A coup for copper

Backbone networks keep boosting the bandwidth, but the copper loop needs to catch up. Although fiber to the home is an excellent goal, most agree that it is at least a decade away. In the meantime, carriers are looking at ways to provide high-speed access in the local loop.

Digital subscriber line technology is making inroads, but it's not perfect. It faces distance and service limitations: It typically isn't deployed beyond 18,000 feet, and the longer the distance, the slower the speed. In addition, copper lines have to be conditioned for DSL, and incumbent LECs aren't making it easy for CLECs to offer the service.

An important barrier to DSL deployment isn't technical at all, but it might be the easiest to remedy: the marketing of DSL. Traditional carriers are used to providing essentially the same service to all customers. Enhancements come in the form of added services, such as voice mail or caller ID, not faster phone service. DSL throws that model out the window.

With DSL, service providers have to evaluate customers individually. Where do the customers live? How far are they from the central office or a digital loop carrier? What type of DSL service do they require? Are the copper lines capable of handling DSL? Do loading coils have to be removed? When can the carrier schedule a truck roll to the customer site? Is that necessary? Most of these questions can be answered fairly easily, but because the answers vary from customer to customer, DSL loses the appeal of mass marketing.

To give DSL a lift, service providers need to simplify the customer evaluation process. One of the stumbling blocks to IDSN deployment was that carriers didn't know how to market it. When customers called, telco customer service reps didn't know what ISDN was, who handled it, or when they could install the line. That won't win many customers.

Bell Atlantic seems to be taking the right approach. The carrier claims that customers will be able to determine on-line if they qualify for DSL service and then submit the order on-line. That's a step in the right direction. The longer it takes to figure out, the more customers will move to competitive technologies such as cable modems.

In fact, cable modems are gaining ground. That is bad news for DSL, which can't afford to lose customers it doesn't have. Getting a customer to switch technologies will be tougher than getting them to sign on.