Services must also be attractive, and providers are beginning to differentiate themselves by catering to the ADSL busin ess customer. Covad offers four service options, both symmetric and asymmetric, for the San Francisco area at speeds that range from 144Kbps to 1.5Mbps. Although its customer base is still small, the company has secured financing that will permit it to roll out its services in five additional metropolitan regions. The most important factor in making ADSL a reality will be price. Current pricing from a sampling of CLECs and ISPs shows that, whereas startup costs for an ADSL service are higher than for a frame-relay connection, monthly costs are considerably less.
Cost benefits improve as bandwidth increases.
Business users' evaluation criteria of ADSL offerings will include ease of installation and use and the relevance of services to their own applications. Service providers are eager to have an access technology that can compete in speed and cost with the threat of high-speed access from cable companies. Doing this necessitates sending a technician to the site. Pricing should improve considerably when Universal ADSL, which is designed to eliminate the POTS splitter, becomes available. This means easier, faster, and cheaper installation.