Is voice over DSL becoming reality?

As voice over digital subscriber line inches its way into the marketplace, the notion that voice alone is not good enough is becoming more evident. Service provider MGC Communications announced last week a bundled voice and data services offering over local loops using DSL.

MGC will use Accelerated Networks' integrated access devices and multiservice access platforms to deploy of the services. That equipment will enable MGC to deliver dial tone, virtual private networks, Internet access and frame relay services, thus providing a way into small and medium-sized businesses.

"The small to mid-sized business segment [is a huge market]," said Dave Clark, vice president of marketing for MGC. The market should be ripe, he added, because few companies have looked to put high-speed applications into the small-business environment. MGC is running beta tests in Las Vegas and intends to deploy the integrated services this summer.

Clark emphasized that MGC's focus is on integrating voice and data together, not just voice. "We are not considering DSL as a product, it is a delivery mechanism that enables us to craft a bundled product," he explained.

"There is a new type of [competitive local exchange carrier] emerging, called an integrated communications provider, with a strategy of delivering a set of bundled services over DSL," said Kevin Walsh, vice president of marketing for Accelerated Networks.

"In the long run, the only way to be a competitive player in the service provider marketplace is to offer all services. It's not possible to be a data-only player," said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp. The idea of having voice CLECs and data CLECs will last, at most, a year, said Nolle. "Everybody is going to be an integrated service provider or nothing at all-they will be dead."