News Release

OpenDSL Unites Efforts with DSL Forum to Advance CPE Auto-configuration and Interoperability Efforts

SAN JOSE, Calif., September 5, 2001 - OpenDSL group - a
cisco_building_corporate_002-jpg-1889882-1-0
Sep 05, 2001

SAN JOSE, Calif., September 5, 2001 - OpenDSL group - a consortium of leading digital subscriber line (DSL) equipment and chip manufacturers, systems integrators and service providers formed to further the DSL mass market by accelerating standards efforts to simplify DSL customer premise equipment (CPE) installation and make vendor equipment fully interoperable - today announced that it has transitioned future development to DSL Forum and dissolved the OpenDSL initiative. The transition became effective at the end of last week's DSL Forum meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana where Working Text 59 for CPE auto-configuration was submitted to straw ballot, representing a key milestone toward plug-and-play DSL CPE interoperability.

"The OpenDSL initiative was formed to complement the efforts within DSL Forum," said Enzo Signore, senior director of marketing for the Subscriber Edge Group at Cisco Systems, Inc., a founding member company of the OpenDSL initiative. "OpenDSL members, along with other DSL Forum members, have succeeded in bringing the DSL industry together to fast track solutions to major provisioning problems. This effort spurred many new contributions in the areas of auto-configuration, service provisioning and plug-and-play interoperability, many of which have been incorporated into DSL Forum Working Texts. We couldn't be more pleased with the progress made in the DSL Forum CPE auto-configuration working group over the past year since the OpenDSL initiative was launched. Now that the work is approaching technical report status, the time is right to transition all efforts into the work at DSL Forum."

This move by the OpenDSL consortium confirms the DSL Forum's role as the industry's sole voice for CPE auto-configuration technical reports and represents another key milestone towards a worldwide CPE auto-configuration specification.

"As recently as 12 months ago, the DSL industry's CPE auto-configuration effort was fragmented," said Gavin Young, Chairman of the DSL Forum's Technical Committee. "Throughout the past year, many DSL Forum member companies, including those who are members of OpenDSL, have actively contributed to a common approach for CPE auto-configuration. Thanks to the hard work, willingness to compromise, and dedication to industry standards shown by our member companies, DSL Forum has built full consensus around the industry's CPE auto-configuration work. It is now safe to say that the entire DSL industry recognizes DSL Forum as the home for DSL CPE auto-configuration technical recommendations."

About OpenDSL

The OpenDSL initiative was created in August 2000 to further DSL mass market availability by accelerating standards efforts around provisioning and interoperability solutions that will cut the time and costs of turning on service, and make DSL available through retail channels. Leading companies of the OpenDSL initiative include Broadxent, Inc., Cayman Systems, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Efficient Networks, Inc., a subsidiary of Siemens Corp. and Siemens AG, Globespan, Inc., Intel Corp., Texas Instruments, Inc., and Virata Corp.

About DSL Forum

DSL Forum is a consortium of more than 330 leading industry telecommunications, equipment, computing, networking and service provider companies. Established in 1994, the Forum continues its drive for a mass market for DSL, to deliver the benefits of this technology to end users around the world over existing copper telephone wire infrastructures. Details about forthcoming events, DSL Forum and DSL are available on DSL Forum's web site at http://dslforum.org with information for end-users at http://www.dsllife.com. "DSL - More than just a phone line . . . it's a lifestyle."


# # #


All trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.