NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2003

BROADBAND DSL ACHIEVING HEALTHY GROWTH

There were more than 10 million new subscribers to broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) connections in the first half of 2003, according to figures just released by DSL Forum, the international consortium of leading broadband DSL service providers and equipment manufacturers. This brings the total number of subscribers worldwide to 46.7 million ? well ahead of the alternative cable modem market. According to London-based industry analyst Point Topic, DSL is the leading broadband technology with 56.5% of the world?s mass-market broadband subscribers, followed by cable modems at 38%. Expectations are that global figures will reach 60 million DSL subscribers by the end of 2003. While most subscribers around the world currently have asymmetric DSL connections, an increasing number of businesses are using symmetric high rate DSL (SHDSL); and very high bit rate DSL (VDSL) is now being rolled out to support bandwidth hungry applications such as video-on-demand.

More than half of the countries showing the greatest subscriber growth and half the top 20 for DSL are in Western Europe. Overall, this region showed the greatest growth for the first two quarters, with 12.8 million homes and businesses now using broadband DSL, second only to Asia-Pacific at 17.8 million subscribers. The US growth rate for the same six months was the third largest globally ? despite the continuing dominance of broadband cable connections in North America. New technical standards ? from ADSL2, accepted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in mid 2002, and ADSL2+, accepted in early 2003, to synchronous high bit rate DSL (G.SHDSL) and even faster VDSL ? are intended both to increase speed and widen the geographical area being served.

The DSL Forum has set a target for a global mass market for broadband DSL of 200 million subscribers ? 20% of all phone lines ? by the end of 2005. South Korea remains the only country in the world to have achieved mass-market status with 29.7% of its phone lines delivering DSL services using a combination of ADSL and VDSL. A further seven countries ? including Belgium, Denmark, Iceland and Israel ? have achieved in excess of 10% phone line penetration.

Seven of the 54 countries that have commercial broadband DSL services accounted for almost 75% of global subscriber growth: Japan added 2.6 million connections; China and the USA each added in excess of one million, and four European countries ? France, Germany, Italy and the UK ? added more than half a million new subscribers each. With a 94.1% increase, the UK was the fastest growing country in Western Europe, achieving its first million subscribers to DSL services by mid 2003.

IP-centric architecture evolution is seen as central to developing protocols necessary for quality of service for IP-delivered offerings, according to the DSL Forum. This work should ensure that DSL provides a solid platform for advanced services. Together with DSL Forum work on interoperability and network management, this should lead to accelerated market growth. In parallel, the DSL Forum continues to promote the benefits of broadband DSL for all end-user groups, through initiatives such as DSLHome, which is focused on educating users on how best to apply their DSL connection for a networked home.

From the beginning of MEDEA+, maximum support has been given to developing network, exchange and consumer premises equipment to build a powerful European presence in the global xDSL market.

Work includes the already completed MEDEA+ A106 INCA project, which has developed new physical layer components and complete system-on-chip (SoC) designs for highly integrated, low-power xDSL devices. Much emphasis was placed on defining common systems and architecture for future VDSL chipset interoperability. Project partners also contributed to the development of the VDSL standard.

The MEDEA+ A103 UniAccess project set out to provide a cost-effective single chip integrated access device providing home gateways for Internet access and supporting equipment from simple telephones to wireless web terminals. It is focusing on open architecture for the whole access network chain with the intention of seeking a new standard for this area. In addition to optimising overall system architecture, the project is defining DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM) functionality and designing standardised DSLAM hardware using standardised buses, connectors and logic interfaces ? in a similar manner to a PC ? for high-speed DSL Internet access.

The focus on broadband DSL access is continuing in the new batch of MEDEA+ projects announced in 2003, with actions such as the MEDEA+ A110 MIDAS project. This is specifying and developing single chip multistandard integrated access devices for broadband DSL as well as power-line communications for in-home networking.