ADSL Services Launched in Key Cities to Banish the
'World Wide Wait' 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
July 9, 1998
MONTREAL, July 8 /PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge
Corporation -- 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
/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, +44-0-171-323-1587,
or fax, +44-0-171-631-0029, or
CarolPielle@compuserve.com, for The ADSL Forum/
/Web site: adsl.com
[Copyright 1998, PR Newswire] |
