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Technology Stocks : Westell WSTL -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skiawal who wrote (8818)	1/6/1998 9:43:00 PM
From: Skiawal	Respond to of 21342

Definately Woth Reading...MSFT, Gates, WSTL Quoted!!! Bigger Bandwidth on Deck New DSL technologies promise multi-megabit Internet access. (12/04/97) -- This year has seen the emergence of at least half a dozen new kinds of devices to access the Internet; scores of 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 generically as xDSL, promises superfast Internet access--up to 160 times as fast as with 56-Kbps modems, depending on the type of DSL technology. And because DSL works with existing copper telephone wires, 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. Industry analysts agree. "The [DSL] technologies have a tremendous amount of potential," says Lee Doyle, an analyst with market research firm International Data Corp. "Any technology that you can use to speed up Internet access with existing copper wires is good." Business First Whereas cable modems are targeted at the consumer market, DSL will be more prevalent among businesses, largely because of the high cost. A consumer spends upwards of several hundred dollars a month for DSL, many times the cost of analog modem service. As a result, neither technology is expected to overtake analog modems anytime soon. In fact, neither cable nor DSL modems are expected to grab more than 5 percent of the Internet access market in the next five years, says Doyle. "The most promising flavor of the DSL family is ADSL, because of its effectiveness over long distances," comments Mark Meudt, a spokesperson for DSL equipment maker Westell Technologies. ADSL provides downstream bandwidth (bandwidth directed to you) of up to 8 Mbps and upstream data rates (for data directed away from you) of up to 1 Mbps. Since ADSL uses a dedicated Internet connection--no dial-up connection is required--subscribers get continuous connections. Like cable modems, ADSL modems lack an industry standard, although several are in the works. Two versions of ADSL are Discrete Multitone (DMT) and Carrierless Amplitude Phase (CAP). Both will become standards, but DMT will be first, says Meudt. Westell plans to have the first DMT modems on the market soon after a standard is reached, hopefully within the next few months. Limited Deployment Limited deployment of DSL is taking place on both coasts. Thorn Communications Inc., an Internet service provider based in New York City, has been offering DSL to subscribers 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), an ADSL variation that lets a telephone company adjust a link's bandwidth according to demand. Thorn charges $400 to $600 per month and offers 2.56-Mbps throughput. GTE Communications, a newly formed local exchange carrier and unit of GTE Corp., has begun commercial deployment of ADSL in southern California. The company's ADSL OnSite services up to 1,000 residential units at the Mariners Village apartment complex in Marina Del Rey. The complex's telephone equipment room is outfitted with RADSL modems, a Cisco Ethernet switch, and Cisco 2500 Series routers to direct data between the Internet (over a T1 line) and subscribers. Each subscriber's apartment has an ADSL modem. GTE's consumer service costs $125 per month, plus a $250 installation fee. The cost for businesses rises to $700 per month, plus a $500 installation fee. To help telephone carriers install DSL quickly and easily, modem maker Rockwell Semiconductor Systems and telecommunications company Northern Telecom are offering their own solution, which doesn't require rewiring in the central office. It uses Rockwell's new Consumer Digital Subscriber Line chip set and Nortel's 1-Meg Modem network equipment.-- Angela Hickman zdnet.com