ioNET unleashes high-speed twister, U.S. Robotics plays another ADSL card

With the future of high-speed access up in the air, enhanced network services provider ioNET Inc. is ensuring that it will be on solid footing when the dust settles.

ioNET, which already offers ISDN service and U.S. Robotics' x2 56 kb/s technology, is partnering with U.S. Robotics to offer 7 Mb/s asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) service.

The new service is scheduled to debut in mid-summer in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla. ioNET plans to expand that to Kansas City, Mo.; Little Rock, Ark.; and Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, Texas, soon after the initial deployment.

ioNET's primary business is helping companies create virtual private networks, extending local area network connections over the public network, said Leonard Conn, ioNET's president and chief executive officer. It also offers Internet access, and the move to offer ADSL is aimed at keeping its universe of potential customers as large as possible, Conn said.

"We don't want to eliminate our customer base because they chose to buy a different modem," Conn said.

The ADSL service will be geared toward business users that need high-speed connectivity for remote offices and telecommuters, he said. While ADSL will provide the network access, traffic will travel point-to-point via ATM, with the interconnection equipment collocated in telco central offices.

But what of ioNET's other high-speed access services? Even though ioNET wants to keep choices open for its customers, Conn expects that ADSL will take the lead in high-speed access.

"As ADSL becomes more generally available, it will significantly impact the market for ISDN," he said.

Most service providers are employing or developing a strategy similar to ioNET's, said Mike Smith, senior analyst for Probe Research, Cedar Knolls, N.J. Internet service providers and Bell regional holding companies "are all looking at rolling out a portfolio of access services and allowing customers to make the decision," he said.

That service model stems from the fact that even though ADSL is expected to grab a big chunk of market share, most carriers aren't comfortable enough with the technology to deploy it, Smith said. He pointed out that while several carriers are testing ADSL service in limited release, only Bell Atlantic announced that it is planning a full rollout. And that isn't scheduled to happen until mid-1998.

"You're not going to see wholesale migration in the near future," Smith said.

The current spread of high-speed access customers over several technologies is also evident in U.S. Robotics' interest in ADSL. While it is concentrating a huge marketing effort on its x2 technology, it is certainly not ignoring other high-speed access modes.

Ron Westernik, marketing vice president for 3Com/U.S. Robotics' broadband access communications division, said it would be foolish for U.S. Robotics to choose to support one mode over another.

"Analog dial-up is by far the largest market [for data access]," he said. "It ain't going away. And what does ADSL offer? A broadband access alternative. The question is, how effectively and smoothly can you offer a transition from analog to broadband?" Westernik said U.S. Robotics' goal is to make its ADSL products more affordable than its competitors' and to make ADSL modems as commonly available as analog devices. The company plans to roll out an x2/DSL-capable modem some time in 1998.

Equipment vendors, much like service providers, are keeping their options open when it comes to high-speed access, Smith said. They realize that as long as service providers offer several options, they need to offer the flexibility to move quickly in a particular direction should a customer do so. "It's a case of almost hedging your bets," Smith said.

ATM A TRUE GLOBETROTTER Cable & Wireless launched global asynchronous transfer mode service beginning with a first phase connection between the U.S. and U.K., to be followed by a rollout across Europe and Asia. Also last week, Unisource added six cities-Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Madrid and Stockholm-to its 15-country Pan-European ATM network.

U S WEST NABS NORTEL SWITCHES U S West plans to upgrade its analog switches with Northern Telecom's digital DMS-100 switches in a new multiyear, $100 million-plus contract. Nortel will provide both digital switching and Sonet equipment in upgrading the U S West network for new services such as local number portability and ISDN.