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This means that there is room to compete partially on features rather than 100% price, but not a LOT of room. Enough, I think, to allow some US companies who understand carrier networks to compete, provided they meet the cost clip-level.
As I posted before, the CPE box is only half the equation. Unlike the larger MSPPs, who can carry data in one STS and voice in another, micro-mspps have to mux voice and data into a single STS or one or more VTs for efficiency. This can be done by carrying everthing over packets using circuit emulation for voice, or by concatenating VTs or STSs for data. There has to be a corresponding box at the other end within the carrier network to demux the voice and packets. This article only covers half the story.
Some of the startups have been shipping over a year, and some of them have experience in the US carrier market. A few of them do already offer both ends of the system. I would give the edge in the experience factor to the US and Japanese (i.e. Fujitsu) companies as they are closer to the customer. Believe it or not, the RBOCs and IXCs expect you to give them what they want without telling you what it is.
Those US and Japanese vendors will get the big USA deals. The Chinese will get the deals in places like India and China. You also see the Chinese making headway in Europe. Between the big USA/Japanese vendors who have existing relationships with the carriers and Chinese vendors with their low cost equipment, the startups are in tough position. I don't see RBOCs and IXCs buying anything from smaller companies. The partner companies of Turin (UT and Motorola) and Luminous (SA and Ciena) don't know how to sell to the RBOCs and IXCs. Tellabs may be only slightly better. I don't know how much it has helped White Rocks. The other startups like Overtures have even tougher time.
Agreed on China, India, and Europe. It is already happening.