With 620,500 customers, made up of 80 percent residential users and 20 percent business-class services using its 1.5 Mbps asymmetrical DSL (ADSL) offering, BellSouth has proven that DSL is still a viable product for the nation's telecommunications providers and shouldn't be abandoned.

That stands in marked contrast to the other three Baby Bells, Verizon Communications, Qwest Communications and SBC Communications -- who have either abandoned DSL entirely or significantly slowed their deployment rate in their coverage areas.

What's the secret of BellSouth's success?

According to BellSouth executives, successful self-installs (called virtual truck rolls) and a heavy emphasis on remote terminals are the cause. Remote terminals are mini-central offices (CO) that let telcos extend the range they can provide DSL service, which is limited mainly by distance.

RTs, said Ralph de la Vega, outgoing BellSouth president of broadband and Internet services, played a key role in the company's 188 percent DSL growth rate for the year, a rate higher than any other DSL or cable provider in the nation.

"BellSouth has a make up of customers such that 61 percent are served by central offices and 39 percent out of RTs and we had to get at that 39 percent to be able to hit our target," de la Vega said. "By design, BellSouth, for over a decade now, has been designing the maximum loop length behind RTs to be 12,000 feet so when customers get to that point, they get terrific line speeds."

At 39 percent, RTs substantially expand BellSouth's DSL presence outside of the normal coverage area provided by COs, which reach out 15,000 feet only if there is top-notch copper wiring connected to the consumer's home. De la Vega plans for that number to increase, as the company continues work on RT deployment around its coverage area, which is located in the Southest area of the U.S.

Also helping the Bell's cause is the promotions run in the fourth quarter that gave customers an incentive to sign up for broadband Internet. A free DSL modem (the program ends at the end of the month) and the first month of DSL free helped convince people to upgrade from dial-up or migrate from cable.

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BellSouth's success is a lesson the other incumbent should take to heart. For one reason or another, the other three have been slowing down their DSL deployment around the country, a strategy that could backfire.

• SBC has all but given up on Project Pronto, an initiative that was supposed to eventually cover 80 percent of its coverage area throughout the Mid- and Southwest. Executives blame the government for too-stringent regulation that makes expansion too costly to continue.
• Qwest abandoned the DSL market entirely after reporting it would see zero growth in 2002, handing over its high-speed management to the Microsoft Network and focusing more on business T-1 services.
• Verizon has been slow to embrace an aggressive RT deployment, focusing instead on keeping the customers it has happy, many of which have complained loudly and often of service outages and poor customer service.

De la Vega, who is taking over as president of BellSouth Latin America, is confident BellSouth will continue its RT deployment throughout the U.S., eventually covering 76 percent of the market and resulting in a total of 1.1 million customers by the end of 2002.

BellSouth started the fourth quarter of 2001 on a bit of a bad note. DSL acquisitions (like much of the high-tech industry), either through its own retail offering or that of its affiliate Internet service provider (ISP) or competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) partners, were lagging in the third -- partly due to the events of Sept. 11.

De la Vega downplayed recent events, saying history shows DSL growth is cyclical in nature; acquisitions are generally slower in the third quarter and pick up in the fourth. He expects the same to happen in 2002.