SureWest offers bonded ADSL2+, mulls copper video

SureWest Communications has launched a bonded ADSL2+ service in its incumbent local exchange (ILEC) territory, the company announced today.

The upgrade will bring 10-megabit-per-second speeds to customers currently receiving 6 Mb/s and 6 Mb/s to those receiving 3 Mb/s. Upstream speeds will increase from 768 kilobits per second to 1 Mb/s.

The bonded service is now available to more than half of the 74,500 customers on SureWest’s copper ILEC network in Sacramento, Calif.

SureWest also offers fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) service in parts of its ILEC footprint as well as its other Sacramento-area coverage area and its market in the Kansas City area.

SureWest tested the equipment for about a year before conducting alpha trials in recent months. According to Chief Technology Officer Bill DeMuth, the carrier waited until it was confident in the quality of the technology before deploying it, since SureWest wanted to preserve the option of one day offering video service over the bonded lines. SureWest worked with access equipment vendor Occam Networks to improve packet loss and with modem vendor Comtrend to remedy a problem with modems not resetting.

SureWest is currently upgrading its FTTP network from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4, whose greater compression could hypothetically leave enough free bandwidth to offer video service over the new bonded DSL network as well. SureWest expects to complete the move to MPEG-4 by next year’s first quarter.

Introductory prices for the new services are $27.99 per month for 6-Mb/s service and $31.99 for 10-Mb/s service.