POTS TO PIPES

摘要

The telcos are encircled by competitors. The cable companies took the early broadband lead and are now plotting strategies to attack on the voice front. Power companies are launching power line data services in the cities. Municipalities are taking matters into their own hands and building their own fiber nets. U.S. telephone companies responded by starting a cycle of network transformation from circuit to packet technology (C2P). Over the next 10 to 15 years, central office switches and the outside plant that radiates from them will evolve from narrowband, circuit-switched "lines" optimized for POTS, to broadband, packet PIPES (P2P) delivering a rich array of multimedia services. The question is, will this transformation require massive amounts of new fiber, or will the existing copper networks be up to the job? Most likely, a combination of the two will suffice.