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 COLUMN
With DSL providers suffering financial setbacks, will there be enough high-speed ports to satisfy demand? Lori: Everyone these days seems to be clamoring for quick, reliable Internet access. The demand for high-speed, always-connected service is on the rise; industry analysts foresee tremendous growth in DSL. In-stat Group predicts that the market will grow from 10 million ports in 1999 to more than 90 million by 2004.
The high demand can't be satisfied until these services expand into the remote areas that DSL can't currently reach. You'd think things would move faster. There are many providers in this market -- from local telephone companies such as the Baby Bells and Verizon (GTE) to the numerous ISPs. But many of these companies re-sell DSL from Covad and North Point, and the small ISPs are having trouble keeping up their end of the deal. Covad's main difficulty is that many of its ISPs are simply not paying their bills. It may take some time for all these companies to work in sync to meet the high demand for DSL, but I'm confident that in spite of all the glitches of too rapid growth, this market will reach the analysts' predictions. I remember the embargo days when I worked at Sprint -- they couldn't keep up with the demand, but they worked hard and fast to get their network infrastructure built up to meet the challenge. The DSL market is expanding rapidly despite all the obstacles. The demand has simply been too great to meet the needs of both business and residential customers. If you are not connected with DSL yet or are on the long waiting list to get installed, try and be patient; DSL will prosper. For more detailed information on the benefits of DSL, read our recent Test Center Point/Counterpoint written by my column partner Kevin, along with technology analyst Todd Coopee at www.infoworld.com/articles/tc/xml/00/11/06/001106tcdsl.xml. And now let's see what Kevin has to say about this busy market. Kevin: As I'm sure many of you have figured out by now, I'm a big proponent of DSL technology. I've been using DSL for a little more than a year and a half and have had very few problems with my connection. I can remember it being down only three times in that year and a half, and then only for a short period each time. But during the Thanksgiving holiday I had a much less-than-perfect DSL experience. I was visiting with my wife's family in Texas, and their DSL service was down. This wasn't some small-time ISP -- it was SBC, which we still like to call Southwestern Bell. Nonetheless, their DSL service was down for more than a week. When I called the DSL technical support line, they asked what type of DSL modem was connected. The lady then told me that there was a special number for that "weird" modem. After giving the phone number of the DSL line to the representative, I was told that they had converted a bunch of lines in the area and it had "messed up" DSL service for many of their customers. They had no ETA for a fix, had no one who could give more details, and asked me to call back in a few days for an update. Needless to say, with service and support like this many people will become disenchanted with DSL. It took me quite awhile to convince my in-laws to upgrade to DSL, and now their image of the service is most definitely tarnished. Imagine the plight of small businesses in their area that are forced to go back to using dial-up access during the extended downtime. I still love my DSL line, but I definitely wouldn't stake my business on DSL alone while the industry is in such turmoil. Once the providers figure out that service should be their No. 1 priority and that downtime should be a rare occurrence if they want to keep customers for the long haul, DSL will become much more widespread. Kevin Railsback is Acting Test Center Director in the InfoWorld Test Center Lori Mitchell is a senior analyst in the Test Center.  RELATED SUBJECTS  Network/System ManagementNetworkingMORE > SPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
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