In-Stat Group, sales of multi-tenant broadband equipment and services will grow from $371 million this year to almost $2 billion in 2004.

"3Com is trying to corner the hospitality market by partnering with CAIS, one of the biggest players in the mobile-worker market," said Adam Guglielmo senior research analyst with TeleChoice. "It looks like 3Com wants to be a player in that space, [and] it could leapfrog them back into the main DSL market. Going after the mobile-hospitality-worker market is pretty astute."

3Com will compete in the MTU market with companies such as Tut Systems, Elastic Networks, Cisco Systems and Copper Mountain, foreshadowing heightened competition in the in-building service provider sector.

"Our competitive strategies are the same [as 3Com's]" said Sandy Benett, Tut's chief operating officer. "We also work with CAIS. They have been using our product for the last year in hotels. So we are partners with people who are partners with 3Com. We are all competing for the same hotels."