GOT BANDWIDTH? PACIFIC BELL ANSWERS CALIFORNIA'S "NEED FOR SPEED" WITH $39 ADSL SERVICE, MAJOR AVAILABILITY
Lightning-Fast ADSL Enables Californians to Make the Most of the Internet
SBC Announces Largest Deployment of ADSL in the United States
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 12, 1999 - The wait for affordable super-fast access to the Internet is over for millions of California households and small businesses. Pacific Bell announced today it is reducing prices on its popular high-speed Internet access service and making it available to millions more of its customers throughout the Golden State.In a related announcement today, Pacific Bell's parent company, SBC Communications, Inc. (SBC), announced plans for the largest rollout of Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) service in the country. By the end of 1999, SBC will have the potential to provide ADSL service from 526 central offices to 8.2 million residential and 1.3 million business customers. In California, Pacific Bell will almost triple its current deployment of ADSL, providing service in central offices that serve 70 percent of its customers by the end of the year.
Pacific Bell plans to offer "always on" ADSL service with guaranteed connection speeds for as low as $39 a month. In addition, Pacific Bell and Pacific Bell Internet Services will offer ADSL service and Internet access packages for as little as $49 per month. ADSL equipment and installation will be available for as little as $198. These new, attractive price points represent a decrease of 45 percent for ADSL service and Internet access, and 34 percent for ADSL installation and equipment.
* See below for specific pricing details.
By reducing its cost and boosting deployment, Pacific Bell is making high-speed Internet access a viable option today for millions of households and small businesses who are looking for greater bandwidth to make the most of the Internet or to connect to the office network from home. Pacific Bell will invest more than $100 million in 1999 to upgrade its ADSL technology and equip 255 central offices with the service. These central offices will provide ADSL service as many as 5 million residential and 900,000 business customers.
"Got bandwidth? For the vast majority of Americans, the answer is still no," said Ed Mueller, president and CEO of Pacific Bell. "Fortunately for Californians, Pacific Bell is answering the Golden State's 'need for speed' by undertaking the country's largest single-state deployment of ADSL service and making it substantially more affordable. Now, Californians can surf the web and connect to the office at quicksilver speeds for less than the cost of taking a family of four to the movies."
"We are confident ADSL service from Pacific Bell will become the high-speed Internet access of choice for California. We're putting ADSL within reach of millions more Californians so that customers will get great value, superior service, all the speed they need and transport provided over the highly-reliable Pacific Bell network," added Mueller.
Pacific Bell's ADSL customers can simultaneously use a phone or fax machine while getting downstream connection speeds up to 1.5 Mbps and an upstream connection speed of 128 Kbps–50 times faster than today's most common 28.8 analog modems.
Downstream throughput speeds will vary depending on the customer's distance from the central office and other factors, but the connection speed will be at a guaranteed minimum of 384 Kbps. Pacific Bell estimates 75 percent of its customers qualifying for ADSL will get downstream connection speeds of 1.5 Mbps.
For customers demanding higher speeds, Pacific Bell and Pacific Bell Internet Service will offer a package with guaranteed downstream connection speeds of 1.5 Mbps as fast as 6 Mbps, and an upstream connection speed of 384 Kbps.
In addition to downloading data, graphics, audio and video, ADSL's speed transforms e-commerce transactions by creating faster responses for on-line traders and buyers, faster information exchanges between business partners and faster on-line sales. And the e-commerce explosion is just beginning. In fact, Deloitte & Touche predicts a four-fold increase in e-commerce during the next two years.
ADSL: A Better Broadband Solution
With today's announcement, more than half of Pacific Bell's customers will be able to subscribe to lightning-fast ADSL service by the end of the year. This is crucial because industry insiders estimate 35 percent of the nation's Internet traffic begins and ends in California. Add that to the fact more than 3.7 million Pacific Bell households are anticipated to be online by the year 2000, and you have the start of a "big" bandwidth revolution, explained Mueller.
When compared to cable modems, ADSL ensures greater reliability, better security and more consistent speeds, experts say, because the service is delivered via a dedicated line from a central office to the individual user's home or office. In addition, Pacific Bell's ADSL runs on the Pacific Bell network, one of the most reliable in the world. And customers choosing Pacific Bell Internet Services, surf on one of the country's most sophisticated Internet backbones and benefit from award-winning service and support.
Because cable modems depend on shared bandwidth among a group of users, accessing the Internet via cable modem is a "floating crap game," said Amy Wohl of Wohl Associates, a market research company. "If you're using it for telecommuting, there would be some places where not too many people are home during the day and you'd be fine. And there would be other places where you're sharing it with three elementary schools and 42 other telecommuters, and it will be terrible."
For example, Andrew Abbate, a computer consultant with a Bay Area start-up company, has his home hooked to Pacific Bell's ADSL. When telecommuting, Abbate values the service's security so he can conduct on-line banking and download massive audio and video files. In recent months, Abbate also used ADSL to design an interactive Web site and build a virtual private network.
"ADSL has changed the way I work and communicate via the Internet," said Abbate. "Thanks to Pacific Bell's ADSL, the World Wide Web is no longer the World Wide Wait."
Pacific Bell believes the demand for ADSL will soar now that the service is widely available and affordable. In fact, DataQuest, a market research company, predicts the number of ADSL subscribers could zoom from 50,000 now to 5 million worldwide by 2002.
ADSL Update
SBC also announced plans today to offer ADSL service to millions of its customers in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas by the end of 1999, and will begin ADSL trials in Connecticut later this month.
The company has also completed joint initiatives with Dell Computer Corporation and Compaq Computer to promote more convenient access to ADSL.
"We are moving aggressively to provide the advanced high-speed data services customers throughout our territory are demanding," said Edward E. Whitacre Jr., SBC chairman and CEO. "We are committed to ADSL technology and to building the multi-media corridor to homes and businesses that will enable people to change the way that they work, learn, shop and play." Whitacre said that SBC is filing tariffs today with the Federal Communications Commission for regulatory clearance to offer ADSL to customers in all five Southwestern states.
Pacific Bell launched ADSL service in May 1998. By Sept. 1998, the company had completed ADSL deployment in about 90 California central offices, making the service available to more than 1.6 million residential customers and 400,000 business customers throughout the Golden State.
Committed to making bandwidth widely available, Pacific Bell is committed to making it easy for Californians to get ADSL service. For example, the company has signed agreements with more than 22 ISPs, which act as authorized sales representatives for Pacific Bell's ADSL service and offer the service to their business and residential customers. In addition, Pacific Bell will continue making ADSL service available to competitors and Internet service providers for resale at the new price.
For more information on Pacific Bell ADSL and to order the service, California residents can call 1-888-884-2DSL or visit the Pacific Bell Web site at http://www.pacbell.com/products/business/fastrak/adsl/.
Pacific Bell is a company of SBC Communications Inc. (www.sbc.com), a global leader in the telecommunications industry, with more than 36.9 million access lines and 6.5 million wireless customers across the United States, as well as investments in telecommunications businesses in 11 countries. Under the Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell, SNET, Nevada Bell and Cellular One brands, SBC, through its subsidiaries, offers a wide range of innovative services. SBC offers local and long-distance telephone service, wireless communications, data communications, paging, Internet access, and messaging, as well as telecommunications equipment, and directory advertising and publishing. SBC has approximately 129,000 employees and its annual revenues rank it in the top 50 among Fortune 500 companies.
PACIFIC BELL ADSL PRICING SHEET
| Monthly Service (1-Year or Longer Term) |
Customer Premise Equipment | Equipment Installation | ADSL Service Installation | Month-to-Month Service | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Bell ADSL2 Transport | $39 | $198 | Waived1 | Waived1 | $59 | |
| Internet Access3 | $10 | $21.95 |
| Monthly Service (1-Year or Longer Term) |
Customer Premise Equipment | Equipment Installation | ADSL Service Installation | Month-to-Month Service | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Bell ADSL2 Transport | $129 | $198 | Waived1 | Waived1 | $149 | |
| Multi User (up to 256 accounts) Internet Access3 |
$199 | $299 |
- Equipment and service installation charge waived for customers who sign up for one-year term or longer
- Month-to-Month, 1-Year and 3-Year terms are available for ADSL service
- Discounts are available for retail customers who purchase more than 50 ADSL lines
- A basic telephone line, either business or residential, is required for ADSL service
Pacific Bell ADSL Central Offices
1999 Deployment
The following central offices will be deployed throughout 1999 in California.
|
Agoura Alameda Albany Alhambra Anaheim (2) Antioch Aptos Arcadia Arlington Arroyo Grande Auburn Mn. Bakersfield (3) Balboa Benicia Berkeley Beverly Hills Bishop Ranch Blue Revine Boulder Creek Brea Brentwood Buena Park Burbank Burlingame Canoga Park Carlsbad (2) Carmel Chico Chula Vista (2) Clayton Clovis Colma Compton Concord Corona Corona Del Mar Costa Mesa Cotati Culver City Danville (2) Davis Del Mar Douglas Edgewood El Cajon |
El Dorado El Monte El Toro Encinitas Escondido Eureka Main Fair Oaks Fairfield Fallbrook Fremont (2) Fresno (3) Fullerton Garden Grove Gardena Glendale Grass Valley Half Moon Bay Hawthorne Hayward (2) Hercules Hesperian Hollywood Ignacio Irvine (2) La Brea La Crescenta La Jolla La Mesa Lafayette Laguna Nigel Larkspur Livermore Lodi Lomita Los Altos Los Angeles (16) Martinez Menlo Park Merced Mill Valley Millbrae Milpitas Abel Mission Mission Viejo Modesto |
Monterey Moraga Msvl Franklin Mountain View Napa National City Nevada City Newhall Nimbus Hollywood (2) Sacramento Northridge Oakland (4) Oceanside Orange (3) Orinda Oroville Pacific Beach Pacifica Palmdale Palo Alto (2) Paramount Park Sorrento Pasadena (2) Petaluma Pittsburg Placentia Placerville Pleasanton (2) Poway Midland Rancho (3) Redding Redwood City Reseda Richmond Riverside Rosemead S. Placer Rocklin Sacramento (5) San Bruno San Carlos San Clemente San Diego (10) San Francisco (9) |
San Gabriel San Jose (8) San Juan San Luis Obispo San Marcos San Mateo San Pedro San Rafael San Ramon Santa Ana (3) Santa Clara (2) Santa Cruz (2) Santa Marguerita Santa Rosa (3) Sausalito Scotts Valley Sebastopol Sherman Oaks Shingle Springs Simi So. Tahoe Sussex Solamint Sonoma Stockton (2) Sunnyvale (2) Tiburon Torrance Tracy Truckee Turlock Tustin Ukiah Union City Vacaville Vallejo Van Nuys Ventura (2) Visalia Vista Walnut Creek Watsonville West Los Angeles Woodland Yorba Linda |
