EarthLink, Inc., is kicking its
business-class synchronous digital subscriber line service into high gear
with its announcement Monday to add 10 cities.
The Internet service provider now offers high-speed service to Boston,
Chicago, Houston, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Denver, Phoenix,
Sacramento and San Diego. Before Monday, the service was only available in
California, Texas and Georgia.
SDSL is favored by businesses because, unlike other flavors of xDSL, it
guarantees the same upstream speeds as downstream.
Julie Mantis, EarthLink vice president of broadband
sales, said small businesses are more inclined to sign up for high-speed
service when its moderately priced.
“There’s a growing need for a reasonably priced broadband solution that has
all the features a business needs,” Mantis said.
“As more and more
businesses embrace the Internet, they’re looking for exactly what EarthLink
Biz DSL gives them – speed, world-class customer support and the
flexibility to grow with their needs. And since EarthLink is also a
full-service Internet service provider that offers a complete line of
Internet access and Web hosting products, we can offer growing businesses a
one-stop shopping experience.”
EarthLink, the No. 2 ISP behind America
Online, Inc., brands SDSL with its EarthLink Biz DSL, giving business customers bandwidth rates starting at 144Kbps
for $129 a month up to 1.1Mbps.
The ISP is stepping up its DSL services nationally as more and more
businesses and consumers take advantage of the high-speed
access. EarthLink announced Thursday customers could self-install DSL to
cut down on the waiting time people experience when setting up the service.
According to a report issued by the Federal
Communications Commission Thursday, there are more than 1.8 million
small business and residential DSL accounts throughout America.