Broadband battle lines drawn

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: STEVE TAYLOR AND LARRY HETTICK ON
CONVERGENCE
08/31/05
Today's focus: Broadband battle lines drawn

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Broadband competition mapped out
* Links related to Convergence
* Featured reader resource
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by HP
FROM THE NETWORK CORE TO THE NETWORK EDGE

Traffic management becomes critical as your network
infrastructure expands to support different types of traffic and
users. Most traffic management solutions have serious
limitations: too expensive, difficult to use, and overly taxing
on bandwidth. However ProCurve Networking by HP addresses these
requirements, overcomes the limitations of other solutions, and
gives you valuable insight into LAN performance.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=111652
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Today's focus: Broadband battle lines drawn

By Steve Taylor and Larry Hettick

The battle for broadband market share between phone companies
and cable companies is heating up with both lower prices and
higher speeds. With recent FCC rulings, we expect the battle to
turn red-hot.

In June, SBC announced it would offer its SBC Yahoo DSL Express
for $14.95 per month, with speeds at 384K bit/sec to 1.5M
bit/sec. BellSouth offers FastAccess DSL Lite for $24.95 per
month at 256K bit/sec to 384K bit/sec. Last week, Verizon
lowered its DSL rates to $14.95 per month for access rates from
128K bit/sec to 768K bit/sec.

The cable companies have not been sitting idly by. While cable
modem services generally cost more, cable providers have focused
on offering higher speeds. For example, Comcast offers 384K
bit/sec to 4M bit/sec at $42.95.

Most providers have "strings attached" that require a specific
contract term and/or service bundle; bundles and promotions
lower the list price for most services.

Earlier this month
<http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2005/082205nolle.html?rl>
the FCC removed the regulatory requirement for incumbent local
carriers to provide DSL broadband access to third-party ISPs
under the same terms and conditions as their own ISP. The FCC
based its ruling on an earlier U.S. Supreme Court decision that
classified Internet services as an "information service," not a
"telecommunications service."

Companies like AOL and Earthlink may have to re-think their
business models. While third-party ISPs get one year before they
must buy access facilities at "market rate," the battle for
faster and cheaper broadband will continue to rage.

As the local telcos keep up their frenetic pace of fiber and
high-speed broadband build-outs, these broadband battles are
moving toward a full-scale market-share war. And as cellular
companies deploy 3G wireless broadband, we expect a very
interesting 12 months ahead.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. 2005 salary survey
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence3861>

2. Google dives deeper into networking
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence6204>

3. Cisco aims to simplify switch mgmt.
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence6205>

4. VoIP season about to heat up
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence6206>

5. A proposal for governing the 'Net
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence6207>

Today's most-forwarded story:

VoIP rollouts generate heat, power concerns
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlconvergence6208>

_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Steve Taylor and Larry Hettick

Steve Taylor is president of Distributed Networking Associates
and publisher/editor-in-chief of Webtorials. For more detailed
information on most of the topics discussed in this newsletter,
connect to Webtorials <http://www.webtorials.com/>, the premier
site for Web-based educational presentations, white papers, and
market research. Taylor can be reached at
<mailto:taylor@webtorials.com>

Larry Hettick is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of
experience in voice and data. He is Vice President for Telecom
Services and Infrastructure at Current Analysis, the leading
competitive response solutions company. He can be reached at
<mailto:lhettick@currentanalysis.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by HP
FROM THE NETWORK CORE TO THE NETWORK EDGE

Traffic management becomes critical as your network
infrastructure expands to support different types of traffic and
users. Most traffic management solutions have serious
limitations: too expensive, difficult to use, and overly taxing
on bandwidth. However ProCurve Networking by HP addresses these
requirements, overcomes the limitations of other solutions, and
gives you valuable insight into LAN performance.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=111651
_______________________________________________________________
ARCHIVE LINKS

Archives of the Convergence newsletter:
http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/converg/index.html
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The Adaptive WAN for Business-Critical Applications

Discover how enterprises are moving beyond overlapping,
dedicated, single-application networks to a more flexible WAN
architecture that more intelligently uses bandwidth and supports
multiple and time-sensitive applications. Watch the webcast now
for more information.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=111523
_______________________________________________________________
FEATURED READER RESOURCE
VoIP

For the latest in VoIP, check out NW's Research Center on this
very topic. Here you will find a collection of the latest news,
reviews, product testing results and more all related to keeping
VoIP networks performing at their best. Click here for more:
<http://www.networkworld.com/topics/voip.html>
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