Here's an interesting piece on DSL from The Industry Standard...
Bandwidth Bandwagon
Although online consumers like the idea of broadband, only about 2.5 million Internet access customers – 4.5 percent of the more than 50 million total
ISP customers in the U.S. – have cable or DSL connections.
By David Lake
Promises of continuous connections and blistering download speeds make DSL and cable-modem Internet access sound like a dream come true.
Though online consumers like the idea of broadband, only about 2.5 million Internet access customers – 4.5 percent of the more than 50 million total
ISP customers in the U.S. – have cable or DSL connections, according to first-quarter data from Telecommunications Reports International. And
another 20 percent of surfers plan to adopt high-speed access technology as soon as it becomes available or within the next two years, according to a
survey by Jupiter Communications.
Despite consumer demand, high-speed access is not available in many parts of the country; only about one-quarter of the U.S. is wired for it. "There is
only about 27 percent availability for high-speed access in the U.S," says Yankee Group analyst Fritz McCormick. Many cities don't yet have the
technical capacity to handle cable-modem or DSL access. And even within urban centers with high-speed infrastructure, providers often lack the
resources to get service to customers. "Finding enough technicians to install high-speed services has proved difficult," says McCormick.
Availability is only one roadblock in the quest for faster Net connections. Many consumers are not willing to pay for it. Jupiter found that 52 percent of
surfers are unwilling to pay more for high-speed access than they pay for their current ISP. Not only are installation rates and modem rentals pricey,
monthly high-speed access rates can fluctuate from $35 to upward of $100. SBC Communications, which owns Southwestern Bell and Pacific Bell, is
currently the leading U.S. provider of DSL connectivity, while AT&T-owned ExciteAtHome dominates the cable market with more than twice as many
customers as Time Warner's Road Runner.
Currently, there are four times as many cable-modem customers as there are DSL customers – 2.3 million for cable vs. about a half-million for DSL.
But DSL may catch up within the next few years. DSL grew by 186 percent during the first quarter of 2000. Although researchers don't agree on
which high-speed access will dominate, they do agree that dialup access will continue to dominate in the near future. |
