Life in the loop: Voice over DSL resurfaces

Summer is sizzling, and so is DSL. Service providers are showing more confidence in the technologies.

Voice gateway vendor Jetstream Communications has added Orckit and Siemens to the list of equipment vendors with which it interoperates. Both new partners' companies have a European base, which makes them particularly attractive for the expansion of sales.

"What we like most is a competitive telecom environment, and North America is far out in front, but Europe is close behind," said Ken Kolderup, director of marketing for Jetstream. Just as Jetstream's OEM agreement with Alcatel provides a strong base of European customers, so will the relationship with Orckit, he said.

While the European adoption may happen, deploying equipment overseas will not be easy because of the differences in infrastructure, said Claude Romans, director of DSL consulting at RHK. "It will not be a trivial exercise."

Despite the hurdles, Jetstream and Orckit will co-market products in the U.S. and Europe. Jetstream's CPX-1000 voice gateway, which serves as a bridge between a Class 5 voice switch and a DSL access network, will be paired with an integrated access device and Orckit's DSL access multiplexer.

"This is our first announced relationship, and clearly [voice over DSL] is in its early days. We want to remain agnostic on the different architectures right now," said Nigel Cole, Orckit's vice president of business development. "When we see a little more maturity in the market and also the standard, then you will see more from us."

In addition to the Orckit partnership, Jetstream announced its GR-303 interoperability with Siemens' EWSD Class 5 switch. That achievement gives Jetstream recognition among major Class 5 switch vendors, including Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Siemens.

While Jetstream continues pairing up, Accelerated Networks announced equipment rollouts with Range-fire Integrated Networks and First-World Communications. Accelerated is using an all-in-one ATM-based configuration and is targeting new and emerging carriers.

"We will save customers money from an efficiency and management perspective," said Richard Orden, senior account manager at Accelerated. "Other methods may be cheaper on a cost-per-cost basis, but ours is less expensive when the [solution] as a whole is considered."