GOOD NEWS***** For ADSL players
Bell Atlantic Reveals High-Speed Internet Plan
Received: May 18, 1997 05:30pm EDT From: REUTERS
(EMBARGOED UNTIL 0001 EDT/0401 GMT)
By Eric Auchard
NEW YORK (Reuter) - Bell Atlantic Corp. will announce Monday
plans to offer high-speed Internet access to homes using new
technology that can send data-heavy graphics over standard phone
lines, a spokeswoman said Sunday.
Analysts consider the plan the most aggressive effort yet
announced by a major phone carrier to offer high-speed Internet
access on a wide scale to home computer users.
The new service is set to be rolled out to consumers in
stages starting in mid-1998 across the six-state Mid-Atlantic
region where Bell Atlantic offers local services, the
spokeswoman said.
As part of the announcement, Bell Atlantic will announce a
four-year contract with DSC Communications Corp. to supply
network equipment to allow high-speed Internet access.
Financial terms of the deal will not be disclosed.
But industry sources familiar with the contract said it was
potentially a ``multi-hundred million dollar'' deal for new
equipment purchases from DSC and partner Westell Technologies
Inc., which supplies the Internet access technolgy.
``We will announce that we have chosen DSC Communications to
supply equipment and software for our launch of an ADSL-based
service for consumers,'' the Bell Atlantic spokeswoman said.
ADSL, or Asymetrical Digital Subscriber Line, is a generic
term for Westell's method for providing Internet access over
standard phone lines at transmission rates 200 times faster than
now typically available.
Last week, DSC and Westell announced a related deal in
which Westell allowed DSC to incorporate Westell's high-speed
modems into DSC's existing line of local phone access equipment,
which it supplies to carriers and Internet service providers.
Because the high-speed Internet access system is based on
existing DSC network equipment in use at Bell Atlantic and five
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of the six other U.S. Baby Bell companies, it will cut the cost
of offering ADSL to consumers, a DSC spokesman said.
The contract's estimated value -- at several hundred million
dollars -- represents one of the largest deals ever to supply
high speed Internet access equipment.
In October, French equipment supplier Alcatel Alsthom said
it received an order to supply ADSL modems to a consortium of
U.S. phone companies in a deal industry analysts estimated to be
worth roughly $300 million.
The contract represents a key vindication for Westell, a
pioneer in the high-speed ADSL field, which has traveled a long
road to develop, test and demonstrate the technology.
Westell officials declined to comment on the Bell Atlantic
contract, other than to confirm that they expected a
''signficant'' customer contract to be announced this week.
``The technology is here and its ready,'' Westell President
J.W. Nelson said. ``We are now at the stage we are going to see
customers get into the ADSL deployment.''
``It's almost like the first domino is falling,'' Nelson
said, adding that, ``I think the future of ADSL is brighter than
ever.''
Westell has announced that its systems are undergoing
testing by an array of top U.S. and European phone carriers.
Deployment of the ADSL system by phone carriers, which
requires a Westell modem for each phone customer access line,
makes widespread, even ubiquitous, use of ADSL forseeable over
time, he said.
Since last fall, Bell Atlantic had been testing its ADSL
service among hundreds of paying customers in Northern Virginia.
Residential users paid $60 per month, including the cost of
leasing an ADSL modem, for unlimited, high-speed Internet
access.
The Bell Atlantic spokeswoman said the company was still
working out ADSL targeting plans across its region. She said a
similar high-speed access service for businesses would be
offered after residential service is rolled out next year.
ADSL will be part of a continuum of high-speed data services
Bell Atlantic offers or plans to offer its customers.
Bell Atlantic is already the leading supplier of another
higher speed Internet access technology known as ISDN.
The company has more than 200,000 ISDN customers in its
region who pay rates starting between $30 and $45 a month for a
limited number of hours. By contrast, ADSL allows users to
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remain online at all times for a flat fee.
Bell Atlantic's ADSL service will start at about $30 a
month. Customers must buy their own modem at a cost of several
hundred dollars a piece and pay separately for Internet access
from a choice of regional providers, which now typically runs
between $20 and $30 a month, the spokewoman said.
Bell Atlantic, which is seeking final approval for its
merger with Nynex Corp. -- which would create the nation's
largest local phone company, stretching from Maine to Virginia
-- would consider extending its ADSL plans into New York and New
England once it gets the go-ahead, she said.
REUTER
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