Bucaramanga's trail-blazing local operator Telebucaramanga is bringing triple play – voice, data and video – to its customers through ADSL2+ broadband access over a public Ethernet broadband access solution from Ericsson.

Colombia's telecoms market is a highly competitive one, with Comcel (América Movil) and Telefónica Móviles, followed by Colombia Movil (a local PCS operator), all fiercely contending for mobile market share. Mobile subscriber growth reached 68 percent during 2004, giving the country 10.4 million subscribers and a penetration rate of 23 percent. Similar growth is anticipated in 2005, which would mean 17.5 million subscribers and 38 percent penetration by the end of the year.

However, in Colombia as elsewhere, fixed to mobile migration and an increase in IP telephony has had a negative impact on growth in the wireline market. Among wireline operators worldwide, falling revenue from voice services is pushing investment, such as Telebucaramnaga's, in broadband and IMS, where there is still plenty of room to grow. In Colombia today, broadband penetration is only 1.2 percent, and current projections estimate this will increase to 8 percent by 2008.

Colombia's wireline market is dominated by three state-owned telcos: ETB (Empresa der Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá) mainly operating in the capital Bogotá; EPM (Empresas Públicas de Medellín) based in Medellín in the west of the country; and Colombia Telecomunicaciones (formerly Telecom Colombia), with 14 affiliated local telcos throughout the country. Telebucaramanga is one of these affiliates, with a mandate to provide telecom services to both Bucaramanga, the capital of Santander state, and the state's rural districts.

Bucaramanga is a modern city of 700,000 people and lies at the center of a coffee, tobacco and crop-growing region. Other activities include machine, textile and engineering shops, a forge and wire factory.

But Telebucaramanga has also long been a telecom pioneer in northern South America, and, in 2000, was the first operator in the region to implement a multi-service network. Its aim has always been to offer services that keep subscribers coming back for more. But now it needs also to fend off competition from other wireline operators attracted to the potential of this "most connected" and "pretty city," as Bucaramanga is affectionately know in Colombia. Telebucaramanga is now looking to provide complete solutions for its subscribers and an offering that will differentiate it from other potential start-up operators in its city.

Triple play via broadband can attract new customers and reduce churn by providing a single, high-performance solution for voice, data and video services that is scalable and multi-service capable. The only technology that can truly meet these requirements is Ethernet. Not many Ethernet-based broadband access solutions today, however, actually provide telecom-grade quality of service, a must for triple play.

Ericsson's Ethernet DSL Access (EDA) solution does. It is the cornerstone of Ericsson's public Ethernet broadband access offering and was an obvious choice for Telebucaramanga. Featuring compact and modular IP DSLAM nodes for as few as 12 lines and scalable up to 7000 lines per node, EDA is ideal for any operator looking for a high–service-quality, scalable solution for triple play that can grow with its subscriber numbers.

For more information on Ericsson's public Ethernet offering, please visit: http://www.ericsson.com/campaign/broadband/