elmatador, during an earlier discussion here last week concerning always on/dialup-dsl-with-statistical-blocking, I wanted to make a point: Eventually dsl would support voip and/or vtoa (Voice Telephony over ATM) and VPNs, as well as traditional forms of 'net surfing, making anything less than always-on services less than acceptable. Internet access is not the same as telephone access - the importance of being connected will transcend telephone calling behavior in many ways, as time goes by. Here's an outfit that plans to deploy both inet access and voip over dsl, as well as vpn services, which helps to make my point. I should also note that some of the other larger, and more established, national DSL plays have also made similar projections of being able to offer services similar to these... and some of them already are.
Having said that, I should also acknowledge that the company highlighted below is targeting small "businesses" while USWest's dialup DSL targets casual residential users. Here, too, however, the line often blurs as 'net access takes on multiple uses from the residence (telecommuting, casual surfing, etc.).
Regards, and Enjoy, Frank Coluccio
-----------
Essex Communications Announces Plans to
Build DSL Network in the Northeast to Provide
High-Speed Internet and Voice Services to
Essex's Rapidly Growing Small Business
Customer Base
September 22, 1999
NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE) via
NewsEdge Corporation -- Essex
Communications announced today its plans
to build an IP-based integrated services
network in the Northeast. Essex will initially
utilize DSL technology to provide dedicated
high-speed Internet access to its rapidly
growing small business customer base. After
its initial DSL deployment, Essex intends to
expand its service offerings to include Virtual
Private Networking (VPN), hosted
applications and Voice over IP (VoIP)
services. Essex Communications is a
wholly-owned CLEC subsidiary of Sirco
International Corp. (NASDAQ:ELEC).
Paul Riss, Sirco's CEO, stated, "Our long-term
plan is to become an integrated
communications provider to small and
medium-sized businesses throughout the
United States utilizing our own dedicated
network. To achieve this long-term vision,
we believe that our company will need to
evolve through several intermediate stages
of development. With the migration from
resale to UNE-P we have substantially
completed the transition from stage one to
stage two, allowing us to provide local and
long distance voice services at significant
profit margins."
"We are now entering stage three,"
continued Mr. Riss, "as we begin to build our
own network nodes. These network nodes
will allow us greater control over the types
and quality of services we provide to our
customers. In this way we will be better
positioned to take advantage of the rapid
development of both technology and
competition in the Internet and
telecommunications business."
Henry Azer, Sirco's CTO, added, "With this
phase of our network expansion, we will
increase our IP network coverage to include
Northern New Jersey, New York, Connecticut
and Massachusetts. Initially, we will be
taking advantage of current DSL
technologies, which will enable us to provide
high-speed Internet services utilizing the
existing copper loops maintained by the
ILECs. Once deployed, we expect to be able
to provide additional data and voice services
over our network as the development of
IP-based technologies to support these
services have been rapidly advancing. In
addition, having our own network nodes will
allow us the flexibility to utilize additional
access and transport technologies, beyond
the current capabilities of DSL, as they
become available. "
Sirco International Corp. is a publicly traded
local telecommunications company that is
taking advantage of the convergence of the
current and future competitive technological
and regulatory developments in the Internet
and telecommunications markets through the
integration of its wholly-owned subsidiaries,
Essex Communications Inc. and WebQuill
Internet Services. The company provides an
integrated suite of communications services
to small and medium-sized business
customers, including local, long distance,
dial-up access, dedicated access, and Web
site design and hosting.
This release contains forward-looking
statements that involve risks and
uncertainties. The Company's actual results
may differ materially from the results
discussed in the forward-looking statements.
Factors that might cause such a difference
include, among others, general economic and
business conditions; industry trends; the loss
of major customers; changes in demand for
the Company's product; the timing of orders
received from customers; dependence on
third party sources of supply; the loss of
licenses; availability of management;
availability, terms and deployment of capital;
and changes in state or federal governmental
regulations of telecommunications services.
<<Business Wire, 09-21-99, 10:00 Eastern>>
CONTACT: Sirco International Corp. | Paul
Riss, CEO | 203-750-1000,
paulriss@sircointl.com | or | Henry Azer, CTO
| 203-750-1000, haz@webquill.com
[Copyright 1999, Business Wire] |
