The Dallas Morning News

Many finding high-speed connections elusive

SERIES: SPECIAL REPORT: E-COMMERCE

Vikas Bajaj

The Internet was supposed to nullify the power of the world's oceans,

mountain ranges and other geographic nuisances that hinder communications

between humans.

While it has done as much for many aspects of communication, most Americans

can't connect to the Internet fast enough to watch a five-minute video clip

in real time because they live a bit too far from the Net's nearest outpost.

Telecommunications companies have invested billions of dollars to create

fiber-optic backbones that carry data faster than the mind can fathom. But

economic and technical challenges have kept them from offering most

residential customers a large-enough on-ramp to take an unencumbered joy

ride on the information superhighway.

High-speed connections to the home are important because they will enable

people to use their computers to make the most of the Internet. Working from

home will become more practical, online shopping will become easier and

virtual interactions will become more lifelike.

"Our future looks fuzzy, slow and jerky, as if we were talking to the moon

or a space shuttle," said Bruce Kushnick, executive director of the New

Networks Institute, a New York research group. "And I don't think the Bell

[local phone] companies have any intention to do anything" about it.

Industry officials say they are working through the challenges to make

high-speed access available to a majority of their customers.

"There are constraints right now, unfortunate as that is for the customers

and the industry providers," said Bill Watson, southwest region president

for Mpower Communications Corp. of Rochester, NY. "Everyone is working as

feverishly as possible to deliver the service to the largest percentage of

the population."

"We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to do this," said Tony

Boyd, vice president of engineering for AT&T Broadband in Dallas. "I really

understand their desire for the product, and we will do everything we can to

do this quickly."

The problem is the last few miles - known in industry parlance as the "last

mile" - between a consumer's home and carriers' equipment.

Phone companies such as SBC Communications Inc. of San Antonio use copper

lines that have limited capabilities. Cable companies such as AT&T use

coaxial cable systems that must be upgraded before they can be used for

two-way communications.

In 1998, fiber optics made up 97 percent of phone companies' backbones -

lines that link their switching offices. By comparison, 82 percent of their

connections to homes and businesses - the last mile - remained copper,

according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Replacing the cable and copper that goes to homes with fiber optics would

solve the problem of high-speed access, said Hasan Pirkul, dean of the

School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas.

"We will have fiber to the home," he said. "I have no doubt about that. ...

But it's a huge undertaking and significant undertaking and it's going to be

slow because of that."

But replacing existing copper and cable with fiber is economically

unfeasible, analysts and officials say. It would involve retrenching every

American neighborhood, removing existing telephone lines and putting in

fiber.

Ross K. Ireland, senior vice president of network planning and engineering

at SBC Operations Inc., said companies would have to put more equipment into

the ground to bring fiber to homes.

"As you get closer to the customer [with fiber], you need more devices, and

there is more maintenance and a higher cost structure," he said.

The industry is pushing cheaper alternatives that include digital subscriber

lines, cable modems and fixed wireless antennas. These technologies provide

a middle ground between fiber and the status quo, but each comes with its

own problems.

DSL service, for the time being, is limited to consumers living within 3.3

miles of phone companies' central offices. Cable systems need several years

of work before they are ready to provide Internet access to all their

subscribers. And residential fixed wireless service is not widely available.

In the meantime, tech-savvy consumers such as James Keel, 28, of Dallas go

without services they would gladly pay a premium for.

"It's the curse of being an early adopter," said Mr. Keel, who had DSL

service until recently when he moved a mile and half to a new apartment.

"Basically my huge computer system sits there and I check e-mail on it, but

I definitely don't spend as much time on it as I used to."

Mr. Keel, who works in the technical support department of a Dallas company,

said he used his high-speed connection to download video and audio files

from the Internet. He has tried to get the alternatives, but AT&T doesn't

offer Internet service over cable in his neighborhood, and his landlord

won't let him install a fixed wireless antenna on apartment property.

SBC, the parent company of Southwestern Bell, says it's bringing fiber lines

and remote terminals deeper into neighborhoods that are too far from its

central offices so that DSL will be available to virtually all residents in

urban areas in the next few years.

That system would not help rural residents or those living in distant

reaches of a metropolitan area.

"We plan to cover 80 percent of Texas [with DSL]," said Michael Turner,

president of SBC Broadband Services. "We are working with the Texas Public

Utility Commission to find ways to serve the rest of the state. ... It's not

resolved, but clearly progress is being made."

Analysts say the last mile presents substantial challenges, but

telecommunications companies are finding ways to ease the bottleneck.

Cahners In-Stat, a San Jose, Calif., research firm, estimates service

providers will spend $ 200 billion for high-speed access equipment in the

next five years. 

"You have to look at broadband more as an industry than a product, and if

you do, you are more tolerant of learning curves," said Mike Lowe, a Cahners

analyst. "I tend to be more tolerant."

September 20, 2000, Wednesday THIRD EDITION

SECTION: SPECIAL; Pg. 8H