Potential DSL providers stumble over hurdles
Competitors coax Quest for prompt start date
RMCI, it seems, had hoped to roll out DSL for valley users sometime in
late September or October. But problems between US West and the RMCI/New Edge team have
delayed that date for the unknown future.
By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer
Charles Barry says the Wood River Valley is full of people who have
"embraced the telecommunications concept." And that, he says, makes the area
ripe for a digital subscriber linecalled DSLa low-cost technology aimed at
providing small businesses and home users the same high-speed Internet connection normally
reserved for large organizations with deep pockets.
But wiring the valley for DSL has not been easy. Bureaucratic delays could
give alternative technologies, such as cable modems, a jump in the race for faster,
cheaper, better communications.
Many hoped the areas telephone company, US West, would provide DSL.
But company representatives in the past have said theyre not interested in selling
the service here because "three Ds" dont add up to profitability: demand
and population density are too low and distances in the spread-out valley are too great.
Now, the company for which Barry is a business development manager, New
Edge, hopes to partner with Rocky Mountain Communications (RMCI), to provide what US West
wont.
RMCI advertises in local newspapers that up to 500 people can
"pre-register" for DSL services that are "up to 200 times faster than
dial-up" services. The advertised cost is $17.95 per month plus regular line charges
ranging from $40 to $240 per month.
Thats good news for state legislator Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, and
28-year AT&T veteran Al Lindley, who heads an economic development committee in
Hailey. Jaquet said she and Lindley have been "rattling the cages" of
telecommunications companies to wake them up to the idea of providing DSL here.
Their reasons for pushing DSL are many.
The users that benefit the mostsmall offices and home offices, known
collectively as SOHOshave blossomed in recent years, they said.
So have the so-called clean businesses like Hailey- and Ketchum-based
high-tech recruiters, which rely on the Internet to connect programmers and other
high-tech professionals with employers from Southern California to Timbuktu.
Lindley said he would like to encourage more "clean businesses"
to move here.
And, Lindley and Jaquet believe super-fast telecommunications is the
long-sought-after answer to the seasonal slack the valleys tourist-based economy
faces each spring and fall. The Internet, they said, gives local businesses the
opportunity to sell practically anywhere in the world. High-powered business moguls, they
said, could be enticed to spend more time here, if only the telecommunications were
faster.
"No doubt about it," said Lindley, "people are making
decisions about where they live based on telecommunications."
RMCI, it seems, had hoped to roll out DSL for valley users sometime in
late September or October. But problems between US West and the RMCI/New Edge team have
delayed that date for the unknown future.
Federal law requires US West to cooperate with competitors like RCMI/New
Edge in their efforts to install needed equipment. For RMCI/New Edge, that equipment
mostly includes hardware that plugs into US Wests central offices in Hailey and
Ketchum. A recent merger, howeverUS West is now Questhas created a
decision-making log jam at the phone company, according to Quest spokesman Mike
Reynoldson. Consequently, RMCIs efforts to launch DSL, it seems, are suffering.
Barry was unable say when his people would be able to install DSL
equipment at the Ketchum and Hailey central offices. He was careful not to criticize the
telephone company, but said, "We are pretty much at the mercy of Quest."
RMCI, New Edge and other companies, it seems, must gently coax the
reluctant Quest for assistance in locating their equipment at Quests central
offices, while the telephone company has little motivation to give fast, efficient help to
its competitors.
Its a problem that is likely to continue even after RMCI
successfully launches DSL.
Designed 13 years ago to be delivered over century-old copper cable
networks, DSL, ironically, doesnt work on fiber optic cable. Thats a problem
for potential DSL users who have fiber optic cable between their computers and the central
office.
Another problem is filterscalled load coilsthat cancel noise
during voice calls. Telephone companies began installing them before the Internet existed
to cut off frequencies above 4kHz. Load coils are incompatible with DSL because it works
at 400kHz or higher.
According to several Internet sites, load coils exist on 15 to 20 percent
of local telephone networks.
Quest representative Reynoldson said the telephone company doesnt
know the quantity or location of either fiber optic cable or load coils in the Wood River
Valley. Without that information, RMCI/New Edge wont know for sure how many
customers will actually be able to get DSL in the valley.
"For competitive reasons," Reynoldson said, he cant
provide figures on the number of potential DSL users locally. But, he offered, typically,
about 20 percent of current telephone customers can qualify for DSL.
Barry said he doesnt think Quest has any objection to removing the
load coils, which would open up DSL to potentially scores of subscribers, but Quest, on
the other hand, doesnt have any particular motivation to remove them for RMCI/New
Edge.
New equipment called remote terminals could overcome the fiber optic
barrier, but without knowing the quantity and location of fiber in the valley, Barry said,
RMCI/New Edge has no way of planning to use remote terminals, or of knowing whether
theyre even needed.
Distance also limits DSL service. People with more than three miles of
telephone line between their computers and the central office cant get the service.
RMCI/New Edge would also need Quests cooperation to install equipment that could
extend that range.
Because of those problems with DSL, Cox Communications spokesman Mike
Reynolds said, he thinks people in the Wood River Valley will embrace cable modems.
Like DSL, Internet service provided by the television cable company is
always on. At $30 to $40 per month and two to 10 times faster than current telephone modem
connections, the service, like DSL, is aimed at small businesses and home users.
Reynolds said he thinks cable modems will be especially appealing to
residential users, because most households already have a telephone line and a television
cable line. That means most new users wont need to have a new line installed. In
fact, Reynolds said, the only cost other than the monthly rate is the initial purchase of
a network card that plugs into the users computerabout $60.
Cox Communications is currently testing the service in 10 homes in Elkhorn
and other valley locations, Reynolds said, and plans to begin offering it to a limited
amount of customers September 15.
Like DSL, however, cable modem service is far from perfect.
Many small businesses dont currently have television cable
installed. Because they do have telephone lines, they may be more attracted to DSL, which
would likely require not much more than a phone call to get started.
More importantly, cable modem service is set up much like the
old-fashioned party line telephone networks with many users sharing one line. The shared
nature of cable modem service, some say, creates security issues and causes transmissions
to slow down as more users get online.