Northern Telecom Ltd has signed the first commercial deal for its new Consumer Digital Modems high speed consumer internet access system, a $20m contract with New York-based Transwire Communications LLC for the installation of a CDM-based network in January 1998. While Nortel has other broadband networking efforts ongoing, such as business orientated Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line and broadband wireless, it reckons that CDM is going to be a winner as far as consumer internet access is concerned, as it’s capable of transferring data and voice over a single copper line at the speed of 1Mbps, 20 times faster than existing modems, and at a significantly cheaper cost for hardware than other systems. It claims that the major technical innovation in CDM is that it doesn’t require a telecoms central office DSL Access Multiplexer, using just a single line card instead, and estimates that the cost is going to be about 40% that of ADSL, which is due to be priced at between $600 and $1,000 per line in volume. Nortel has already teamed with Rockwell Semiconductor Corp (CI No 3,293) to ensure that Rockwell’s similar Consumer DSL technology is interoperable with CDM. Nortel is offering the technology to other vendors for license to both telecoms equipment and modem manufacturers, and claims to have CDM systems in trial with 17 telecoms carriers. It anticipates that widespread networks using CDM will be built in mid 1998.
