DSL gear is ready ' and waiting for a call

'|'SPECIAL TO GCNWill digital subscriber line service'DSL for short'become the small-office success it's touted as, or will it suffer the fate of other high-speed telephone company data services?At the moment, it's tempting to place bets on both sides, given the dismal experiences of DSL companies and subscribers this year alone.The accompanying chart lists products that deliver DSL service to a home or small office. They are the easiest part of the equation. The problem so far has been getting the service delivered to users' hardware.The flameout of the Emeryville, Calif., DSL provider NorthPoint Communications in March focused attention on the fast-changing nature of such ventures. Hyped as a fast-track company poised for success in offering high-speed data services, NorthPoint's merger deal with Verizon Communications Inc. collapsed last November. That led to a 90 percent drop in the company's stock price, subsequent trouble raising capital and, on March 28, the abrupt cancellation of DSL service. An estimated 110,000 subscribers were left without service. AT&T Corp.'s broadband unit acquired some of NorthPoint's physical assets in a $135 million bankruptcy court bid, but not the company's customer accounts. Users were stuck looking for service.For cynics, the NorthPoint debacle was another brick in the wall of DSL problems. Horror stories among customers of incumbent local exchange companies are almost as common as DSL users. The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post recently published tales of woe from customers trying to secure an installation, activate DSL or get their DSL service repaired, only to endure hours on hold and other frustrations.And some companies that have supported DSL may be losing faith. Just before presstime, 3Com Corp., which has products listed in the accompanying chart, announced it was discontinuing its line of DSL products.Add DSL's limited operating range of three miles from a telephone company's central office and the recent slowdown in the U.S. economy, and some people had no trouble in writing an early obituary for DSL as a technology.Defenders were quick to respond: Remember, DSL is only two years old and, as with any toddler, there are growing pains. One research company, Vertical Systems Group of Dedham, Mass., predicted last month that DSL connections in the United States will increase to 11.3 million in 2004, a number, it said, that will be dwarfed by global DSL growth.The attractive concept of delivering high-speed data communications over standard twisted-pair copper wiring has enticed telephone company engineers for years, but it has only been a reality in most major markets since about 1999. Before then, only a few areas had made stabs at offering DSL, including New York, Phoenix, Ottawa, Salt Lake City and San Francisco.DSL originated in the late 1980s as a potential alternative to cable TV service from telephone companies such as Bell Atlantic Corp. hoping to offer video on demand service to customers tired of cable TV's limitations. But even though DSL technology had the bandwidth to deliver video, customers weren't looking for that'at least, not in the way carriers had imagined.Instead, it was the arrival in force of the Internet that spurred broadband growth and gave DSL a shot at widespread adoption. The exchange companies had promoted 128-Kbps Integrated Services Digital Network lines for fast data connections, but a speed barely twice that of a 56-Kbps modem held little attraction for users with another broadband choice: cable modems.Cable TV companies, already reaching millions of homes with regular and fiber-optic cable, found ways to multiplex their cable wires to carry data and even voice telephony and TV programming. Cable Internet service, priced at $30 to $40 per month, took off. Kinetic Strategies Inc., a market research firm in Phoenix, said that as of June 1 cable Internet subscribers outnumbered DSL subscribers 6.45 million to 2.93 million.Cable has its limitations, too. Users essentially are on a party line, on which heavy user traffic can slow service. And the possibility of accessing other users' PCs exists with cable though not with DSL. But the quick rollout of cable Internet service, plus the fact that it can be available far from a cable company's central office, propelled it ahead of DSL.DSL is closing the gap, as manufacturers offer ways of extending the DSL signal further into a central office's territory. Late last month Lucent Technologies Inc. of Murray Hill, N.J., announced a new Stinger DSL access concentrator designed to extend service to difficult-to-reach customers. By working with the digital loop carrier (DLC) systems widely used to provide regular telephone service today, Lucent said, the Stinger Micro-Remote Terminal (MRT) lets service providers reach more customers using existing equipment.Unless they have a DSL access multiplexer (DSLAM), such as the pizza-box-sized Stinger MRT, DLC systems, which are often deployed in new housing developments and in suburban and rural areas, block users from receiving DSL service. Using a DSLAM with a DLC opens up access.There are are encouraging developments as well on the user's end. Early this month Jetstream Communications Inc. of San Jose, Calif., announced it would join Panasonic USA of Secaucus, N.J., to launch a broadband telephone delivering voice telephony over DSL connections.'By eliminating complex configuration and wiring requirements, installation takes minutes and is performed by the end user,' a Jetstream statement said. 'This removes the need for a costly visit by the service provider technician.'The company said the broadband phone, whose release date has not been set, will deliver integrated communication services over a DSL connection.A greater range and fancy phones could help spur DSL's growth. But according to Ernie Bergstrom, industry analyst with Cahners InStat Group in Scottsdale, Ariz., DSL's primary lures are still speed and flexibility.'There are 104 million homes in the United States. Of that, about 52 million have Internet access. Of that, 90 percent are still dial-up, but broadband has grown to almost 10 percent in two years,' Bergstrom said. 'There's a lot of potential for growth. I went to broadband about six months ago and will never go back.' XXXSPLITXXX-XXXSPLITXXX-