To those interested in Project Pronto, and overcoming the unbundling of the local loop issue . . . .
SBC set to trial DSL neighborhood broadband gateways SBC is removing distance limitations, dramatically expanding availability of high speed DSL service Ten data CLECs to participate in groundbreaking DSL trials
San Antonio, Texas, August 23, 2000 - SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE: SBC)today announced a significant step towards removing current distance limitations for its digital subscriber line (DSL) service. Through its $6 billion Project Pronto initiative, SBC is beginning market trials of its neighborhood broadband gateways, which will push the capabilities now housed in central offices closer to customers, making virtually all customers in metropolitan markets eligible for DSL service. Including SBC's data subsidiary, 10 competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) plan to participate in the market trials, which are scheduled for Austin, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Kansas City, San Jose, Sacramento, Riverside, Calif., Santa Rosa, Calif., and Danbury, Conn. During the trials, SBC will provide data CLECs with open access to its
neighborhood broadband gateways and DSL network, enabling them to offer DSL service to customers they select for the trials. SBC will use the trials to monitor ordering, provisioning, reliability, billing and maintenance and repair.
"The neighborhood broadband gateways will expand the addressable market for DSL service, and represent an important milestone for the DSL industry," said Mike Turner, president, SBC broadband services. "We'll provide millions of additional customers with access to DSL service, and we're committed to providing a platform that enables all DSL providers to take advantage of this exciting breakthrough."
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to decide an ownership issue related to the neighborhood broadband gateways later in the third quarter. Once that occurs, SBC plans to activate approximately 4,000 neighborhood gateways by year-end, and 18,000 by the end of 2002. By equipping more than 1,100 central offices, SBC has already made DSL service available to 16 million homes and businesses in its regions, and become the nation's leading provider of DSL service with more than 435,000 DSL lines in service. By year-end, SBC plans to make DSL service available to more than 18 million homes and businesses, which represents 50 percent of the company's customers. SBC's DSL service will be available to more than 80 percent of SBC's customers by the end of 2002. While today, the phone line running from a customer's home or business must be within 17,500 feet of a DSL-equipped central office to receive DSL service, the neighborhood gateways will help remove this distance constraint. SBC is pushing fiber deeper into its neighborhoods and installing or upgrading neighborhood broadband gateways containing digital electronics to put customers within 12,000 feet of a central office or a neighborhood gateway. This upgrade of the local network will enable SBC to provide nearly all of its customers with DSL service, traditional phone service and next-generation services, all from a single, integrated platform.
Customers in areas where SBC deploys the neighborhood gateways will also receive significantly higher minimum "sync rate" connection speeds from their computers to the serving central office or neighborhood gateway once Project Pronto is complete. In these areas, customers will receive a minimum downstream sync rate speeds of 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps), 50 time faster than a standard 28.8 kilobits per second (Kbps) modem, with more than 60 percent eligible to receive minimum sync rate speeds of 6.0 Mbps.
Today, SBC offers a minimum downstream connection speed of 384 Kbps in its Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, Nevada Bell and SNET regions. The higher speeds will enable SBC to deliver video services such as video-on-demand and videoconferencing. |
