BRINGING DSL TO MAINSTREET

RBOCs and competitive local exchange carriers providing digital subscriber line are preparing to charge into the mainstream market. In a slew of announcements last week, carriers cut prices to within the range of cable modem services and teamed with mass market ISPs.

GTE lowered its prices to $49.95 for its 768 kb/s downstream and 128 kb/s upstream variety of asymmetrical DSL with Internet service. In a separate deal, the company announced an alliance with America Online.

The current flurry of activity is only coincidence, said Jeff Bolton, director of GTE's ADSL program. "What you are seeing here is a natural expansion of what we did last year."

Even though price is key, GTE is not willing to go the route of U S West and offer customers a DSL service that is not always on. "With the Internet being a shared service already, customers will be right back where they started," said Bolton.

GTE hopes that with lower prices, easier installations and support from a provider such as AOL, it can give cable a run for its money.

For AOL, the alliance, like its deals with Bell Atlantic and Ameritech, is another way to bring service to the consumer's front door. "As different platforms emerge, we want AOL to be available on all of them," an AOL spokeswoman said.

The transition to high-speed technology most likely will be a slow one, she said. "You are not going to replace narrowband with broadband overnight." The venture is not something new for the company, but interest has heated up, she added.

On the CLEC side, Covad Communications teamed with ISP Juno to target less technical users. The companies are trying to get services ready by Christmas.

"People are viewing this coming Christmas as the time to have something on the market - we are all ramping up for this," said Dan Estabrook, senior product manager of consumer services at Covad. "We are all viewing 2000 as a big year for these products."

Customers are willing to pay a little more for services if they are getting the speed, although prices could be a little lower, said Estabrook. But to consumers, "what is really important is the up-front price," he said.

Juno, like AOL, is just trying to get into any high-speed market it can at this point, and DSL is the only reasonable way. "Until the cable monopoly is broken up by regulatory intervention, DSL is the only way to get into the broadband market," said Charles Ardai, CEO of Juno.

Unlike other service providers that have attacked the higher-end market with broadband services, Juno thinks it can be successful with the less tech-savvy market if past trends hold true - consumers get addicted to speed. "The consumer market has always adapted to speed as long as it is reasonably cheap and easy to use," Ardai said.

Bell Atlantic, an early mover in the mass marketing of DSL, announced that it will become even more aggressive with its current DSL rollout. The company plans to get DSL equipment into 700 central offices by the end of this year. By the first quarter of 2000, the company plans to have 1000 COs equipped, serving 21 million qualified lines.

Although most seem eager to start spreading the DSL message to consumers, the key will be actually getting the service out. "What we are seeing now is a flurry of announcements. The next step is to be able to produce," Ardai said.