SDSL pilot promises high-bandwidth data transfer

Businesses could soon have access to high-bandwidth offerings which promise to top the performance of ADSL and provide better value for money than leased lines - as long as telcos wanting to offer the service gain full access to the local loop.

Fibernet is to launch a pilot scheme of symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL) networks for telcos and ISPs and will, unlike ADSL, herald the arrival of both voice and data transfer of up to 2Mbits upstream as well as downstream. The pilot will go live next month. Nigel Pitcher, marketing director for the telco, said that while ADSL is suitable for small office home office (soho) workers, SDSL will be ideal for companies of up to 250 employees, offering prices around 60 per cent cheaper than leased line. He told silicon.com: "Business can take advantage of far lower cost of DSL for three distinct purposes. First, of course, for internet access - ADSL is used for that but for businesses SDSL will also allow them to host their own websites and have their own email servers on the premises, which ADSL precludes you from doing." Fibernet was one of many telcos at the TMA2000 conference to outline its broadband strategy. Redstone Telecoms announced its own SDSL rollout last week while NTL and BT put their ADSL plans on the table. However, BT today confirmed that its own SDSL pilot has been delayed. John Wright, chairman of the Communications Managers Association (CMA, formerly TMA), welcomed the concentration on broadband. "Businesses generally have been waiting for ADSL or broadband for sometime. We hear about the internet enabling ecommerce but I think the bandwidth available to the consumer market is a limiting factor and until we get that bandwidth available I don't think we are going to see a really big take up of ecommerce," said Wright. However, the SDSL providers, like those operators wanting to provide ADSL services, are unable to roll-out full services until they gain access to the local loop. Fibernet's Pitcher said: "There's still quite a lot of work that needs to be done on the unbundling of the local exchanges. We've done our demographics like other telcos and have quite an ambitious rollout scheduled but it is still to be determined when we can begin."