SBC Communications
Tuesday became the latest regional telephone company to announce a
widescale Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line rollout.
The company is planning to upgrade 526 central offices serving 8.2 million
residential customers and 1.3 million businesses with new equipment to
offer ADSL by the end of the year. SBC said its pricing plans would start
at $39.
In California alone, SBC plans to triple its ADSL deployment to serve more
than 70 percent of its customers. By the end of the year, 5 million
residential customers and 900,000 businesses in the state will be ADSL ready.
SNET, a SBC-owned telco serving Connecticut, also plans to start ADSL
trials by the end of the month
SNET will kick off the trial Jan. 21 offering ADSL service to customers in
New Haven, Bristol and Waterbury, Conn., with two other towns to be named
later.
The Connecticut trial will occur in phases. Initially, SNET will analyze
its network to ensure it is capable of offering ADSL. It will then
implement the systems necessary to provide the service and explore ways to
expand the service’s availability. During the trial, SNET will take
feedback from customers and use that to finalize its offerings and prices.
Edward Whitacre Jr., SBC’s chairman and chief executive officer, said SBC
is moving quickly to offer the service because it believes its customers
prefer ADSL over cable modems or other high-speed alternatives.
“We believe that ADSL will become the preferred high-speed Internet access
technology for our customers. Customers who want to download data from the
Internet or connect to their office networks from home will appreciate our
widely available service, attractive prices and the highly reliable and
secure service we will provide over our proven networks,” he said.
