Now this is a good thing! Finally a decent consumer package, I hope this rings with the masses (pun intended)
By Riva Richmond
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--EarthLink Inc. (ELNK) plans to begin offering
a consumer high-speed Internet and online-calling package in three
metropolitan markets next week through an expanded partnership with
Covad Communications Group Inc. (DVW).
Atlanta-based EarthLink will offer the service in the San Francisco
and San Jose area, Dallas and Seattle starting in the first week in
February. The Covad partnership, terms of which weren't disclosed,
will allow the Internet service provider to offer a competitive
digital subscriber line, or DSL, and Internet-telephony service
without having its own agreements with telecommunication companies.
That's important because the Federal Communications Commission ruled
in August that phone companies would no longer be required to lease
line capacity to competing ISPs link EarthLink and Time Warner
Inc.'s (TWX) America Online under common carrier regulations,
threatening the ISPs ability to offer competitively priced DSL
services.
However, common carrier rules still require incumbent carriers to
lease the connections between consumers' homes and their central
offices to competing carriers like Covad.
"By us moving in this direction, we are jumping on the piece of the
regulation that remains intact," says Jim Bagnato, EarthLink's
director of voice services.
"The squeeze is certainly on for EarthLink," says Enda Flynn of
consulting firm BusinessEdge Solutions Inc. "EarthLink recognizes
that they need to become more transport agnostic, more of an arms
player."
The company has also been investing in new technologies that could
make it less beholden to network operators and a more effective
competitor, including Wi-Fi municipal networking, wireless service
and broadband over power lines.
EarthLink said it intends to bring its offering with Covad to other
major metropolitan areas in the future, but declined to name any
cities or provide a timeline for the expansion. Covad, whose
relationship with EarthLink dates back at least seven years, has
access to 40 million households. It's top markets are New York, San
Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Plans in its first markets will include EarthLink Internet features
like spyware and spam blocking as well as voice features like caller
blocking, call forwarding, three-way calling and 911 service. Email
and phone contacts will be stored and managed through one address
book. The phone service will not require the adapter VOIP
competitors like Vonage Holdings Corp. use and will be available
during power outages, like with traditional phone service.
"This is a fire-your-phone-company product," said EarthLink
spokesman Jerry Grasso.
EarthLink will offer three package deals: one providing DSL service
at a speed of up to 1.5 mbps and 500 minutes of local and long-
distance calling for $49.95 a month; a second that adds unlimited
local and long-distance calling for $64.95 a month; and a third that
also provides unlimited calling and takes DSL speeds up to 8 mbps,
using emerging "ADSL 2+" technology from Covad, for $69.95.
"We feel that these are very aggressively priced for what the
consumer will be getting," Bagnato said.
Flynn said the EarthLink-Covad product "is a nice solution," but
said there are some cheaper plans in the market from the likes of
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and AT&T Inc. (T).
He said the 8 mbps offering, a speed in the league of faster cable
services, was "smart," but as a practical matter wouldn't be
achievable for many customer locations. EarthLink agrees such speeds
won't be universally available, but said ADSL 2+ technology allows
higher speeds at greater distances than older technologies.
-Riva Richmond, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5670;
riva.richmond@... |
