AT&T does business DSL at 6 Meg

AT&T is rolling out new 6 megabit per second DSL service, targeting small to mid-sized businesses that want more bandwidth without the expense of a T-1 line.

The new service, which features upload speeds of up to 608 kilobits per second, will cost $49.99 for the first three months and $64.99 thereafter, when purchased as part of a service bundle that includes voice services and a one-year contract.

It was part of the SBC DSL roadmap prior to the merger with AT&T and is “an extension of what SBC was already trying to do,” according to a company spokesman.

“Many of our small and mid-sized customers are continually increasing their bandwidth needs but don’t want the expense of a private line,” he said.

Such services are an indication of the incumbent telcos’ willingness to cannibalize what were once sacrosanct private line service offerings, which cost multiples of DSL service and deliver less bandwdith, albeit with symmetric service and guaranteed quality that a best-effort DSL may not deliver. According to an AT&T spokesman, the company's T-1 and fractional DS-3 services start at about $500 a month.

AT&T is promising Service Level Agreements for its business DSL service, along with security and priority customer support.

The service is being sold as SBC Yahoo! DSL Expert Plus and is part of what AT&T is calling Business Edition DSL. That broader terms covers a set of business services that companies can purchase including WiFI access at 12,000 AT&T hotspots in 42 countries; business email with a starter Web page, and 10 customized email addresses with storage; Web site hosting and design; wireless data access through Cingular Wireless; firewall protection and service level agreements.