Who's Offering It When. Here is a sample of current
and planned offerings in the U.S. DSL is also offered in the UK and elsewhere.
*Verizon has
announced plans for a wide deployment of ASDL in the Northeastern U.S. to both
home and corporate customers. The service is currently offered in the Boston,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington DC, New York City, and Northern New Jersey
metropolitan areas. Additional markets will be announced in the future. Verizon
offers what it calls Personal Infospeed DSL at speeds of 640 Kbps downstream
and 90 Kbps upstream for $39.95 a month, or $59.95 a month including Internet
access. Professional Infospeed offers speeds of 1.6 Mbps downstream and 90 Kbps
upstream at $59.95 per month, or $109.95 per month with Internet access. Power
Infospeed provides up to 7.1 Mbps downstream and 680 Kbps upstream for $109.95
per month, or $189.95 per month with Internet access. Network equipment
providers are Alcatel, Globespan, and Westell. Among PC manufacturers that will
support Infospeed technology are Apple Computer, Compaq, and Dell Computer.
* In the Midwest United States, Primary
Network is offering DSL service to St. Louis,
Missouri-area residents and businesses. Primary Network says that it is or will
be the largest Midwest provider of DSL service, with 20 central office sites.
Download maximums are between 384 Kbps and 1.54 Mbps. Upload maximums are
between 128 Kbps and 384 Kbps. Prices start at $49.95 monthly and include
Internet Access.
* COVAD is
currently offering DSL in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, and in Louisville
and Lexington, Kentucky, and plans to offer service in 25 other cities by early
2000.
* SBC Communications plans to bring ADSL to over 8 million homes in California, Missouri,
and Texas by the beginning of 2000. In California, over 255 telephone company
central offices will provide service to 5 million homes and 900,000 businesses.
In Missouri and Texas, SBC's Southwestern Bell company will upgrade 271 central
offices for 3.2 million homes and 440,000 businesses. Customers will need a
$198 "ADSL modem" and will pay a basic $39 a month on yearly basis
for unlimited service, or $49 with access to the Internet. Business or
high-demand users can pay more and get faster download and upload speeds. For
the basic rate, users are guaranteed 384 Kbps downstream and 128 Kbps upstream.
Power users can get up to 6 Mbps downstream and 384 Kbps upstream.
* BellSouth
is offering a splitter-based ADSL service in 30 markets through Network Service
Provider (NSP) channels. BellSouth provides access to all DSL-qualified loops
through a single asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) port in each of 13 LATAs in
eight Southeastern states. Access One, BellSouth's service partner, has
committed to deploy a minimum of 10,000 DSL lines to its customers over the
next two years.
* Qwest
(formerly US West) plans to offer DSL service in 40 cities in the western part
of the U.S. Currently, DSL is offered in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle,
Washington. Qwest uses CAP modulation but says they are equipped to support DMT
if that becomes a standard.
* NETinc, a
Canadian company, is deploying ADSL in Hamilton, Ontario, using Paradyne
technology. Dowstream data rates will be up to 7 Mbps and upstream up to 1
Mbps. Service to residences will be about $50 a month, to corporations $200 a
month.
