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October 25, 1999
Major telephone and cable-TV companies upgrade networks, usher in broadband world By Bob Wallace
 t soon will be a broadband world, and the growth of inexpensive, high-speed local communications links will transform E-commerce, telecommuting, business networking, and the Internet. That means IT managers need to prepare for the day when fast, cheap data connections are commonplace.The latest evidence: SBC Communications Inc., one of the nation's largest telephone companies, said last week it would spend $6 billion during the next three years to upgrade the phone networks in its 13-state territory and offer digital subscriber line service to 77 million Americans by 2002. That follows a series of broadband deployment plans laid out in the past year by most major telephone and cable-TV companies, as well as wireless and satellite service providers. "The SBC announcement is a large step toward moving us to a networked economy in which technology keeps us constantly connected, whether we're at work, at home, commuting, or on business travel," says Claudia Bacco, an analyst at TeleChoice, a consulting firm. While great strides have been made in providing cheap, fast bandwidth in the long-distance market, there's been a bottleneck in delivering those services to consumers and small businesses because of the limitations of the copper wires in the local phone network. But the growing availability of DSL and cable-modem technology, which can provide high-speed data services for around $40 a month, finally brings high-bandwidth local services into homes and local businesses. "The way we live is changing. We're shopping from home, doing home banking, and having our kids do their homework over always-on connections," Bacco says. "We're also booking flights and hotels online, and may soon enroll in a course and be given a DSL modem and service to access a video server which handles the classes online." The shift from a slow-speed, dial-up world to a broadband one in which transmission speeds are fast and bandwidth is cheap presents opportunities and challenges for IT managers. Some have already embraced broadband. Plymouth Rock Assurance Co., an auto insurer in Boston, is moving 100 of its 150 agent locations from a frame relay network to DSL to cut costs and provide more bandwidth. The rest will stay on the existing network because DSL isn't available in those locations. "We wanted to provide agents bigger pipes to the Internet so they could handle policy claims and billing quicker," says CIO Rich Wilkins. "By using DSL, we're giving them at least 2-1/2 times the bandwidth at one-third the cost. DSL is fast, cheaper, and more efficient than what we had."
Service provider HarvardNet this week will disclose that Plymouth Rock is its first DSL customer. Plymouth agents will use DSL to access a virtual private network.
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