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February 28, 2000High-speed Internet links plannedLinks from Ameritech and Voyager.net will be 200 times faster than telephone modemsBy BILL ECHLINRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - Traverse City will be among 65 Michigan communities where Ameritech will offer an extra-speedy Internet access service called DSL or Digital Subscriber Line later this year. The announcement comes on the heels of a plan by Voyager.net Inc. of East Lansing to bring DSL services to 40 Midwest cities including Traverse City, Gaylord and Petoskey some time this year. Ameritech calls its DSL program Project Pronto and plans to have the service available to 1.5 million homes and business in Michigan by late this year. In the initial rollout of the service, Traverse City will be the only northwest Lower Michigan community to get DSL. The company hopes to have the service available to 80 percent of its customers within three years including more rural markets. DSL service provides what is known as always-on Internet connections at speeds up to 200 times faster than regular phone modem connections. Several levels of service will be offered, starting at $39.94 per month for a connection at 768 kilobaud per second. DSL can connect at speeds of as much as 1.5 megabaud per second. A standard telephone modem operates at 28.8 to 56 kilobaud per second. Voyager.net has not yet announced rates. Both Ameritech and Voyager.net believe there will be strong demand for fast Internet connections among consumers, telecommuters and small businesses. For Ameritech, the project involves a $6 billion upgrade of its telephone network. Currently DSL service is limited to customers approximately three miles or less from a central office DSL switch. That distance is the length of the phone line, not the geographical distance. The company said its upgrade will virtually eliminate that distance limitation within three years. The plan involves stringing fiber-optic lines deeper into neighborhoods and also installing what it calls "neighborhood broadband gateways" to push central office facilities closer to customers. Once the upgrades are completed, the company will be able to offer not only fast Internet access but also voice, data, and video services over a single network. Voyager.net's program will turn the company into a telephone company, installing its own equipment and DSL gear in 240 central switch offices of other phone companies in 40 cities. Voyager.net said it will focus on secondary and rural markets within in its service region, covering areas that are less competitive than major metropolitan areas. The company hopes the DSL plan will appeal to its current phone modem Internet access customers as well as customers of other access providers not able to offer DSL. Voyager.net also plans in time to offer bundled packages of phone, Internet access, and private network data services. |
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