Cable Telephony by JR Degala CIOS 376 Management Information Systems December 4, 2002

1. Cable Telephonyby JR Degala CIOS 376 Management Information SystemsDecember 4, 2002 “A piece of the puzzle”

2. Overview • What is VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), Cable Telephony and IP Telephony? • Copper wire standard phone service versus IP/Cable telephony, initial costs. • Why are companies offering this technology? Current deployments.

3. Current VoIP Technologies • Circuit-Switched Telephony • IP Telephony • Packet Cable or Cable Telephony

4. Circuit-Switched Telephony • This technology has been around for 12-15 years. • This technology establishes a 'permanent' connection between the “calling” and “called” parties for the entire duration of the call. • Requires significant amount of bandwidth dedicated to each call, and it can only support certain types of calls (i.e. telephone to telephone). • Hardware is very expensive because voice and data services must be carried on different wires and need separate hardware to accommodate the two types of traffic. • Traditional telephone companies pass along the costs of building and maintaining a circuit-switched network to the consumer. • Circuit Switched technology also rely on proprietary software to run their systems.

5. Voice-Over IP (VoIP) or Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony or PacketCable • VoIP technology refers to calls that flow through the Internet or flow through privately managed data networks that use IP to transport calls from one location to the other. • Technology take voice streams and compresses into a data packet. More efficient. • These data packets are then sent to their various final destinations. VoIP finds the most efficient paths in the network. When the other end receives the data packets, they are reassembled, decompressed, and converted back into the voice stream to its’ final destinations, completing an end-to-end call or data transmission.

6. Voice-Over IP (VoIP) or Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony or PacketCable – cont’d • VoIP uses PacketCable is software-based mechanism to function similarly to today’s analog, circuit-switched phone network. Use DOCSIS1.1 (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) standard. • VoIP doesn’t care if the voice call originated from a PC, a telephone, or an Integrated Access Device (IAD) which is a type of customer premises equipment (CPE). A typical IAD supports voice, data and video transmissions over a broadband connection, such as ADSL, T1, cable or fiber.

7. VoIP advantages over Circuit Switched: • A most important advantage of VoIP is voice and data can be transported over the same lines. • More calls can be placed on a line than a circuit-switched environment. Eight times the number of calls on the same line without degradation of sound quality. • Efficient network. • Lower operating costs due to less hardware requirements. • VoIP is based on open based technology where circuit switched network software is proprietary, costly. • Enables different devices to talk to one another, allowing enhanced services such as PC-to-Phone and Unified messaging. • Because costs are less, cable operators can offer VoIP telephony at much lower rates than traditional telephone companies.

8. Cable Telephony/Packet Cable – Hybrid Implementation (GCI) Hybrid Fiber Co-Ax HFC Cable Plant-DOCSIS Voice Gateway VG CMTS PSTN Cable Modem Termination System/CMS Public Switch Telephone Network MTA Multi-media Adapter Terminal /Cable Modem INTERNET Lucent 5ESS Switch CPE

9. Current Deployments in the US • Companies using VoIP technology: • ATT Broadband – 850,000 customers in 11 states, metropolitan areas Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh. Offering 20-30% savings to customers. • Cox Digital – offering cost 10% less than ILEC • COMCAST Corporation – 70,000 customers in Detroit and Washington, DC suburbs. • Leveraging existing cable facilities to offer voice services over IP.

10. Initial Costs to Cable Operator - Per Customer Cox Communications Costs per customer: ** based on 300,000 customers

11. Deployment in Alaska • Product rollout in second quarter of 2003 GCI, Inc – General Communications Incorporated • GCI VoIP is a Hybrid Fiber Co-Ax Implementation or Packet Cable. • Uses current DOCSIS1.1 (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) standard. (Underlying specs for a CableLabs project known as PacketCable) • Currently testing backup supplies to ensure 99.9999 % - QoS (quality of service)

12. Deployment in Alaska • No Market factors • Business-driven to ensure QoS, reliability, better customer service using own facilities (cable head end). • Competition with incumbent local service company (ILEC) – ACS Alaska Communications

13. Conclusion • Another option for consumers. • Better Quality of Service (QoS) and digital quality. • Improved customer service. • 99.9999% guaranteed voice and data services. • Cost of service will decrease. • Bundled services and consolidated billing. • In 2002 cable operators (rural, small, and large) have 5 million customers nationwide. Industry experts are expecting customer count will triple by 2005.

14. Link to ET paper • http://home.gci.net/~cdegala/emergingtechnology • Abstract and emerging technology paper • Web links, books, magazine articles, and interview resources listed on paper.

15. Questions • Hopefully I’m within my time allotment….