You lite up my life

All the news that's fit to print" is the famous motto of The New York Times. On Jan. 20, it again proved if it isn't in the Times, it isn't yet news.

The Times reported that Intel, Microsoft and Compaq would use ComNet to announce support for a slimmed-down version of asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology that could be in modems by Christmas. The next day, all heck broke loose.

"DSL Lite," as the technology is known, delivers up to 1.5 Mb/s downstream and at least 128 kb/s upstream. It does so over existing copper loop and at more than 20,000 feet from a central office. Better still, it works with a variety of home wiring configurations and over multiple bridged taps ("dirty loops"). Best of all, unlike its bigger and faster brother ADSL (8 Mb/s downstream) and other DSL flavors, it internalizes the splitter function at the customer premises. This means no truck rolls.

We'll overlook the fact that Aware Inc. presented its DSL Lite solution at the ITU study group meeting in November and demonstrated the aforementioned attributes plus full interoperability with standards-based T1.413 ADSL. The Times must have missed the press release.

We'll also overlook the failure to cover the competing chip design from Lucent Technologies' Microelectronics Group. The Times instead focused on the DSL Lite announcement from the Big Three.

As the New York Post boasts in ads knocking its two big-city newspaper competitors, it's "ahead of the Times and in front of the News." Catchy marketing, but the Post has yet to displace the Times as "the paper of record," and its circulation and ad revenues lag badly.

What can't be overlooked is the front-page placement of the story. So what if The New York Times was a little late to the party? Was the placement justified? In a word, yes! This development is the harbinger of rapid and profound change on several scores:

1. Roughly 76% of all access lines in the U.S. terminate in this country's 90 million-plus households. How many of these lines are connected at T-1 speed or higher? The answer, as mathematicians like to say, is "statistically insignificant." What percentage of these households could live nicely at Lite speed for the foreseeable future? A very conservative guess is more than 98%.

2. Just when cable modems gave cable operators hope that it is safe to venture into something other than the entertainment business, and green pastures lurk despite troubled skies, those nasty technologists saved the telcos' cookies. Surveys show that given comparable service from a telco or a cable company, which DSL Lite represents, the telcos win hands down. Message to AT&T CEO C. Michael Armstrong: AT&T wins hands down against everyone.

3. DSL Lite naysayers argue that Lite is an interim technology, the acceptance of which could undermine existing data services, ruin second line sales and kill margins. We should wait for ADSL, they say. This would be akin to telling Hollywood moguls to wait until color was introduced before going to talking pictures because it would kill the silent movie business.

4. As a corollary to the last point, the business case is terrific based on all the traffic that will remain on the local telecommunications networks and the savings that come from not having to provision that next line or roll that truck.

5. What does this do to CLEC, PCS and cable company planning and their outside funding? What about the continuing disingenuous jockeying by all sides over the checkpoints in the 1996 Telecom Act? At these speeds, IP telephony is going to sound "clear as a Bell."

6. On a higher level, can anything be more profound as a market driver than having a high-speed, standards-based digital service access platform ready for third-party development for the residential and SOHO sectors? The possibilities created by the always-on aspects of Lite modems alone should give goosebumps to entrepreneurs in the messaging and telemetry businesses. It really doesn't get much better than this.

The most interesting thing about DSL Lite is that people are not going to care whether it is "less filling" or "tastes great." This is one of those rare instances where it may pay to forgo that high-fiber diet and eat a variety of food in moderation.

I think I'll renew my subscription to the Times.