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News that's changing the Wireless World!
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Wednesday, July 23, 2003 |
>Today's focus: Both sides of the wire
>
>By Toni Kistner
>
>Cisco acquired Linksys not just for its SOHO network leadership
>status, but for its broadband service provider partnerships as
>well. Linksys has been selling residential gateways to Verizon,
>Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Comcast for more than
>a year. (For more on gateway devices, see editorial link below.)
>
>How did Linksys gain a foothold in the nascent residential
>gateway market dominated by 2Wire and Netopia? Those incumbent
>companies offer DSL gateways with mature and stable embedded
>software platforms for gateway autoprovisioning, management and
>services delivery. But Linksys has been offering much of that
>too, on DSL and cable gateways, and more.
>
>For DSL gateways, which today lack standards, Verizon and
>Linksys worked together to develop Verizon's own embedded
>software. Other providers like Bell Canada have done the same
>thing. "The user just types in a phone number to set up the
>whole thing," says Matt McRae, Linksys director of broadband.
>"We might offer it up to the DSL Forum," he adds.
>
>The DSL Forum's DSLHome group is considering a variety of vendor
>software platforms for its upcoming residential gateway
>standard, including that of 2Wire, Motive, SupportSoft and
>others.
>
>For the cable gateways, Linksys built a standards-based gateway
>using the CableHome 1.0 specification, which currently enables
>basic remote provisioning and management. The company is behind
>other players in developing a parental control application, but
>is working with third-party vendors to catch up.
>
>Linksys is also helping provider partners improve their
>technical and customer support. The company has set up training
>programs for their tech support reps and installers, and helped
>cut truck roll times from 2 hours to less than 30 minutes. Cable
>providers still prefer to install the gateway and set up the
>home network themselves, McRae says, because it offers that
>personal touch and cuts down on support calls in the long run.
>
>Next month, providers will begin offering Linksys' new cable
>broadband gateway, which includes a four-port switch and 802.11g
>wireless. Earlier models included HomePNA, but Linksys no longer
>offers it because it is "seeing demand disappear." McRae's team
>likes power line, but prefers to offer a power line to Ethernet
>bridge, rather than build it into the box.
>
>With the acquisition finalized May 31, where does Linksys fit
>into Cisco's plans?
>
>"Now we have both sides of the wire," McRae says. "Before,
>Linksys would go to service providers about all the things we
>wanted to do in the home and they'd say, 'But how does that tie
>into my core and edge, and how do I control it?' Same with
>Cisco. They'd go in and pitch services, but providers would ask,
>'What [customer premises device] do I stick in the home to make
>this work?' Now we can sell a solution that includes a CPE on
>one end, the software to manage and support it, as well as the
>core equipment and consulting providers need to get up and
>running. None of our competitors can do that yet."
>
>RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS
>
>Residential gateways ready to grow
>Network World, 07/21/03
>http://www.nwfusion.com/net.worker/news/2003/0721netlead.html
5:06:32 PM 
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Last Update: 8/6/2003; 6:19:13 PM
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