GTE takes ADSL slow: Results from three trials aimed at different users still being evaluated

GTE's aggressive pursuit into the cable modem market apparently isn't affecting its asymmetrical digital subscriber line deployment plans. In May, the company said it was expanding a work-at-home trial with Microsoft employees to include about 1000 participants. At the same time, GTE started two new trials at Duke University and Purdue University.

Six months later, the telco still is evaluating the results and holding off announcing any commercial deployments.

"The combination of the trials is accomplishing what we wanted," said Barry Nalls, assistant vice president of business marketing for GTE Communications. "We wanted to understand from a business perspective what the needs are from three different user trials."

Those three scenarios-telecommuters at Microsoft, medical imaging at Duke and educational data access at Purdue-have helped GTE fine-tune the service, particularly the back room support required for high-speed data access. However, the company won't offer commercial service until it's certain that the technology and surrounding processes are bulletproof.

"Our approach is that from an expectation point, our customers look to us to provide the same level as what I call 911 service," said Nalls. "We don't want to underestimate the volumes when this service hits the market. This plan has been well laid out, and we're very much on track."

Part of that plan likely will be letting customers' applications dictate the particulars of the technology. In Redmond, Wash., for example, the company is using modems from both Westell Technologies and Amati Communications to transmit data at 1.5 Mb/s downstream and 64 kb/s upstream to Microsoft employees working from home. At Duke, the company is pushing data at levels that are closer to 6 Mb/s downstream and 384 kb/s upstream.

And although both vendors' equipment allows for higher-speed access, the initial commercial deployments will not necessarily give users the biggest possible bandwidth, Nalls said.

"For home dial-up to the Internet, 1.5 Mb/s is very satisfactory," he said. "If you get into the other end of the spectrum where you're accessing a medical image file, you may need a higher speed."

GTE also has yet to announce a vendor choice. However, because of their pending merger, both Amati and Westell are likely to be involved at least in the first deployments.

"We're so far along with GTE right now, things won't change," said a Westell spokesman regarding any possible Amati combination. "We don't plan on completing the merger until next year, so they're just going to keep on moving forward."

Part of GTE's reluctance to deploy commercial service quickly stems from a fear of over-promising a service that has thus far been met with open arms by trial users, added Nalls. To avoid building customer expectations too high, the company is spending a lot of time with trial participants, explaining the service and potential pitfalls.

"We make sure we lay out a good understanding of what ADSL provides," said Nalls. "We let them know about the characteristics of the network. We're not hyping this to a point where we're going to over-commit and under-deliver. We're very guarded about our customer expectations."

NURTURING THE CYBERALLEY

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