JW: Excellent synopsis. Thanks for taking the time. Here is evidence
of increasing momentum with ISP's -
Following is an article from Interactive week:
Netcom On-Line Communication Services Inc. and Associated Telecom LLC
are planning a test of high-speed wireless Internet access in Los
Angeles.
Benjamin Slick, vice president and general manager of Netcom's business
services group, this week told Inter@ctive Week that the Internet
service provider, or ISP, is working with competitive access provider
Associated, which will provide the two-way, 1.5-megabit per second
wireless link at 18 gigahertz, to set up the trial. The carriers are
still looking for a company to test the service, he said.
If the test succeeds and the service goes commercial, Netcom will offer
the high-speed wireless under its own brand name, Slick said.
Besides offering another option for high-speed access, wireless
technology will allow Netcom's customers to get online faster than a
wireline connection would, Slick said. It generally takes 45 to 50 days
for a telephone company to provide a dedicated T1 (1.5-Mbps) line, he
said, while a wireless connection can be made almost instantaneously.
"If I can increase my cash volume by getting a service up a month
earlier, and maybe increase my customers, that's big," he said.
Netcom is also looking into other new access technologies, including
cable modem service and Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, or ADSL,
which is a method of sending data at rates of about 6 Mbps over existing
copper telephone lines.
The company is testing cable modem service with a local carrier, which
Slick declined to name, in a small user test in Las Vegas.
Netcom is even more interested in ADSL, Slick said, noting that copper
lines already reach all current and potential subscribers. The ISP is
talking with PairGain Technologies Inc. and other ADSL equipment vendors
about how it might implement ADSL. The technology would allow Netcom to
lease a standard copper line from a telephone company and install ADSL
equipment at a Netcom point-of-presence and at the user site to offer
the user high-speed connectivity to the Internet.
"Soon, the slower Telco's would not need to act on ADSL -- the ISP's
will do everything including reap the profits. Ha! Ha!"
Tango |
