Technology News
Fri, 5 Jun 1998, 12:34am EDT
U S West to Offer High-Speed Internet Access in 20 More Cities
Denver, June 5 (Bloomberg) -- U S West Communications Group
said it's offering high-speed Internet access in 20 cities and
plans to add 20 more by the end of next month, as it seeks to
grab a bigger piece of the fast-growing data-services market.
The service, called asymmetric digital subscriber line, or
ADSL, let consumers and businesses send and receive information
over regular copper phone lines more than 200 times faster than
over conventional modems. It also lets customers make regular
voice calls at the same time without using a separate phone line.
U S West is racing against phone companies GTE Corp., Sprint
Corp. and others, as well as cable-television companies, to
deliver faster Internet access as more customers hook up to the
Web. U S West's Internet sales, which rose about 50 percent in
the first quarter, are driving revenue growth at the Denver-based
regional phone company.
''A lot of companies promise big changes with new technology
some time in the distant future. We're offering this service
right now,'' said Solomon Trujillo, U S West's president and
chief executive.
GTE plans to offer ADSL service in 30 markets by the end of
the year, and Sprint earlier this week unveiled a new network
with similar features that will be available to business
customers this year and to consumers in late 1999.
U S West said it will introduce the service in selected
markets in Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota,
Washington and Wyoming, as well as additional cities in Colorado
and Minnesota. It's already offered in cities in Arizona, Idaho,
Nebraska, North Dakota and Utah, as well as some markets in
Colorado and Minnesota.
The company's two-stage introduction of the services began
last month.
--Andrew Brooks in the Princeton newsroom (609) 279-4066 through the San Francisco newsroom (415) 912-2980/smw |
