PC Magazine, Feb. 10, 1998, Vol. 17, No. 3:
Trends
Get in the Fast Lane: New DSL technologies promise
multimegabit Internet access
This year has seen the emergence of at least half a dozen new kinds of devices to access the Internet; scores on new tools for creating, posting, and viewing content; and increased demand for Internet-based multimedia. As a result, the need for speedier connections is all the more apparent. At Fall Comdex, both Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and Compaq chief Eckhard Pfeiffer pointed to the newest high-speed technology on the horizon: Digital Subscriber Line (DSL). Both see DSL taking off in the next five to ten years.
The collection of high-speed technologies, known generally as xDSL, promises superfast Internet access -- up to 160 times as fast as with 56-Kps modems, depending on the type of DSL technology. And because DSL works with existing copper telephone lines, it requires less upgrading of telephone companies' networks than some other broadband solutions. That's really good news, according to Gates. He singled out Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) as more advantageous than many other upcoming bandwidth solutions, because it doesn't require a whole new infrastructure.
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Whereas cable modems are targeted at consumers, DSL will be more prevalent among businesses -- largely becuase of the high cost, from 50 dollars to several hundred dollars a month. As a result, neither cable modems nor DSL modems are expected to overtake analog modems -- cheap by comparison -- anytime soon. In fact, neither technology is expected to grab more than 5 percent of the Internet access market in the next five years, says Doyle.
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Limited deployment of DSL is taking place on both coasts. Thorn Communications, an ISP based in New York City, has been offering DSL since the fall. Working with a realty company that owns and manages buildings around the city, Thorn wired several buildings for DSL -- specifically Rate Adaptive Digital Subscriber Line (RADSL), a DSL variation that lets a phone company adjust a link's bandwitdh according to demand. Thorn charges $400 to $600 per month and offers 2.56 Mps throughput.
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