Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) "Flagship" National Deployment Targeting Rural Markets

Goal: The primary goal was to deploy Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology for a major telecommunication (ILEC) company targeting the residential, business, private and public sectors in twenty one U.S. states within a two year cycle.

Results: The technology launch incorporated project management, public relations, advertising, promotions, product development and product management functions, qualitative and qualitative analysis, methodologies, senior management liaison and communication for the successful deployment of customer premise product, broadband service and technology from conceptualization to commercialization.

The emerging technology "pilot phase" during the product development phase consisted of concept exploration and definition, demonstration and validation, engineering and customer service provisioning and deployment, operations and support. Concept studies, concept demonstration, development, and modifications approvals were faced with regulated and de-regulated challenges both internally and externally; but prevail successfully. Operations and engineering provision and customer service procedures were created that resulted from the "pilot phase."

An extensive high speed broadband Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) economic business case analysis and cost analysis (ILEC) conducted several regulated and deregulated scenarios and models of the deployment and technology; targeting twenty one (21) states and 1.1 Million DSL-ready access subscribers. The capital expense was over $20 Million was presented to senior level officers and board members. The modeling considered projected demand penetration of the addressable markets, Customer Premise Equipment (DSL Modems), ATM switching, ISP solicitation, projected profitability for different scenarios, tariffs, retail and wholesale pricing, retail and wholesale market share, bandwidth cost and revenue implications, hub and host transport costs, cabinetized remotes, loop qualifications and conditioning requirements, splitter activity, CLEC/DLEC/ISP provisions and collocatation.

An extensive marketing plan was developed and presented to the Chief Operations Officer (COO), Vice Presidents of Corporate Marketing, Emerging Services, Engineering, Product Management, and Segment Marketing, which considered analyzing the marketing opportunities, marketing research and information systems. The selecting target market consisted of measuring and forecasting demand, market segmentation, targeting and positioning.

The development of the marketing mix in designing bundle services and CPE consisted of packaging and service offerings, new product development and product life cycle strategies, pricing considerations and approaches, pricing strategy, distribution channels (ISPs) and physical distribution, retaining and wholesaling, communications and promotion strategies, advertising, sales promotion, and public relations, personal selling and sales management, competition analysis and competitive marketing strategies, campaign planning, implementation and controlling marketing programs for Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.

Measurements: The deployment was within schedule, budget, met and exceeded all of management milestone requirements for DSL-ready full deployment in two years in four major U.S. regions; by deploying over 616,000 DSL-ready lines out of 1.1 Million; or 42.9% within the first year of launch. The projected DSL subscribers for this emerging technology was over 11,700 subscribers out of 87,600 within the year of launch with a projected 1.90% DSL subscriber penetration. The actual penetration was 1% with over 5,100 subscribers within the first eight months of deployment due to the holiday season, and increase penetration following the new year up to 2.3% penetration to over 8,000 subscribers to represent a full twelve month launch cycle.

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