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To: Vladimir Zelener who wrote (10150)	4/10/1998 4:06:00 PM
From: bill c.	Respond to of 21342

[ Telephone Companies Remain Cautious On 1998 DSL Rollout ] (04/09/98; 3:42 p.m. EST) By Mo Krochmal, TechWeb <Picture>NEW YORK -- GTE and Bell Atlantic executives cautiously threw out numbers on Thursday for digital subscriber line (DSL) deployment at the end of 1998. Speaking on a panel at the High-Speed Data to the TV and PC conference here in New York, the two telephone company spokesmen indicated a low level of rollout this year. DSL, a much-hyped communications technology, can be used on copper wire to boost Internet-access speeds by as much as 30 times today's norms. Mark Wegleitner, vice president of new-services technology at Bell Atlantic, said the company will have DSL terminals in 50 to 100 of its central offices. He said he could not comment on the geographic area that would cover, or the number of customers that would be included. Parker Blackwell, director of advanced business products and services for GTE Network Services, said he could not give a number for GTE's installed base, but added that the company is in agreement with the low end of industry analyst TeleChoice's revised estimate of 50,000 to 350,000 lines installed nationwide this year. GTE, which has trials going with Duke University and others this year, will be looking at connecting the business market first, but a lot of colleges in its areas had committed to getting DSL service this year, Blackwell said. The company is committed to the technology and is very interested in how it progresses, he added. "The chairman of the company wants updates every two weeks on the status of the thing," Blackwell said. "I don't need any more focus than that." Larry Gerbrandt, an analyst at Kaplan Associates, a California research firm, said the telcos' DSL technology rollout has fallen behind the cable industry in the battle for high-speed access. "They are a good year behind cable," he said. "I think cable will end up closer to the consumer, and the telephone companies will concentrate on the business customer." Both cable and telephone industries will be watching Washington, D.C., where the Federal Communications Commission will be officially studying the bandwidth issue. The commission is encouraged by the competition between the two industries, said Dale Hatfield, chief technologist for the FCC. "Competitively supplied bandwidth is better," Hatfield said, adding that the wireless industry is rushing to set up its shop, also. The commission, he said, doesn't want rules and regulations to stand in the way of improvements in technology. But, he said, the commission and state agencies will begin to investigate the progress in the deployment of advanced telecommunications in August and will make a formal report at the end of six months... techweb.com