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ADSL Services Launched in Key Cities to Banish the 'World Wide Wait'
PR Newswire - July 08, 1998 17:15
With an Initial Focus on Key Metropolitan Areas, Carriers Around the World Are
Rolling out ADSL Services to Enable High-Speed Access to the Internet And Corporate Networks Over Ordinary Phones Lines
MONTREAL, July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Carriers around the world are rolling out broadband ADSL services to meet the demand for high-speed remote access to the Internet and corporate networks. North American telephone company representatives outlined their deployment plans and marketing strategies at the ADSL Forum Summit in Montreal last month to more than 300 professionals and executives from the world's communications, networking and computer industries.
Several service providers have begun widescale commercial deployments of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) in major metropolitan areas (For a comprehensive list of ADSL deployments around the world, visit the ADSL Forum web site at www.adsl.com). For consumers in these areas, ADSL can eliminate frustrating delays waiting to download information and graphics from the Internet's World Wide Web. For small businesses and branch offices, ADSL provides fast access mission-critical information stored on corporate networks. Offering speeds at least 20 to 30 times faster than today's fastest dial-up modems, ADSL can provide virtually instantaneous transmission of voice, data and video over ordinary phone lines.
"Customers love it," reported Kyle Tanouye, GTE's Senior ADSL Marketing Manager. "The killer application for ADSL is simply enabling people to do what they do more productively... Ninety-eight percent said that the capacity for simultaneous voice and data transmissions [over a single phone line] is the most valuable feature of ADSL." GTE Network Services already has deployed ADSL in five U.S. cities and will offer ADSL service in at least 30 more in 16 states during the second half of the year, Tanouye said.
US West !nterprise is deploying ADSL in more than 40 cities in 14 states this year, said Greg Gum, the company's Executive Director of Megabit Services. "We are aggressively going after all markets, not just the consumer or just the business segments," he stated. "We offer ADSL as a scalable service. We can upgrade a customer to a higher speed [ADSL] service within our network management system within that same day. The same goes for our ISP (Internet service provider) customers, which can increase speeds in 3 Mbps increments."
Representatives of Canadian carriers Bell Canada, MT&T and Telus reported on their ADSL deployments as well. Glenn Ward, Vice President of Broadband Development for Bell Canada, said ADSL service will be available to 3 million residential customers in Montreal and Toronto by year-end 1998, with an ADSL offering for business customers slated to begin later this year. He said Bell Canada is focusing on three major customer segments: advanced consumers, teleworkers and small office/home office customers. In the future, Ward said, his company would like to enable access through its ADSL service to multiple networks, offering gateways or "portals" to other networks in concert with content providers and advertisers.
Nova Scotia-based MT&T is offering ADSL as an integrated service with more than 1,000 applications, providing 'software-on-demand,' according to Monty Sharma, MT&T's Chief Technology Officer. "This approach provides customers with far lower software costs, instant access to application software, lower hardware costs, and workplace independence," he explained. Sharma estimated that within ten years MT&T would own half of the servers in Nova Scotia as the company scales up ADSL-based services to handle hundreds of thousands of users. "This is a lucrative business model, and we believe this is where things are going," Sharma stressed.
More than 1,300 residential and small office/home office customers in Calgary and Edmonton already have subscribed to ADSL services, reported Laith Zalzalah, Manager of Network Architecture Planning for Telus Communications, a Canadian service provider based in Edmonton, Alberta. "We estimate another 3,000 will subscribe by year-end," he added.
Though widescale commercial deployments have begun, there still is work to be done before ADSL can be deployed to the worldwide consumer mass market, carrier representatives said. Several look to the Universal ADSL Working Group (UAWG) led by Microsoft, Intel and Compaq, to develop a global interoperable standard that could simplify ADSL installation and facilitate retail solutions for the consumer mass market.
"The ADSL Forum and UAWG have been instrumental in resolving deployment issues," declared GTE's Tanouye. Hans-Erhard Reiter, Chairman and President of the ADSL Forum, reported that equipment interoperability is taking priority within his organization. "Work on standards, end-to-end architectures and more has progressed apace to ensure that as ADSL is deployed, its promise and performance expectations will be fulfilled. The ability of ADSL equipment from the various manufacturers to work together in the many telecommunications infrastructure environments worldwide is a prerequisite of speedy delivery of the technology's potential. The ADSL Forum is working closely with standards bodies, equipment manufacturers, telcos, service and content providers to orchestrate interoperability and conformance testing for ADSL equipment to assure ease of deployment and match market expectations."
The next ADSL Forum Summit will be held on September 15, 1998, in Singapore. Asian-Pacific carriers will share their deployment experiences and explain how they are offering ADSL-based services in a region where interactive multimedia information and entertainment services are the key drivers. The last ADSL Forum Summit of the year will take place in Los Angeles on November 17, 1998.
The ADSL Forum is comprised of nearly 300 companies representing the world's computer, networking and communications industries. The non-profit organization was created in late 1994 to speed the mass-market deployment of ADSL services by developing end-to-end network architectures. More information about ADSL and the Forum is available on its Web site at adsl.com or by calling 510-608-5905.
SOURCE ADSL Forum
-0- 07/08/98
/CONTACT: Ann Jansen, PR Representative-The Americas, Jansen Communications, 503-648-3545, or fax, 503-640-1456, or AnnJansen@compuserve.com, for The ADSL Forum; or Carol Friend, PR Representative-Europe & Asia/Pacific, of Pielle Consulting, +44
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