Full Service VDSL Committee creates 21st century alchemy: turning copper into gold

Wednesday October 25th — The FS-VDSL Committee which was recently formed as a sub-committee of FSAN with stand-alone statutes had its first conference from 11 to 13 October in Toronto-Ontario, Canada. About one hundred experts attended, representing 12 Telcos and more than 30 of the major industry players in the area of equipment, systems or components for broadband telecommunications.

The FS-VDSL Committee (Full-Service Very high speed Digital Subscriber Line) is a group of network operators and vendors sharing a common vision for a multi service delivery platform based on optical fibre plus VDSL who aim to accelerate its implementation and commercial deployment. FS-VDSL enables the delivery of digital video programming, high-speed data and voice services over traditional phone lines. Significant work will be achieved within 1 year.

"This first Full Service VDSL Conference will develop insight on a broad spectrum of VDSL challenges and opportunities for FS-VDSL". Said the host Glenn V Ward, Vice President of Bell Canada Technology Development in his keynote address.

In addition to detailed technical discussions on Architecture, VDSL, CPE and Operations, the participants had the opportunity of visiting the Bell Canada VDSL trial site in Toronto, and saw equipment presentations and demonstrations by several of the vendors, taking part in the discussions.

At the invitation of the Committee, David Greggains, Secretary of the Board of the DSL Forum and Chairman of the "Emerging DSLs" Working Group proposed a strong relationship between the Committee and the DSL Forum. This proposal aligns with the objectives of the Committee who intend to leverage existing resources by working closely with organizations like DSL Forum, DVB, ETSI, ANSI and ITU.

Recognizing the leading role of North American operators like Bell Canada and Qwest in the initiation of VDSL trials and deployment (Qwest has already over 50,000 VDSL customers connected in Phoenix), the FS-VDSL Management Committee elected Clayton Mangione, Director, Technology Development of Bell Canada, as President of the Board of Directors.

The aim of the FS-VDSL specification work is to encourage the implementation of interoperable equipment applicable in all key world markets, thus achieving economy of scale to lower the cost of the technology for the consumer. "The challenge, for the Telcos - said Mr. Guy du Chaffaut, Head of Advanced Access Networks in France Telecom, Vice Chairman of the Management Committee - is not only to define the appropriate approach for competition with cable on broadcast video, but also to take advantage of all the experience gained from ADSL by also offering enhanced IP services. VDSL allows us to build up bundled offers that include the whole range of services from telephony to broadcast TV".

The Committee will define the FS-VDSL system based on the optimized spectral allocation known as "Plan 998" for delivering comprehensive, integrated consumer services including video entertainment, high-speed Internet access and voice phone services, using existing copper wire twisted pair infrastructure combined with high-bandwidth fiber optics. The Committee includes high-speed data, video and voice providers, hardware manufacturers and software developers in North America, Europe and Asia.

"A total solution needs to be defined and relevant standards completed quickly" - said Don Clarke, from BT, Technical Director and Chairman of the FS-VDSL Management Committee. "Operators will develop a common view of FS-VDSL architecture options and determine which variant will be appropriate for their deployment, and vendors will clearly understand what operators want. The work of the Committee will boost confidence of vendors so that they will be more readily committed and focused in product development. Standardised FS-VDSL network configurations will become available more quickly and we will be able to minimise deployment of proprietary solutions and benefit from world volumes. Finally, implementation costs will be lower and the savings passed to consumers to encourage market growth".

For operators who have made huge investments in subscriber copper wire lines, what is at stake is to turn that copper into gold or to see the investment turning into dust.

Companies who participated in this first conference included telecommunications leaders such as Bell Canada, BT, Deutsche Telecom AG, France Télécom, Qwest, Swisscom, Telstra, Eircom, Korea Telecom, Telecom Italia, Telia and SBC, and more than 30 equipment providers - a noticeable growth following the preliminary Paris Meeting in July

FS-VDSL Committee   

October 20th, 2000