Conklin wins fight to be the smallest

By RICHARD WOOD

Ericsson has missed out to Conklin Corporation on a deal to provide Telecom with broadband technology for roadside cabinets.

This month Colin Goodwin, Ericsson Australia and New Zealand group product manager for broadband, touted the size and cost-effectiveness of its new "World's-smallest DSLAM" system to the media.

The digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) device is little bigger than a cellphone and fits directly onto the wiring distribution frame in the exchange or cabinet, avoiding the requirement for its own equipment rack.

But Telecom's technology partner, Alcatel, had already sourced a similar device from Conklin, with which it has an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) arrangement to supply. Conklin also claims its device to be the "world's smallest".

The Telecom general manager, network investment, Rhoda Holmes, said that as part of its outsourcing deal with Telecom, Alcatel could select equipment from a variety of vendors, but had already made its decision before Ericsson came up with its option.

"It's a timing issue. We have been engaged with Alcatel for some time trying to find a mini or micro DSLAM," she said.

"Alcatel has gone through an extensive round the world due diligence process to decide which."

Holmes said Alcatel did look at the Ericsson product but decided to stay with its original choice.

Both technologies allowed ports to be added and justified as required in chunks of eight or 10, rather than put in 40 at once as done with a standard broadband DSLAM.

An Alcatel spokeswoman said it looked at the Ericsson model but believed "it wouldn't match Telecom's rapid roll-out model".

She also said that another important factor was the ability to integrate with the Alcatel networking management platform.

Goodwin said other opportunities existed for Ericsson - especially if New Zealand went ahead with unbundling "the local loop" to competing carriers.