DSL @Work: Business-focused service provider to use NorthPoint network

The @Work arm of @Home that targets business customers is adding digital subscriber line to its portfolio. @Work has contracted with competitive local exchange carrier NorthPoint Communications to provide the service under the @Work label.

Like @Home, @Work's roots are in connecting customers to its network via hybrid fiber/coax and cable modems. @Work already offers T-1 connections, but to reach as many customers as possible, it decided to add DSL. @Work executives were not available for comment last week, but a company spokeswoman said DSL is an affordable alternative for companies that can't afford T-1s and can serve as a migration path for such companies to graduate to T-1 service.

End users will be connected by copper to NorthPoint-collocated DSL access multiplexers (DSLAMs). Fiber will connect the DSLAMs to NorthPoint asynchronous transfer mode switches, which will be connected by fiber to @Work.

The companies' strategies dovetail nicely, said Ann Zeichner, NorthPoint's marketing and sales vice president. NorthPoint's symmetrical DSL is considered the best type of DSL for business users who need equal bandwidth in both directions.

"We too are focused on small to mid-sized businesses as end users," Zeichner said.

@Work and NorthPoint, along with several other companies including Covad Communications and Exodus Communications, are defining a new service provider class, said David Cooperstein, telecom strategies senior analyst at Forrester Research.

"They're starting to fit into a model that we call 'layered telecom,'" he said. This refers to several companies providing pieces of a whole service package rather than one company owning the network and providing all the services.