Telcos Push Symmetric Broadband Access

Amid Verizon Communications Inc.’s rollout of 20mbps symmetric Internet access in its FiOS markets, which knocked archrival Comcast Corp. back on its heels, Comcast’s CEO Brian Roberts may want to bring more to his Consumer Electronics Show keynote next week than a speech and a wideband demo.

Infonetics Research’s Jeff Heynen

At last year’s Cable Show, Roberts talked about wideband and offered an ambitious timeline to accelerate DOCSIS 3.0, the cable industry’s speed upgrade to its shared network that supports 160mbps/120mbps. Wideband services are supposed to hit the market starting sometime this year.

Before Comcast gets wideband and DOCSIS 3.0 rolled out, they will be cutting over more of their video subscribers to a switched video model, which will help them incrementally increase their downstream bandwidth somewhat, according to Jeff Heynen, directing analyst of broadband and IPTV at Infonetics Research. But the real gains won’t come until Comcast delivers on pre-DOCSIS 3.0 wideband, which won’t be until early this year.

“Verizon’s 20/20 plan has got the cable operators scared and is a very smart ploy by Verizon to exploit one of the fundamental weaknesses of the cable broadband infrastructure: significant oversubscription which limits upstream bandwidth,” explains Heynen. “As more and more broadband users expand from just e-mail and Web surfing to photo and video uploads and online gaming, upstream bandwidth is going to become an extremely important facet of any broadband connection.”

Heynen claims wideband and DOCSIS 3.0 don’t do that much initially to solve that problem, because the focus of wideband is to bond downstream channels (sending data to cable modems) and not upstream channels (sending data from cable modems). “Improvements in upstream speeds won’t come fast enough to stop some amount of subscriber churn over to Verizon and other telcos.”

The efforts of these two industry titans illustrates the rapid escalation in the speed of Internet access offered to the masses. The bulk of the faster links is being used to support the morphing gaming systems and additional video consumption options. Several telcos have deployed fast, symmetric access, with others planning to follow suit.

As a result, smaller outfits also are among those focusing on big bandwidth, including GVTC Communications and SureWest Communications Inc.

Verizon is racing along with the 20/20 rollout it began in late October, when it first became available in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. At that time, Verizon committed to offering the symmetric services soon in the 13 other states where the company offers FiOS Internet service, and to introduce a similar small- business offer.

“Verizon’s new symmetric service is a smart response to the changing usage patterns of high-speed Internet subscribers,” says Vince Vittore, senior analyst with Yankee Group. “We believe that as user-generated content continues to expand and telecommuting increases in popularity, upstream speed will become just as important as downstream for all users.”

Pricing for the new FiOS service starts at $69.99 and includes a comprehensive Internet security suite plus 1GB of network-based backup at no additional charge.

San Antonio-based GVTC, meanwhile, uses a FTTH network built in 2004 to support 275 standard-definition channels and 25 high-definition ones as part of the video service it provides to 9,200 customers, along with 22,000 broadband Internet connections as part of 42,000 total lines.

“We’ve seen uplinks go up 100 percent year over year, and we know we can’t continue at that rate forever,” explains George O’Neal, vice president of network services for the service provider. “It’s driving the need for bigger backhaul between central offices,” an effort the company already is hard at work on.

Having been awarded a statewide video franchise in Texas last year, GVTC is expanding its fiber network well beyond its original 2,000 square-mile service area. The operator also is migrating from a 1.2gbps GPON network to a 2.4gbps setup powered by broadband networking gear from Calix.

But apparently offering high-speed symmetric Internet access service isn’t a winning strategy for everybody. IPTV pioneer OEN, which debuted a symmetric 20mbps Internet access service in early August in the Houston area as part of a triple-play bundle including video and VoIP, discontinued its FISION triple-play services a week before Thanksgiving. Sources claim OEN, which was in competition with AT&T Inc., Comcast and DBS providers in the Houston market, was out of money. Sources at OEN itself were unreachable at press time.

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