Switching to One Network - Company Business and Marketing

If General Bandwidth can deliver on its promise, future telecommunications networks using its new voice won't care what type of broadband telephony device they are hooked to.

The Austin, Texas outfit staffed by converts from NetSpeed and Cisco Systems Inc. among others, has come up with a universal broadband telephony gateway that can handle cable modem, digital subscriber line and even wireless connections. That could offer an attractive option to companies such as AT&T Corp. in creating one overall network instead of parallel architectures for each transmission system linking to the Public Switched Telephone Network.

CEO/president Brendon Mills says with increasing options for broadband access, interest in his company's system is running high because it can offer operators a way to mix and match connections.

"It's really transparent to us," he said. "We are a data gateway, so we don't care if it is a DSL or cable modem."

Right now, the company is busy peddling its G6 gateway, even though the first units won't hit the field until 2001. That's because the next-generation DOCSIS 1.1 cable modems with their telephony and QoS additions won't be deployed until then.

Built into a standard 19-inch carrier-grade chassis, the G6 serves as a bridge, converting circuit-switched and packet data signals between broadband devices and the Public Switched Telephone Network. It is configured to comply with CableLabs Inc.'s PacketCable open interface specification and can handle voice protocols including ATM, IP, Frame Relay or legacy TDM. The G6 can handle up to 200 lines per broadband connection and 96,192 simultaneous calls.

Competitors including CopperCom, Jetstream Communications and Tollbridge Technologies Inc. are all working on broadband telephony integration, but they are solely based in the DSL space. So far, General Bandwidth is the only one proposing a multiple access gateway.

Another feature the G6 gateway promises is to clean up some of the snarls surrounding lifeline telephone service. For DSL connections -- which are just as vulnerable to outages as cable modem-based products because they, too, are directed through a modem device -- its Packetized Residential Lifeline design sets analog POTS cards on the G6 gateway can switch over from packet to analog transmission in event of a power outage.

For cable telephony, things are still messy, Mills admits. Customers can still choose to maintain a primary POTS line and add secondary cable telephony lines. General Bandwidth also offers cable telephony carriers the option to essentially call forward cable telephony lines to a back-up analog circuit owned by the local RBOC.

But Mills believes MSOs wanting to offer cable telephony are going to end up abandoning lifeline service, instead offering products undercutting RBOC prices to make up for the lack of phone service during power failures.

General Bandwidth now has 65 employees and $12 million in investments already collected. Another $24 million gathered during a second round of financing was expected to close last week. It will also be creating separate cable and DSL sales forces to hunt the market for customers, Mills said.

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