Broadband
comes to valley
Please hold for DSL
By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer
While the Wood River Valley continues to wait for the
fast, cheap broadband Internet service that the much-ballyhooed DSL
promises, two other broadband service providers have begun operating in
the Hailey and Ketchum areas.
Both new providers offer similar prices and speeds to what
DSL would offer, but unlike DSL, they don’t rely on local Qwest
telephone circuits, which, the providers say, is a major factor in their
pulling ahead in the broadband race.
In the Hailey area and parts of Bellevue, the Sun Valley
SkyLAN company offers fixed wireless Internet service, a business-oriented
system that uses radio transmissions instead of telephone lines to deliver
a broadband, always-on connection.
Filling the broadband void in the Ketchum area, Cox
Communications began selling its always-on Internet service to the general
public in December. The Cox service, aimed primarily at households, uses
the same lines that deliver cable television signals.
Since August, Boise-based Rocky Mountain Communications (RMCI)
has locally advertised "three months of free DSL" to Wood River
Valley residents who sign up for $17.95-per-month DSL service.
The only problem is the service doesn’t exist here. An
RMCI customer service person said last week that it won’t be available
for a year and a half. So why is her company advertising it? She didn’t
know.
Sal Cinquegrani, spokesman for New Edge Networks, the
Vancouver-based wholesaler with whom RMCI has partnered to provide DSL in
the Wood River Valley, said his company has "scaled back" its
plans to install DSL equipment here.
November’s downturn in the general economy was largely
responsible for New Edge’s laying off 135 of its 450 employees,
Cinquegrani said. New Edge chopped its nationwide DSL expansion plans in
half, dropping its Ketchum and Hailey projects for the indefinite future
and laying off Charles Barry, the business development manager responsible
for the Wood River Valley.
"I’m not sure when service is going to be
available," Cinquegrani said. "We have been fortunate enough as
a company to withstand the pummeling the market has doled out in the last
year."
New Edge’s returning its attention to Hailey and Ketchum
"depends on our ability to raise capital to install equipment,"
he said. "Right now, the capital markets are very, very tight."
RMCI could buy wholesale DSL directly from Qwest, but the
telephone company has not yet installed the necessary equipment. Last
summer, the telephone company said demand for DSL was not yet high enough
in the Wood River Valley.
Cinquegrani suggested a different reason for the delay. He
said Qwest is reluctant to "cannibalize its revenue source" by
supplying a cheaper alternative. In the Wood River Valley, he said, Qwest
has had a near monopoly on high-speed Internet connectivity with its T1
connection, which costs $1,000 per month or more.
Accusations that Qwest is thwarting DSL are not new. Qwest
spokesman Richard Jayo denied previous claims his company is creating a
monopoly, suggesting instead that the New Edge/RMCI partnership had not
reached a "critical mass" of customers to begin offering
service.
Cinquegrani said last week that New Edge would need 150
customers to financially justify installing equipment in an area with
about a three-mile radius. His company would expect to see a profit within
six months.
Sun Valley SkyLAN spokesperson Louise Issacs said her
company has signed up 50 customers since beginning to offer wireless
Internet service in Hailey six months ago.
SkyLAN is currently working on an agreement with Sun
Valley Co. to install antennae on existing Bald Mountain and Dollar
Mountain towers, she said. Meanwhile, she has a waiting list of Ketchum
and Sun Valley area wireless customers, but she declined to reveal how
many are on it.
Isaacs said her company has a major advantage, financially
and otherwise, because it doesn’t have to deal with a telephone company
middle man.
Cox Communications Sun Valley area manager Mike Reynolds
declined to reveal the number of customers his company has had sign up for
cable Internet service since December.
He said Cox has no waiting list for the service because
supply is high—equipment and software are readily available and easily
installed by customers.
Reynolds said Cox expects to expand service to the Ohio
Gulch area within three weeks and to cover the Wood River Valley from
North Fork to Bellevue within a year.
He doesn’t worry about competition from wireless or DSL.
"The demand is here," he said, "probably
for a couple of providers."
Chances are there will be more competition than that
before DSL becomes available.
Doug Starnes of the Twin Falls-based Diversified Digital
Systems has immediate plans to begin selling Direct PC broadband satellite
connections to the Internet. His system, which he intends to target
heavily at the Sun Valley area, uses a small dish similar to a television
satellite dish to send and receive signals.
With speeds of 128 kbps or 256 kbps upload and 400 kbps
download, the system is intended mostly for residential use.
