October 19, 2006

Wireline and Wireless: Enemies or Friends?

By Justin J. Junkus

The theme at the first session of the SCTE Business Services Symposium in Chicago on October 17 may have been "friend or foe?" but the participants proved that technology is indeed agnostic.

Mark Vogel, manager, Applications Engineering, CommScope, played the advocate for wireline. "Extending HFC plant is the simplest approach to serving business. The practices and procedures remain the same." Mark noted that if more capacity to a business customer is needed, an operator can add CWDM fiber technology to provide more than 10 channels with 1 to 2 Gbps per wavelength. PON (Passive Optical Networks) can also be added to the plant, but Vogel cautioned that this is a different architecture, which makes several changes to operations and support.

Chris Martin, Arcwave's VP of Marketing, countered with several applications for wireless plant extension. He pointed out that this technology is a valuable tool for serving locations within 1,500 feet of existing HFC plant, but can also be used for isolated residential communities, disaster recovery, and for temporary service, such as trade shows and other events.

Paul Braun, senior manager, Business Development, Motorola, added that cable needs a wireless vision that includes mobility. "Wireline provides a fat pipe to the home, but it needs to be complemented by a technology that allows access to a service bundle anywhere, for customers continually on the go."

The key to success with a mix of these technologies is to understand customer needs and provide an appropriate solution. Kurt Fennell, Time Warner VP of Product Management and session moderator, put this into perspective with his opening remarks. He noted that small business was the logical initial focus for cable, considering its proximity and similarity to residential markets. Now, however, the horizon has broadened to include mid- and larger size customers, with emphasis on service delivery, Service Level Agreements (SLAs), performance, and economics. Dave Park, VP Product Marketing, BelAir Networks, expanded on these points. "The three aspects of SLA are system availability, subscriber policy management, and Quality of Service. Policy management is particularly important at pinch points, such as routers."

Understanding the customer's business goes beyond understanding technology needs, however. Fennell noted the importance of understanding vertical markets, such as education and financial services, and how communications adds value. Braun pointed out what this means in terms of selling municipal networks. "You need to show municipal customers how to use your network by building their business case. Remote broadband access for meter reading and traffic surveillance are examples." With the impending threat of WiMAX networks operated by cable's competition, selling the value proposition is increasingly important. Braun emphasized that cable needs to stress its experience and long history of operating high bandwidth networks. Arcwave's Martin added that the differentiation between providers will be how well they serve the customer.

Perhaps the best summary of the session was a comment by Dave Park. "Wireline and wireless are not competition, but complementary technologies. Mobility unlocks service delivery from location, but the MSO strength is in delivery of a package of services, which includes voice, data, and video."

- Justin Junkus