Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company The Boston
Globe
November 5, 2002, Tuesday ,THIRD EDITION
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. D5
LENGTH: 302 words
HEADLINE: ISP
GALAXY IN DEAL WITH AT&T BROADBAND
BYLINE:
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff
BODY: NEWTON - Galaxy Internet Services, the largest privately held Internet
service provider in Greater Boston, yesterday became the third ISP to reach an
"open access" deal with AT&T Broadband to market
AT&T cable modem service under its brand.
Galaxy's president, Robert Carp, said his company, based in Newton
Highlands, hopes to begin offering services this winter at a slight discount to
AT&T's customary $43 a month for residential subscribers.
Galaxy would follow Atlanta-based EarthLink, which
launched service last month, and Leominster's Net1Plus, a 15,000-subscriber ISP
that has signed a deal with AT&T but not yet begun marketing to
consumers.
Carp said one focus for Galaxy, which counts
more than 70,000 customers, will be getting current dial-up customers to upgrade
to cable modem service sold by Galaxy using the AT&T network, with the
option to revert to a backup dial-up modem if the cable ever fails.
Carp also said he hopes to offer several services not
currently available to AT&T Broadband customers, such as personal Web pages
with a custom "domain name" rather than attbi.com.
Besides dial-up Net access, Galaxy also sells digital subscriber line
and Net access over broadband fixed wireless networks. Earlier this year, it
began marketing a "dial-up accelerator" service that uses data compression to
make 56-kilobit-per-second modems appear to function two to five times as
fast.
AT&T has nearly 2 million cable modem
customers across the United States. It hopes to close its planned merger with
Philadelphia's Comcast Corp. later this year. As part of a deal to fend off a
proposed state ballot question in 2000 mandating open access, AT&T agreed to
begin making open access deals with other Massachusetts ISPs.
Document 3 of 16. 