New Next Level equipment will allow MTS to cost effectively expand in less dense areas

California-based Next Level Communications has unveiled equipment crucial to the rollout of Manitoba Telecom Services Inc.’s (MTS) television service in Winnipeg. Next Level demonstrated its Broadband Services Access Multiplexer – Single Shelf Enclosure (BSAM-SSE) in Toronto earlier this month to representatives of telcos from around the world, including MTS and Bell Canada. Also on hand were SBC Qwest, British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Korea Telecom, Telenor and Telecom Italia. MTS appears poised to be the first telco in Canada and one of the first in the world to use the BSAM-SSE, which makes it more affordable to deliver television service to sparsely populated areas far from a telco central office. "That technology is one that we had expected, counted on and built into our business modeling. We were aware that it was under development," Roy Sherbo, VP of MTS TV Services, tells Canadian Communications Reports. He adds that there is no firm date for the deployment of BSAM-SSE but that MTS expects it will be sometime later this year. Geoff Burke, director of marketing services at Next Level, tells CCR that it was a working demo of the BSAM-SSE that was displayed in Toronto, and the product would not be commercially available until late summer or early fall. "There’s no problem with the technology. But we still have to manufacture units," he explains. Burke says the BSAM-SSE is more effective for less densely populated areas than the currently available Broadband Services Access Multiplexer (BSAM). That’s because the BSAM-SSE is smaller and has the cabinetry built-in. It is about one foot long, two feet wide and 3.5 feet high. As a result, the equipment can be hung from existing infrastructure to extend the reach of television service deployed over telephone lines. The BSAM is normally installed into separate cabinetry at central offices, limiting access to subscribers who are within about three kilometers of the building, or is placed in large cabinets elsewhere. The savings with the use of the BSAM-SSE in remote areas comes from not having the expense of buying a separate cabinet to shelf the BSAM unit. "When we put a BSAM in the field, we have been using cabinets that are significantly bigger than what this is," Sherbo says. "When you have got a smaller area, you don’t need that extra cost (of a cabinet) and this allows us to go into these areas less intrusively although with a smaller footprint." Next Level chief technology officer Bill Weeks states that each of the remote BSAM-SSE cabinets can serve 144 homes with cable-competitive digital TV and high-speed Internet services. "This equipment allows large phone companies who previously only delivered DSL out of their central offices to extend digital television and high-speed Internet services out into suburban neighbourhoods, where demand for them is greatest. For telephone companies, the BSAM-SSE significantly extends the reach and increases the potential scale of bundled TV and broadband deployments." MTS expanding reach MTS will be using a combination of BSAMs and BSAM-SSEs to expand the reach of its TV service in Winnipeg (CCR, Dec. 19/01). A soft launch of MTS TV began in January in an area covering 9% of Winnipeg homes. The goal is to expand the reach to just over 40% this year and 85% of Winnipeg by the end of 2005, according to Sherbo. Until the end of March, MTS is offering new MTS TV customers free professional installation, and the basic package, all theme packages and Corus Premium Television’s six movie networks for free for one month. The value of everything in the free preview offer is $250. The telco said last month that it hopes to sign up 6,000 subscribers to its digital TV service by the end of the year. While stating that MTS is "quite pleased with the customer reaction and take, and the way the network and technology is working," Sherbo would give no indication of the actual number of digital TV subscribers that have signed up for the service so far. Earlier this month, SaskTel disclosed that it has signed up about 4,000 subscribers to its Max digital TV and high-speed Internet service. That’s more subscribers signed up in six months than Aliant Telecom Inc. gained in two and a half years in the television distribution business before shuttering its VibeVision service last summer (CCR, June 21/02). Sherbo says the BSAM-SSE "makes it practical to deploy VDSL and the related services in areas that don’t have quite as many access lines." "(The BSAM-SSE) allows us to go into less dense areas more cost effectively than the previous technology," he adds. "We’re going into dense areas first and less dense areas second. BSAM is bigger and requires a larger footprint, but you can also serve more customers. So where you have greater density outside the plant network, you would use a BSAM in a stand-alone cabinet. You can use the SSE more cost effectively in less dense areas or where there are less market requirements for the services." While Bell Canada had representatives at the BSAM-SSE demo, Sherbo says it’s unlikely that the phone giant – the only other Canadian telco that uses Next Level equipment – will have a need for the new equipment. "In their application as it exists today, they won’t be using this technology because they are going into condominiums that usually have a large number of subscribers, so they would use a full BSAM as opposed to the SSE version," he notes. "In mass market areas, where there are residential homes in suburban locations, Bell is marketing ExpressVu. Bell is using Next Level VDSL technology in condos, where it is more effective to do than deploy satellite." But Burke points out that Bell Canada has expressed an interest in the BSAM-SSE technology. He says it would be more beneficial than the BSAM in multiple-unit dwellings of between 100 and 150 subscribers. He notes that Bell Canada has indicated that it certainly plans to trial the BSAM-SSE, probably in condo developments in Toronto.

New Next Level equipment will allow MTS to cost effectively expand in less dense areas

Broadcast | March 13, 2003

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