Did You Get the
Message?

Douglas Wilson,
Executive Vice President
dwilson@engineeringassociates.com

Did You Get the Message?

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Regulators, customers and government officials are continuing to demand "high-speed access." There seems to be a perception that a community without this service will be trapped on the wrong side of the digital divide and all of the residents and their children will be relegated to a life of subservience whereas communities with broadband access will be inundated with industrial development, job opportunities and the area will be transformed into a community reminiscent of Lake Woebegone where all of the children are above average. The clamor is even more shrill for rural communities, poor areas and inner cities. It appears that this movement has legs and will probably become an issue in the next election.

Mr. Internet (Al Gore) made two speeches in Atlanta in April on this topic where he vowed to close the high-tech gap. The Treasury Department Secretary, Stuart Eizenstat, recently convened a conference in Atlanta where he discussed the fact that 66 percent of the households in Atlanta have Internet access and only 22 percent of households outside Atlanta have access. The tone of these speeches and conferences seems to be if the teleco industry doesn't provide the high-speed access, then government or non-profit cooperatives should take the initiative. A number of communities in Georgia have already taken the initiative. The message appears to be "lead, follow or get out of the way."

Recently congress decided that they should also join the party, by expressing concern that rural communities were going to fall into the digital ditch and proposing a 30 percent tax credit to help subsidize the construction of broadband communications systems in rural areas. The proposal specifically mentions fiber optics and ADSL. One interesting feature of this proposal is that it specifically indicates that the tax credit can be claimed by any company that builds the infrastructure in rural areas, not just local telephone companies. The congressional press release announcing the proposal implies that broadband access should be considered a basic telecommunications service. In summary, any telecommunications company that elects to simply ignore this movement does so at its own peril.

While it may be difficult to accept that DSL has all of the purported magical abilities and it is almost as difficult to build a business case supporting ubiquitious DSL in rural communities, it is advisable that astute managers continue to seriously research this topic to plan how this technology can best be used in your community. It is also probably appropriate to initiate some field trials and prepare the transport network for DSL. With all of the hype on broadband and DSL, it would seem logical that there is a clearly-defined implementation path; unfortunately, this is not the case as DSL is an evolving technology with a great deal of capability. It appears that we must learn to take advantage of evolving technologies in this "new economy." While DSL may not be as easy to implement as some of the more mature technologies, with proper planning the potential issues can be anticipated and many of the problems can be avoided and/or minimized. This newsletter is intended to be a starting point to help you develop an overview of DSL and be able to separate the fact from the hype.