Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company
The Boston
Globe
October 22, 2000, Sunday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. F8
LENGTH: 859 words
HEADLINE:
GROUP LOOKS TO SPEED BROADBAND ROLLOUT
BYLINE: By Peter
J. Howe, Globe Staff
BODY:
Massachusetts industry
and government officials tomorrow are launching a group aimed at speeding the
rollout of broadband-speed Internet access across Massachusetts, to ensure
businesses and residents statewide can reap the full potential of the Net.
Convened by Joyce Plotkin, president of the state Software &
Internet Council, and Joseph D. Alviani, president of the quasi-public
Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the group is hoping to knock down
regulatory roadblocks to deploying broadband and form buying pools for
high-speed access similar to efforts underway on Cape Cod and in Berkshire
County.
By most measures, Massachusetts is among the
best-connected US states, with more than half of all Verizon phone lines in the
state eligible to get digital subscriber line access, and AT&T Broadband
cable modem services available to more than 1.6 million homes.
RCN and
dozens of DSL providers such as HarvardNet of Medford and Digital Broadband
Communications of Waltham also offer high-speed Net connections in many parts of
the state, while WorldCom and start-up Northeast Wireless are developing systems
to provide broadband access here over fixed wireless links dramatically faster
than dial-up modems. But an ongoing study by the Westborough-based technology
collaborative shows that more than 100 of the state's 351 cities and towns still
have neither cable modems nor DSL.
And the big coverage numbers can
obscure the fact that many areas of cities and towns with DSL cannot get the
service because they are too far from switching stations called central offices,
or have obstructions in phone lines. In many cases, coverage has too many holes
for companies to offer full telecommuting service to workers living in several
different communities.
Moreover, AT&T's 1.5-megabit-per-second cable
modem service, operating in 149 of the 176 communities where the company has
cable franchises, is marketed exclusively to homeowners. While AT&T's
business unit can sell many types of high-speed access in metropolitan areas,
the company only recently began a small number of "pilot tests" of cable modem
services for businesses, spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury said.
One of the
first questions the new MassBroadband Advisory Board will be asking is what
government officials and business leaders can do to encourage AT&T, Verizon,
and others - who generally are already moving full-tilt to add broadband links -
to move faster and cover more areas.
Bruce Holbein, vice president of
public policy with the Internet council, said: "Massachusetts leads the nation
in broadband deployment, but we can do better and we need to do
better. We are going to be a users' group giving voice to users' needs."
Plotkin, meanwhile, said the new group's "preferred strategy is to flesh
out more information about what is available and what is needed and have a forum
that will command the respect and attention of the providers and make more
marriages.
"I think we are open to creative ways to look at solving this
problem," Plotkin said. "This group is going to be technology-agnostic" about
whether DSL, cable modems, fixed wireless, or satellite-based systems should be
most strongly encouraged, she added.
One issue the group may address is
whether tax incentives may be needed to speed the rollout to areas left behind
by the broadband boom, such as rural parts of Central and Western Massachusetts.
US Senator John F. Kerry has sponsored a bill nationally promoting such
incentives.
John Johnson, a spokesman for Verizon Communications, which
has converted 188 of its 270 Massachusetts central offices for DSL, said: "Any
initiative bringing together providers of high-speed service with those who are
actual users is a good thing. It helps both sides understand each other's needs
and processes."
But Johnson cautioned that "demand is virtually
outstripping" efforts to expand DSL service. Last week, for example, the company
stopped taking DSL orders in the Back Bay, South End, Brighton, and Acton
because it cannot buy the DSL transmitting and receiving gear for central
offices.
Khoury said AT&T has "really been able to move quite
quickly," adding several new communities for RoadRunner service each month. She
said the most helpful thing state regulators may be able to do is not interfere
by imposing regulations such as open access requirements forcing AT&T to
open its network to non-RoadRunner Internet service providers.
Besides
Plotkin and Alviani, key participants in the group, which holds its first
meeting tomorrow in Waltham, include: state telecommunications commissioner Paul
B. Vasington; David I. Begelfer of NAIOP, a Newton-based trade group for office
and industrial park owners; state Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman Mark
Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat; and William S. Biedron, director of broadband
network strategy with Akamai Technologies of Cambridge.
The group also
includes top officials of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce; Berkshire Connect,
the county broadband advocacy group; Franklin County's regional governmental
council; and officials from Boston, Haverhill, and Somerville.
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