Telecom pilots roadside DSL

By RICHARD WOOD

Telecom is to roll out new "mini-DSLAM" devices in roadside cabinets starting February, plugging gaps in the availability of its DSL (digital subscriber line) high-speed internet access services.

Previously subscribers had to be within 6km of a telephone exchange.

Telecom general manager network investment Rhoda Holmes said that by February DSL would be available on 83 per cent of New Zealand telephone connections.

This was up from the 70 per cent it claimed mid-year. She said that in rural areas availability would reach as much as 45 per cent.

Cabinet DSLAMs would add to those figures, with the first four going live in early February as pilots, and starting to roll out in March.

This would also be good news for residents of subdivisions where modern fibre optic cabling is laid.

The Herald has previously received complaints from developers and brand new homeowners in Orewa and Gulf Harbour because DSL had required copper all the way to the home from the exchange.

A mini-DSLAM device can be put into a cabinet at the point where the fibre optic cable connects to local copper cabling for each house.

Holmes said that in such cases Telecom would still be working to an economic model that would require a certain volume or combination of traffic projected for each DSLAM device before one could be installed.

But she said the mini-DSLAMs would allow them to reach smaller groupings wanting DSL.

In June it was reported that Telecom had put DSL into a fibre-fed cabinet to solve one customer's problem in Gulf Harbour.

Holmes said that was a special case made for one such business customer and did not use cabinet DSLAM but it did use the new technology.

When asked whether the cabinets with DSLAMs would be noisy and faced problems under the Resource Management Act, Telecom spokesman John Goulter said there would be no particular issues because they would not change the size, shape, or power consumption compared with what Telecom usually did with roadside cabinets.