Carriers need to transform themselves into full service providers by integrating these new services with traditional services such as voice telephony. Its attraction is that it exploits the existing twisted copper-pair infrastructure, reducing the need for new investment in access infrastructure. The challenge for service providers is to roll out fast-track solutions in order to secure market share. But speed in itself is not enough. Banks and venture capital funds are much more reluctant to fund DSL and other network deployments without proven business cases.
Regulatory hurdles are an added concern.
In the UK and Germany, for example, competitive carriers have complained about the intransigence and lack of cooperation from incumbents. In light of these trends, market forecasts for DSL penetration have been scaled back. Thus in developing or re-evaluating a DSL strategy, service providers need to address a wide range of closely intertwined economic, strategic, regulatory, business, technical and market issues. They need to consider the scope of the business opportunity and the value-added services that will work in their chosen market. In addition, there are major technical challenges.