OT>Northpoint Communications First Data CLEC To Offer Full-duplex T1 Speeds Over DSL; Company Extends NorthPoint DSL Service To SupportHigher Speeds, Longer Reach
October 20, 1998 SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE) via
NewsEdge Corporation -- NorthPoint
Communications, Inc.(SM), a Competitive
Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) specializing in
high-speed data transport, announced
today two new service offerings under its
NorthPoint DSL(SM) umbrella.
For the first time, national, regional, and
local network service providers (NSPs) who
partner with NorthPoint can purchase
full-duplex T1-speed transport - 1.544 Mbps
upstream and downstream - at wholesale
prices that are significantly lower than
conventional T1 services available from
incumbent carriers. In addition to a low
monthly rate of $250, compared with legacy
T1 rates of $350-$600 per month,
NorthPoint's business-quality T1-speed
services are backed by Service Level
Agreements (SLAs) guaranteeing 99.99
percent packet delivery and a round-trip
latency of 10 milliseconds (ms) through the
NorthPoint network.
Today, NorthPoint also introduced a new
IDSL service offering, providing up to 144
kbps of symmetric connectivity at distances
up to 36,000 feet from the central office.
NorthPoint's IDSL service is fully compatible
with any local loop supporting ISDN's Basic
Rate Interface (BRI), including lines with
digital loop carrier (DLC) systems or ISDN
repeaters. In addition, NorthPoint IDSL is
compatible with leading ISDN modems and
routers, such as Cisco, Copper Mountain,
and Netopia, allowing existing ISDN
customers to migrate DSL with minimum
effort and expense.
With these new service enhancements and
NorthPoint's recently announced rollouts in
major metropolitan areas across the U.S.,
NorthPoint now supports the broadest range
of business-quality symmetric service
offerings, and the broadest coverage, of
any Data CLEC in the industry.
"NorthPoint gives its NSP partners a clear
path for differentiation," said Mike Borsetti,
director of product management at
NorthPoint. "We support dedicated,
symmetric transport from 144 kbps to 1.544
Mbps, the right set of services to appeal to
the broadest range of business customers.
We wholesale our services in the most
lucrative markets in the country - 10 major
metro areas by year's end, with 14 more
targets already identified for the first three
quarters of 1999. Finally, our SLAs give
partners the ability to increase their
revenues with robust support of applications
like videoconferencing, voice over IP, and
virtual private networking."
"This type of competitive service offering is
what the Telecommunications Act was
designed to stimulate," said Berge Ayvazian,
executive vice president of the Yankee
Group (Boston, Mass.). "While many
naysayers are complaining about the failure
of the Telecom Act, NorthPoint is delivering
innovation - and choice - in the local loop."
A Full Spectrum of Service Offerings
"NorthPoint's solution enables @Work to
offer its customers a broad array of access
solutions that adjust to their business needs
and budget requirements," said Steve
Reichgut, DSL product manager for @Work.
" Leveraging the advantages of NorthPoint's
DSL services and @Work's distributed
broadband architecture, small to medium
sized businesses will have an affordable and
robust solution to enhance their
communications and business presence
through the Internet."
With this announcement, NorthPoint now
offers data transport services at the
following speeds: 144 kbps, 160 kbps, 200
kbps, 416 kbps, 784 kbps, 1.04 Mbps, and
1.544 Mbps. Users can choose an
entry-level service and easily migrate to
higher speeds; in most cases, NorthPoint
can upgrade users electronically, without
any site visit. NorthPoint DSL is based on
proven line encoding used in over a half
million installed lines. Its two-way symmetric
bandwidth satisfies business-critical needs
and supports the full spectrum of today's
"push " and "pull" enterprise applications,
including extranets, virtual private networks
(VPNs), electronic commerce, Web hosting,
videoconferencing, multimedia and more.
NorthPoint uses equipment from Copper
Mountain Networks to deliver its family of
DSL services nationwide. "NorthPoint is the
first Copper Mountain customer to take
advantage of the full gamut of DSL services
supported by the CopperEdge 200 Access
Concentrator," said Bryan Long, vice
president of marketing at Copper Mountain.
"We designed the CopperEdge with a clear
vision of our target customers: competitive
carriers building a portfolio of
high-performance, business-focused
services that can be rapidly deployed at low
entry cost and high rate of return.
NorthPoint is a textbook case study of the
fruits of that vision."
Service Availability
NorthPoint offers the full complement of its
NorthPoint DSL services in all of its
metropolitan service regions. Customers can
order NorthPoint DSL services from NSPs
today in the San Francisco Bay Area
(including Silicon Valley), the greater Los
Angeles area, Boston, New York, Chicago,
San Diego, and Washington D.C. By year's
end, the service will also be available in
Dallas, Detroit and Houston. NorthPoint
plans to expand to 14 additional
metropolitan markets by the third quarter of
1999 and to continually extend coverage
within existing metropolitan service areas.
About NorthPoint Communications, Inc.
NorthPoint Communications is a new breed
of telecommunications carrier focused
exclusively on delivering dedicated data to
the local exchange through wholesale
agreements with service provider partners
nationwide. Founded by an experienced
team of data communications and
telecommunications professionals,
NorthPoint is ushering in a new era in local
service designed to satisfy the needs of
both backbone service providers and their
business customers. NorthPoint has
architected its network and support
systems to the highest standards of
performance, efficiency, and reliability, and
offers a range of value-added solutions for
business-to-business data connectivity.
For more information about NorthPoint
Communications' data transport services,
visit its World Wide Web site at
northpointcom.com, or contact
the company at 415/403-4003.
NorthPoint Communications and NorthPoint
DSL are service marks of NorthPoint
Communications, Inc. Other trademarks,
service marks, and trade names belong to
their respective owners.
CONTACT: Gallagher PR | Kristi Kilpatrick,
510/749-6800, x208 | kristi@gpr.com | or |
NorthPoint Communications | John Stormer,
415/403-4003 |
jstormer@northpointcom.com
[Copyright 1998, Business Wire] |
