An infrastructure for telecommunications power in a new era in public networking

A new era in networking is on the horizon as we enter the 21st century. It is based on a seamless circuit and packet public network (PN) with the potential to transport and process voice, video, data and Internet traffic at higher speeds and lower costs than today's PSIN. Worldwide divestitures and subsequent deregulation aid the dramatic growth of the Internet, which have given rise to a growing number of competitive carriers and service providers. This has accelerated the deployment of packet networks and inspired government mandates that let competitors co-locate their equipment in incumbents COs and POPs. Customer's perceived the cost of co-location in incumbent's space to be expensive and restricting. This gave rise to a new industry that rents equipment space in buildings refurbished to replicate CO environments termed carrier hotels or telehousing. These events have impacted network power in two ways. It increased the demand for higher capacity CO power plants to support growth in Internets, DSLs and second lines and energized the debate over AC verses DC as the preferred power for telecommunications. Quality of Service, which is a looming issue as the PSTN transitions to the PN, can be translated to mean dependable and reliable nonstop power. The trend to outsourcing equipment space needs presents ILECs a timely opportunity to consolidate their huge inventories of COs and POPs into business units that would lease equipment space to incumbents and competitors and convert a cost center into a profit center.