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These days, Digital subscriber Line makes any "What’s Hot, What’s Not" technology list. The buzz on DSL makes it sound like the best thing that ever happened to small business Internet users. What’s definitely not hot, and what most new DSL users are switching away from, is dial up, with its slow speed and line hogging, not to mention the screeching connection noise some equate with fingernails on a chalkboard. So who's moving to DSL? Just the techies, or is this for everyone? A look around San Diego shows that nearly any small business using e-mail and the Internet can benefit from DSL's features. DSL is high-speed Internet access over standard copper phone lines. Compared to dial-up access, it is up to 100 times faster and offers an "always on" connection. Compared to cable, it offers a range of speeds (higher fees for higher speeds) and a dedicated line which eliminates fluctuation in speed due to multiple users. Monthly costs for DSL service start at about $150 a month for basic business service and $50 a month for residential service. (A new promotional offer by PacBell advertises DSl service for as low as $39 a month.) With DSL service, multiple users at different computers all have access to the Internet with a single DSL line into a business. Prior to switching to DSL two months ago, the 12 employees at Spurlock Poirier Landscape Architects were sharing a single phone line for a connection to America Online. So if one person was online checking e-mail, the others had to cool their cyberspace heels waiting for a turn. Now, the Downtown San Diego firm has a dozen happy campers. "We looked into Cox Cable but the cost of installation was too high," says Shannon Ricaud, an associate with the firm. (The cable fee was high because the company is located in a building with no current cable connection. All Downtown offices have existing phone lines and are close enough to a telephone company switching office that DSL will operate.) "We spent three to four months researching and finding out how DSL lines worked," says Ricaud. "We got the costs and type of service and features available." When the time came for installation the company brought in an outside computer consultant to configure the network. Ricaud reports the service is great with no problems so far. New applications are emerging as businesses explore the range of possibilities in the technology. SDA Security Systems Inc. is using the Internet, via DSL, to monitor security systems. The 70-year-old company, which is locally owned and operated, has 95 employees with 40 of them currently online. Before installing DSL six months ago, only six employees had Internet access using a dial-up modem.
Stokes says SDA will be expanding the security systems service to wider bandwidth for live security video monitoring over the Internet. "There is a major push by some city governments to reduce false alarms," says Stokes. "With voice and video access inside the protected area we can record an intrusion event and hasten police or fire response or prevent a false alarm." Cost is another factor pushing many small businesses toward DSL. The service provides high-speed access with costs similar to cable, but lower than high-end T-1 lines, and much more efficiently than multiple phone lines for dial up. "I use DSL because I need an economical way to provide simultaneous Internet access to four desktops," says Malcolm Avner, the owner of Link Staffing Services. "We use Web mail as our internal and external e-mail system. DSL was the only practical alternative, given my budget." After two months of use Avner says he couldn’t be more pleased with his decision. He says Concentric/Covad has provided "unflinching" access to the Internet and that he is planning to upgrade his access speed as his budget allows. The DSL mania is likely to pick up speed, in large part because of a Federal Communications Commission decision ordering line sharing. That sharing will allow customers to receive DSL services from competitive providers over the same telephone lines that already carry their voice services. Rick Adams, Rhythms NetConnections Inc.'s chief marketing officer, says removing the process from complete dependency on the local phone company will favorably impact both the cost and speed with which Rhythms can provide DSl services. Rhythms, a provider of DSL-based, high-speed Internet access, is one of the major suppliers of DSL technology to local Internet service providers, along with COVAD and NorthPoint. Rhythms was instrumental in persuading the FCC of the need for better dial-tone access. Rhythms has been running an aggressive national advertising campaign to build brand awareness. When the advertising campaign launched in mid December, the calls started coming in 20 minutes after the first commercial aired. "People figured out the phone number, even though we hadn't put it in the ad," says Adams, who has logged many years in the telecommunications industry, spending time at AT&T and GTE. He says he has never seen a technology catch fire the way DSL has in the past few months. Rhythms wants to position itself as the supplier of choice for DSL technology. So even though Rhythms does not sell DSL service directly to consumers, it offers services, such as checking whether potential customers are located in an area which can get DSL service and providing information on local ISPs who can work directly with customers to install DSL technology. Its service is now available in 38 major metropolitan areas. The company expects to offer service in a total of 70 markets, covering more than 100 metropolitan statistical areas by the end of 2000. Dave Mayo may not live in San Diego, but his company’s needs are identical to his local counterparts. "We were first on the block to install DSL," says Mayo, vice president of Everware Inc. in Fairfax, Va. He started using the technology six months ago, switching away from dial up. "We love it," says Mayo. "DSL gives us very constant speed. It’s better than cable, which can have wild variations in speed." The installation process took two months. "The service was unstable for the first month, but now it’s perfectly stable," says Mayo, whose application development consulting firm has 30 employees around the eastern part of the United States. He sees the ability to upgrade access speed as an asset of DSL that other technologies don’t offer. With demand skyrocketing, ISPs are aggressively building the bandwidth to deliver broadband. Internet Express says it’s ready. The company, which provides DSL service nationally, has gone from ranking No. 288 nationwide as a DSL provider to No. 4 in less than six months. They have agreements with all three of the major suppliers of DSL technology, COVAD, NorthPoint and Rhythms.
So how do you get on this bandwidth bandwagon? "If you don’t know how it works, you don’t know if it will work for you," says Naomi Lohnes, chief financial officer for Johnson & Jennings, a tenant improvement general contractor. Lohnes recommends getting help if you don’t understand the technologies and the options available. She used an outside tech support consultant to help determine the needs of the company and work through the transition process. It took about two weeks to figure out what the company needed and Johnson & Jennings made the move to DSL last summer through CTS Net. "DSL was the most cost effective next step," says Lohnes, who already had tried dial up and ISDN lines. The need for high-speed connection to the Internet is steadily increasing. Acknowledging that the public soon will hang up on dial up, AOL bought Time Warner for access to its cable system. AOL has a lot at stake: 20 million subscribers. But AOL also is partnering with Gateway to introduce a pilot program, AOL Plus via DSL, in two markets, San Diego and Timonium, Md. Businesses and consumers rely more and more on the Internet for services and products, and e-mail is becoming indispensable as a means of communication. DSL seems set to soar with newly removed barriers and attractive features. But ever mindful of the rate of discovery and change in technology, Rhythms' Adams is careful to keep all options open. "Rhythms doesn’t want to be known only for DSL," he says. "We are a 'broadband services' company." Who knows what kind of pipe is coming down the pike? |
"Using the same DSL installation, with multiple IP addresses, we provide camera surveillance services," says Glenn R. Stokes, vice president of communications and information technology at SDA. "This is done using standard ordinary CCTV fixed cameras, or with special CCTV cameras that can be panned, tilted and zoomed by anyone who has authorization to access the camera over the Internet." SDA customers who do not have existing dedicated Internet connectivity install DSL. Using DSL for burglar alarm monitoring is approved by Underwriters Laboratories.
"We’re extremely busy right now," says Diane Brandis, chief operating officer of Internet Express. "Currently, our average time to install is 21 days, but we’re working on bringing that down to three to five days." Reducing the installation time will be a primary benefit of the line-sharing agreement, since DSL providers will not have to coordinate services as much with the local phone company.
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