CommWorks to help Atlantic Telephone deploy DSL

(Telephony) CommWorks, a spin-off and wholly owned subsidiary of 3Com, announced today that it is working with Atlantic Telephone Membership Corp. to offer high-speed DSL service to customers up to five miles away from any of the carrier’s 46 central offices.

Through the deal, the North Carolina-based ATMC will use CommWorks’ Total Control DSL Access Concentrator--a product developed through a partnership with Copper Mountain Networks--to provide residential and business DSL access to its more than 40,000 subscribers.

A CommWorks spokesman said ATMC selected its product over other vendor’s offerings because the company offered high-speed access over long distances, product management and support services and rapid deployment.

The deal is not exclusive, and CommWorks is discussing similar arrangements with at least three other carriers, the spokesman said.

“Atlantic Telephone’s success depends on fast, affordable and convenient DSL service,” said Thomas Love, marketing manager at ATMR. “Our customers appreciate the power of DSL, and we appreciate the ease with which CommWorks lets us deploy it.”

Chris Sims, CommWorks’ senior product manager, said the flexibility and scalability of his company’s solution was another major factor in ATMC selecting CommWorks.

“We’re an IP-centric DSLAM provisioner rather than our competitors, who are more based in an ATM infrastructure. With that comes the flexibility to deploy additional applications and generate more revenue,” Sims said. “Any IP-based application form can be deployed immediately over our service.”

ATMC will deliver its DSL service over existing copper wire rather than employing its cable infrastructure, saying that DSL technology was more in line with its customers’ needs. The company is particularly interested in reaching its rural population, which it said is growing 30% each year.

“Being able to utilize your existing copper has tremendous advantage over doing it over cable,” Sims said. “This is a dedicated broadband bandwidth for each customer versus cable, which is a shared broadband medium.”