Speedy internet connection for export only

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

A high-speed internet connection system developed by Ericsson New Zealand has achieved significant sales overseas, but is not available in the country where it was invented.

Ericsson's Home internet Solution (HiS), first conceived by engineers at the Swedish telecommunications giant's Napier research and development facility three years ago, has been described as a "watered down" DSL (digital subscriber line) technology.

James McAllister, who heads the team of 25 which continues to develop and market the product worldwide from Napier, says HiS is ideal for people who are dissatisfied with ordinary dial-up connections but are unwilling to stretch to the cost of ADSL.

HiS consists of a Network Terminal "black box" at the consumer end, which provides a permanent internet connection at 115Kbps.

Ericsson says this is up to three times faster than the speed achieved by most modems in practice. HiS works on existing copper lines, and provides bandwidth for simultaneous voice telephone calls to be made by automatically shifting down to a "fallback" rate of 70Kbs.

Like ADSL, HiS requires equipment to be installed at the telephone exchange, but Ericsson says its Network Access-node Equipment helps reduce data traffic connection as it bypasses the usual switching system.

Users may be located at greater distances from the telephone exchange than with ADSL, where they must be within a radius of about 3.5km unless repeater stations are used.

Mr McAllister says that with HiS, distance depends on cable width, but up to a 20km range is feasible with ordinary 0.5mm domestic cables.

Despite these advantages, he admits that HiS has been slow to take off.

"It has taken a while - it could have been a timing issue. Sometimes we thought we were a bit ahead of the market."

The first significant customer was Finnish telecom carrier Vaasan Laanin Puhelin, which launched a commercial trial in 1998. Similar trials are taking place in Malaysia and the Philippines, and a small shipment has been recently made to the Ukraine.

But it is in Poland where HiS has suddenly hit paydirt.

Mr McAllister said sales in 1999 and advance orders to April totalled $20 million to Poland alone, representing about 25,000 users.

Mr Duthie said there was a market here for HiS as well as ADSL.

"Everyone we show it to, such as friends and family, always says, 'I could use something like that.'"

However, "it's a product that needs the cooperation of the network operator that owns the copper to the house," and despite attempts by Ericsson to persuade Telecom to adopt HiS, "unfortunately to date we haven't been able to do so."

Telecom spokesman Glen Sowry said his company had "looked carefully at HiS" when it was looking at high-speed internet connections a couple of years ago.

"At the time HiS was pretty much unproven and had yet to be deployed. ADSL on the other hand, while newer, had more of a track record.

"Also, ADSL was about 20 times faster, and HiS was not a great deal cheaper. It seemed ADSL was more appropriate technology, particularly in view of the way the internet was evolving."

While Telecom would "continue to evaluate other technology," the company was satisfied with the performance of its Jetstream ADSL service. Jetstream had gained over 2000 customers to date and that number was growing rapidly, Mr Sowry said.

However, Ericsson may not feel it is in a position to press the case for HiS in New Zealand too hard. Telecom is Ericsson's biggest customer for telecommunications equipment, and HiS is very small beer by comparison.