[US West surprised by demand for DSL]
bloomberg.com
Denver, Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- U S West Communications Group
said response to its new high-speed digital subscriber line
Internet-access service in Phoenix exceeded its original
projection by threefold in its first week of availability.
The Baby Bell last week began offering a new package of
services, designed for individual, company and institutional
computer users. It lets them stay on the Internet 24 hours a day,
and transmits data up to 25 times faster than with traditional
modems that operate at 28.8 kilobytes per second.
In its first week, 1,714 customers requested the service,
U S West said. Some 30 businesses, government agencies and
institutions requested the MegaBit Service access. Hundreds of
locations will be hooked up to allow employees to work at home,
U S West said.
The company has hired a special installation team to handle
the demand for the new services, said David Beigie, spokesman for
Denver-based U S West Communications, the regulated phone service
unit of U S West Inc.
The digital subscriber line technology dedicates a portion
of the standard copper telephone line to data transmission,
without disrupting phone service over the same line. It enables
the phone company to offer high-speed data transmission that
previously has been available by replacing conventional copper
wire networks with fiber optic cable.
The price of the new services range from $40 a month, which
provides occasional Internet users access at 192 kilobytes a
second, to $125 a month for 704 kilobytes-a-second access,
suitable for heavier-use business customers who need more
bandwidth and video capability.
The company plans to introduce the new services elsewhere in
its 14-state region in the next year.
--Jeanie Stokes in Denver (303) 267-0311 through the Princeton Newsroom, (609) 279-4000/esk |
