InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
December 8, 1997
DSL Steps Up
Digital Subscriber Line products, services coming
NetSpeed announced last week it's shipping a DSL modem that end users can easily attach to their phone jack and computer without the help of a carrier. Previously, phone companies had to deploy DSL modems outside a customer's building, splitting off a voice wire and then rewiring the inside of the building before attaching the modem.
Initially, the EZ-DSL modem will work only in conjunction with carriers that use NetSpeed products. But as NetSpeed and others start to implement standards-based products, the EZ-DSL will work with other vendors' carrier equipment. The modem will operate at speeds of up to 7 Mbps.
The EZ-DSL breaks the $200 price point. As users deploy thei
r own modems, NetSpeed officials say, the per-user cost of deploying DSL services will be halved. "We now believe that DSL deployment will be in the millions of lines instead of thousands of lines next year," says John McHale, CEO of the Austin, Texas, company. The EZ-DSL will compete with products based on a Northern Telecom and Rockwell DSL chipset due out in the second quarter of 1998.
While NetSpeed is making big claims for the EZ-DSL, analysts don't expect such modems to have a sizable impact on DSL take-up for at least a year. For one thing, carriers can't alter their market plans for every new technology developed. "We can't do a reset in the industry waiting for the next big thing," says Tom Starr, a senior member of the technical staff at Chicago Bell company Ameritech, which plans to roll out DSL services this month.
Smaller service providers are also moving into the market. This week, telephone company Covad Communications is launching a DSL service in the San Francisco area for remote LAN
access at speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps. The service is priced at a flat $90 to $195 per month for speeds of 144 Kbps to 1.54 Mbps downstream. Upstream speeds vary. Six companies are testing the service, to be rolled out within 90 days.
Internet service provider Thorn Communications is teaming with real estate developer Newmark & Co. Real Estate Inc. on a DSL service for a handful of Manhattan buildings. Thorn is offering businesses 2.56-Mbps service for $500 per month, including equipment and Internet access.
roduct vendors and network service providers are rolling out Digital Subscriber Line offerings in the hopes that 1998 will be the year the copper-based local-access services take off.
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