GLOBAL FS-VDSL SPECIFICATIONS ANNOUNCED

Full Service-VDSL Committee GLOBAL FS-VDSL SPECIFICATIONS ANNOUNCED Issued June 6, 2002. The Full Service-VDSL Committee today announced publication of the global standardised FS-VDSL specifications. These ensure that multiple streams of high-quality digital video programming, high-speed data and voice services can be delivered over traditional phone lines with superior service capability to cable platforms. The FS-VDSL Committee is a group of over 60 companies who share a common vision for a multi-service video-centric network platform based on FS- VDSL (full service very high-speed digital subscriber line). It has been working for nearly two years to define an architecture that will provide operators and service providers with the framework to innovate and evolve an exciting mix of video-centric services tailored to their markets, while leveraging the economies of global deployment. This committee is the only forum where a full service video-centric DSL- based network solution for telcos has been globally standardised end-to- end. The FS-VDSL global standardisation efforts should ensure the platforms are interoperable, reduce overall cost and facilitate faster global deployment. Minimising operational complexity has been a key focus, and lessons learned from current broadband deployments have been captured to ensure that customers will experience the best possible competitive broadband service. The committee ratified the five part specification at its eighth plenary session hosted by Telenor in Oslo-Norway, May 22-24, 2002. The documents are available at www.fs-vdsl.net and cover the following areas:- Part 1: Operator Requirements Defining services requirements and infrastructure deployment issues. Protecting digital content is also addressed. Part 2: System Architecture Specification Defining end-to-end platform architecture and protocols. Part 3: Customer Premises Equipment Specification Defining customer equipment configurations and connectivity functions. Part 4: Physical Layer Specification for Interoperable VDSL Systems Promoting VDSL transceiver interoperability. Part 5: Operations, Administration, Maintenance & Provisioning Specification Defining the operational aspects for economic deployment of VDSL platforms. The ITU-T has agreed to create an FS-VDSL Focus Group under its Study Group 16 "Multimedia Services, Systems and Terminals" to adopt the FS- VDSL specifications. These specifications will then be proposed to the study group for development into ITU-T Recommendations. "Our goal has been to make VDSL an attractive solution by creating a global standard to drive down costs," said Clayton Mangione, president of the FS-VDSL Committee. "The FS-VDSL specifications ensure that VDSL will co-exist with other architectural solutions in the telco environment, and the adoption of our work by the ITU-T ensures that the work will be maintained and evolved over the long term to take into account new technology and applications." "Qwest Communications International has pioneered the successful deployment of VDSL to provide competitive video choices for consumers," said Chris Coles, president of Qwest video services and vice president of the FS-VDSL Committee. "We are delighted that our approach has been endorsed by the FS-VDSL Committee in these important standards, enabling other network operators to benefit from our experience and everyone to benefit from the cost reductions which will be leveraged by global deployment." "This is a significant milestone for our industry," said Don Clarke, head of VDSL Development at BTexact Technologies and FS-VDSL technical director. "These specifications will enable equipment and software vendors to develop interoperable products to service the emerging global market for bundled real-time services. Bringing together such a broad constituency of international operators and vendors to standardise this powerful platform in less than two years has been a particularly significant achievement." "France telecom strongly favours timely availability of global standards to reduce costs and encourage development of new applications and services," said Bernard Marti, Director of Standards for France Telecom Group and FS-VDSL secretary-treasurer. "We have invested in the work of this committee because we recognise the value of international co- operation to accelerate standards; we are particularly satisfied that the forum has established co-operation with the ITU-T. The creation of the focus group is a good example of the necessary convergence between formal standardisation and the work of independent fora." "Telenor fully supports the FS-VDSL approach," said Telenor's Leif Aarhun Ims director VDSL development at Telenor and host for the Oslo meeting. "These important specifications provide operators and service providers with a standardised framework to innovate and evolve an exciting mix of video-centric interactive services tailored to their markets, while leveraging the economies of global deployment." "We see this as an important new multimedia service platform and are very pleased to bring this into the Study Group 16 work programme, where it will complement our existing studies." said Pierre-André Probst, Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 16. It was agreed in Oslo to renew the FS-VDSL legal statutes until November 2003 to facilitate the ITU-T adoption process. The first full meeting of the ITU-T Focus Group is scheduled to be hosted by SBC in San Francisco- USA, September 4-6, 2002. Organisations interested in the work of the FS- VDSL Committee should refer to our web site at www.fs-vdsl.net. A table of organisations involved in the FS-VDSL Committee is attached. FS-VDSL Membership List Updated May 26, 2002 Operators / Service Providers Vendors Bell Canada ADC Telecommunications Belgacom * Adtran Inc. Bezeq Israel Telecom Alcatel British Telecommunications Analog Devices Inc. plc. Deutsche Telekom Aware Inc. eircom Broadcom Corporation France Telecom Calix Networks Korea Telecom Centillium Communications Inc. KPN Research Cisco Systems, Inc. Qwest Communications ECI Telecom International Inc. SBC Technology Resources, Inc. Entone Technologies Inc. Swisscom Ltd. Equator Technologies, Inc. Telecom Italia Laboratories Fujitsu Networks Europe Ltd (FNEL) Telefónica Investigacion y Fujitsu Siemens Computers Desarrollo Telenor R&D GlobeSpanVirata, Inc. Video Networks Ltd. Humax Co., Ltd Iamba Networks * Ikanos Communications iMagicTV Inc. Infineon Technologies Laboratoire European ADSL LG Electronics Lucent Technologies Marconi Metalink Broadband Access Minerva Networks Myrio Corporation nCUBE Corporation NEC Corporation Next Level Communications Nokia Networks Occam Networks Optibase, Ltd. Orca Interactive Ltd. Pace Micro Technology Paradyne Corporation * Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Sapphire Communications, Inc. SerCoNet Siemens AG SkyStream Networks, Inc. Sumitomo Electric Industries Teleste Corporation Tellabs, Inc. Thomson Multimedia Inc. Tioga Technologies TUT Systems VDSL Systems Oy VideoTele.com Virtual Access Zarlink Semiconductor Zhone Technologies, Inc. * Observers. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/06/06/20020606BIT00610/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/06/06/20020606BIT00610/wkr0002.pdf