Enterprising DSL: Genuity takes broadband access to the enterprise market

While the rest of the DSL provider world focuses on delivering service to the small and medium-sized business market, Genuity is taking a slightly different route in unveiling its enterprise DSL service. Aimed at corporations with remote offices and telecommuters, Genuity's DSL service includes provisioning, customer support and billing.

As corporations continue to build out intranets, extranets and other e-business solutions, the service provider decided to take advantage of the demand for high-speed Internet from telecommuters and remote offices, which also need access to those same services. By partnering with GTE, Bell Atlantic, Covad Communications and NorthPoint Communications, Genuity acts as a single point of contact and provides an end-to-end solution to enterprise customers. And being owned by GTE gives it a significant reach.

Formerly GTE Internetworking, Genuity will be spun off as its own entity once the merger between Bell Atlantic and GTE is complete. However, GTE will continue to hold a minority stake. GTE, Bell Atlantic and the FCC will determine the percentage, said Mark Shumway, director of broadband services for Genuity.

In addition, the relationship between the three service providers will give Genuity an advantage over carriers attempting to enter GTE's and Bell Atlantic's markets, he said. Together, the GTE and Bell Atlantic partnerships give Genuity access to 40% of the U.S. market.

With the territory covered by all four partners, Genuity's footprint reaches more than 60% of the U.S. population. "The customer tells us where the remote office is, and we will get broadband to them," Shumway said. "Whose network we use is not their concern. We will get them installed and connected to the network."

By using multiple providers in the same region, Genuity also can guarantee service at a time when single providers are having difficulty keeping up with demand. "Come hell or high water, we'll get you connected regardless of demand," Shumway said.

The partnerships also give Genuity an advantage in a marketplace with dozens of smaller providers, said Pat Hurley, associate consultant and DSL analyst for TeleChoice. "There aren't many [service providers] that go into an area and have one of four providers to choose from," he said. "No one can offer 100% of a customer's telecommunications needs because of issues like distance from the DSLAM and quality of the line, but with Genuity's partnerships with multiple providers, they have as good as chance as anybody."

In addition, the service provider already has experience in rolling out services through the wholesale ISP business, for which it provisioned tens of thousands of lines.

Genuity's enterprise DSL offering includes local loop, Internet connectivity, IP address management, access speeds up to 1.5 Mb/s, unlimited usage, technical support and billing for 45 metro markets nationwide. The service provider already has begun to expand into Europe and Asia.

In the future, Genuity plans to bundle the enterprise DSL service with other products such as dial-up access, virtual private network services and dedicated T-1s. Voice-over-DSL service is under development, but the target date has yet to be determined.

Conversely, Genuity's spinoff from its telco parent could open up new opportunities. Though it's currently focused on DSL, the service provider also plans to move into wireless and cable. "Just as we leverage our relationships with multiple providers, we are also looking to leverage and move into multiple types of access methods," Shumway said.