Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is playing into the incumbent service provider mentality that there's still plenty of gold left in the copper line, and it has taken off the covers of its VDSL2 Vectoring technology.
Sometimes referred to as Level 3 Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM) under the ITU G.vector, or G.993.5 standard, vectoring has attracted a number of players to scene including ASSIA. The magic of vectoring is that it can expand speeds on existing copper pairs by removing crosstalk between lines.
From a theoretical perspective, Alcatel-Lucent's Vectoring technology can enable service providers to deliver 100 Mbps speeds and higher over existing copper pairs.
Set on providing a migration path to VDSL2 vectoring, Alcatel-Lucent's technology will be housed on 48 port line cards that can be housed in an existing VDSL2 DSLAM chassis. These line cards will come in two versions: a board level vectoring version and a system-level vectoring version.
Ideal for small nodes, the board-level vectoring line card includes 2-8 copper pair bonding and multi-line ADSL fallback. Similarly, the system level vectoring option, which leverages a dedicated vectoring processor board, enables the higher-speed capabilities across multiple line cards and nodes.
While Fiber to the Home (FTTH) is the ultimate end game for the last mile network, the majority of traditional U.S. incumbent service providers, including AT&T (NYSE: T), CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL), Cincinnati Bell (NYSE: CBB), Frontier (NYSE: FTR) and Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN), are looking for ways to leverage their existing copper base to deliver high speed service. VDSL2 vectoring is one of the technologies they will consider to reach that goal.
However, it appears that Alcatel-Lucent VDSL2 vectoring technology has garnered interest from various European telcos, including Belgacom, Telekom Austria, and Turk Telekom, which are all currently trialing the system in their respective networks.
For more:
- see the release
Earnings summary: Wireline in the second quarter 2011
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