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Networks & Infrastructure
AT&T Sets Sights On Digital Home Opportunity
Focuses On Increasing Bandwidth, Network Visibility
by Sean Buckley
With the ITU-T’s recent ratification of the Home Phone Network Alliance (HPNA) v.3.1 standard (see Home Networking Goes Global), Vernon Reed, Principal Member of Technical staff AT&T Labs—one of the standard’s biggest proponents--is confident that AT&T and other service providers can reap benefits of enhanced bandwidth and visibility into the customer’s home network.
In part one of a two part interview series, Reed spoke with Telecommunications Magazine Editor Sean Buckley about how IP technology is changing the dynamics on how service providers will approach the home networking opportunity.
TM: AT&T is by far the most vocal service provider proponent for HPNA. Tell me how significant the standardization of HPNA v 3.1 is for AT&T and the overall home networking industry?
Reed: The HPNA v. 3.1 standard has moved from pure phone lines into accommodating coax, band shifting, and even a doubling in bandwidth that takes their product up to 320 Mbps. That maps well into the vision used by AT&T in that we always knew we would be challenged by the how much bandwidth would be available and keep customers happy as part of U-Verse. Needless to say that helps us kind of dull the edge of that bandwidth sword and get more of things we expect over time to be implemented as IP enabled services in the home. We would love to have Gigabit in the home, but at the same time we’re not going to go in and rewire.
TM: Do you think you’ll see other service providers follow your lead this year with HPNA?
Reed: Obviously, Verizon is off doing their own thing, which looks substantially different than the way we are doing things since we are truly IP-enabled and Verizon is not. Verizon is [bringing] fiber to the home. From my perspective, it’s a good move, but they have been challenged in the marketplace. I will say that there are other carriers in North America, not just in the continental U.S., but those North and south of the border, are looking at moving down the IPTV path as well. They are leveraging architectural visions and, even to a certain extent, product relations with the same people we are. By default, their ability to come in and reuse much of what we put in place may entail what already exist there. In that sense it would roll into an HPNA selection and a common roadmap with the way AT&T is doing things now.
TM: Since deciding to do down the HPNA path late last year, how is AT&T’s rollout going so far?
Reed: We have been pleased with HPNA. There were naysayers that had visions it would not provide the necessary bandwidth and features and functions. For the most part, it has proved them wrong. It’s been quite an exercise getting HPNA up to where it needed to be in terms of maximizing performance and customizing it into a nice resilient package that gives us a nice bandwidth vs. error perspective. While I would love to see the second generation go in because it would give us another 45 or 50 percent improvement in overall bandwidth available, the way we’re doing our services it’s accommodating the existing stuff. As we transition forward and move toward the next generation chipset, we’ll just reap the long-term benefits of being able to do that much more inside the home.
TM: Talk to us about the nature of home wiring. Do you see more challenges/differences between Multi Dwelling Units (MDUs)versus single-family homes, and does HPNA v. 3.1 help in that environment?
Reed: It definitely does. The original vision or number set that came out with early projections before we actually started taking service to the field was a particular mix of single family homes versus multi-dwelling homes and a defined market set that encompassed 41 cities. What we have found is that we underestimated MDUs in most areas such that the original version of HPNA will be 10 percent of MDUs, and of those 10 percent that are MDUs, only X percent of those would have to be implemented in a twisted pair scenario. The original survey we went through in Houston came back with positive indications of potential service subscriber of well over 30 percent vs. 10.
More Information:
Home Networking Goes Global
HPNA V. 3.1 Now A Recognized ITU Standard
AT&T To Spend US$750 Million On Global IP
Emerging Market Growth Spurs Doubling Of Annual Investment
AT&T’s Last Foot Adventure
Aggressive timeline targets 19 million homes.
AT&T And City Of Napa, CA Ink Wi-Fi Agreement
Wireless Network To Provide Broadband Access For All
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