Ed Whitacre, chairman and CEO of SBC Communications, outlined plans to invest up to $6 billion over the coming five years to push fiber deeper into neighborhoods and fully compete with cable network operators. SBC expects that a FTTN (fiber-to-the-node) architecture will enable it to deliver 15 to 20 Mbps DSL downstream to every home. Under its previous Project Pronto initiative launched in the late 1990s, SBC extended fiber into remote terminals located 12,000 ft from customers. The new plan would push fiber into remote terminals located with 5,000ft of the customer. SBC will also start using FTTP for all new builds in its territory.
SBC is working with Microsoft on IPTV services that would include standard and high-definition programming, customizable channel line-ups, video-on-demand, digital video recording and other advanced features. Field trials are slated for later this year. So far, SBC’s partnership with EchoStar is going very well, said Whitacre, indicating “lots of pent-up demand” for cable competition.
Whitacre said he now felt confident making these investments given the Bush Administration recent decision not pursue a Supreme Court appeal to defend the FCC’s UNE-p rules. He expressed optimism on another level as well. Whitacre expects the nation’s economic recovery, especially the recent growth in jobs, to translate into new demand for telecom services.
Overall, Whitacre believes the telecom industry will evolve into only a handful of super carriers that are able to deliver a full range of services across an extended geography. Beneath these super carriers will exist a lower tier of competitive carriers offering more specific business services to niche markets. Whitacre suggested this is a “more rational model” for the telecom industry and typical of what is seen in other mature sectors of the economy. http://www.sbc.com
