June 15, 1998
xDSL Grows In Response To Cable Challenge
Growing Number Of Telcos To Roll Out High-Speed Net Access In
1998
By John Pallatto
By year's end, a growing number of business and residential
Web users in scattered regions of the country will gain access
to high-speed Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) services. The
technology delivers prodigious bandwidth over common copper
telephone wires by using pure digital technology.
Many of the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) and
national phone companies are starting to deploy various types
of DSL service. One of the most widely deployed services is
Asymmetric DSL, which enables download speeds of up to 2.2Mbps and uploads of
1Mbps.
GTE announced in April that it would deploy ADSL service from about 300
central offices in 16 states during the second half of 1998 with service up to
1.5Mbps.
US West also plans to start deploying ADSL service in more than 40 markets in
the Western United States in the second half of 1998.
SBC Communications, the parent company of Pacific Bell and Southwestern Bell,
has been conducting ADSL trials in the San Francisco Bay area and in Austin,
Texas. The two operating company subsidiaries indicate they will gradually expand
ADSL services in these areas.
In the desktop arena, Microsoft and Intel are working to ensure that new PCs will be
ready for DSL service. At press time, Microsoft promised that Windows 98 would
include DSL drivers. Intel plans to provide Universal Serial Bus technology for plugging
DSL modems into PCs.
Rival technologies, DSL and cable modem (download up to 2Mbps) have "huge
implications for business" because both will allow the development of corporate virtual
private networks and telecommuting at speeds approaching those which people are used
to working with at their corporate offices. Yet they should deliver these speeds much
more cost effectively than 1.5Mbps T1 service.
But, analysts say that Internet users should not expect that their local telephone
companies are going to whole-heartedly lead the charge to provide DSL service. They
aren't necessarily offering ADSL with the goal of rapidly becoming major high-speed
ISPs.
"Other than US West, none of the telcos have stepped up to the plate for regionwide
[DSL] deployment" says David Goodtree, director of telecommunications research with
Forrester Research in Cambridge, MA.
The telcos have more reasons to soft-pedal DSL services than they do to aggressively
install it, Goodtree says. They are wary of another technology fiasco, such as the lengthy
and costly investment cycles for deploying ISDN and ATM, he says. The RBOCs are
distracted by their efforts to build up their wireless networks and "by their hunger to get
into long distance telephone services," he says.
"Most of them don't even believe in the Internet. They think it's a mild passing fad that
doesn't have to be part of their core business," Goodtree says. It is no coincidence that
none of the RBOCs has become a top ISP even though they have the market access and
infrastructure to do so.
Because the cable television companies are offering cable modem service and therefore
presenting a potentially attractive communication alternative to home and business
Internet users, the telcos are responding with DSL service.
However, Goodtree says the telcos aren't concerned that they will miss out on winning a
major portion of the rapidly growing Internet access business. They are far more
concerned "that the cable companies will use their broadband service as a stepping stone
into the telephony business." |
