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Carriers are sticklers for standards, which may explain why nonstandard Symmetric DSL (SDSL) never took off in most European countries, whereas Asymmetric DSL (ADSL, in the varieties G.dmt and splitterless G.lite) managed to translate "deployment" into several languages. Additionally, SDSL has spectral incompatibility issues with ADSL, ISDN, and various leased lines, earning it the dreaded kindergarten verdict "Does not play well with others."
However, a symmetrical contender with an ITU pedigree and spectral compatibility with ADSL has emerged: the ITU-T G.991.2 Single-pair High-bit-rate DSL (SHDSL) standard, ratified in February 2001. And with symmetry comes the enterprise customer. Europe is seen as the early fertile soil, for SHDSL, and it's the European business customer that Efficient Networks (www.efficientnetworks.com) targets with its 5950 SHDSL Business Gateway.
"The only form of DSL that Europe has been deploying is ADSL because it's standards-based, with the exception of some SDSL in Germany," says Shaheen Kazi, director of product marketing at Efficient. "SDSL competes with ADSL in spectral frequency, so that is a very big problem. In a bundle, if you had SDSL, you could...