North American Network Operators Group

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Re: [funsec] Not so fast, broadband providers tell big users (fwd)

  • From: Jack Bates
  • Date: Tue Mar 13 16:10:14 2007


Todd Vierling wrote:

The reality is probably that the service is available, but the slow motion of *infrastructure* network upgrades (where the CPE might not even need a change in some cases) is holding back the rest of the works.


Network upgrades tend to not be cheap, and I doubt the vendors care to lower their pricing. Coupling voice and data in the same remotes is even more costly, although for some rural telcos has meant finally integrating carrier and providing v90 dialup speeds for those who couldn't get broadband. Add to this the cost of "oops, last years technology isn't good enough, for X amount per system, you can replace it all for this years technology."


Of course the worst financial hit that WILL be reflected in DSL speeds, pricing, and QOS is CALEA packet intercepts by far. 98% of my tasks are on hold until May 15th while I redesign and replace equipment across the board. Half the vendors don't even support CALEA directly, and if not for Cisco, I'd be up a creek without a paddle. As it is, everyone I've talked to has pretty much said that they won't be compliant to the letter of the law (though 99% is better than nothing). I just watched a telco just now getting into the broadband business get slapped with CALEA fees. $400-$600/mo may not seem alot (and is cheap even for many of the trusted 3rd parties), but for a startup service that may have 1-10 customers initially, it's a complete loss and will still be a large chunk of profits when the most the area can sustain is 400-1000 subscribers (being generous as the one I'm thinking of only has 1500 phone subscribers).


-Jack