Network Plus Corp., of Quincy, Mass., Gateway Telephone North Bay, of Canada, and Focal Communications Corp., of Chicago, Ill., are other regional carriers starting to roll out VoDSL services. In addition, nationwide CLECs Covad Communications Co., of Santa Clara, Calif., NorthPoint Communications Inc., of San Francisco, Calif., and Rhythms NetConnections Inc., of Englewood, Colo., have begun trials with deployment plans for this year. Among the incumbent carriers, SBC Communications Inc., of San Antonio, Texas, has targeted high-end residential customers for its services. There seems to be a market for these services. Consequently, the market research firm expects the number of domestic VoDSL lines to increase from 40,000 this year to 1.75 million by 2004.
Vendors are also optimistic.
Because of the advantages VoDSL offers, we expect that half of all the systems we will be shipping at the end of next year will include those features, states PairGain's Templeton. Then, whenever DSL is mentioned, users will think of voice as well as data connectivity. Paul Korzeniowski is a freelance writer in Sudbury, Mass., and specializes in networking issues. Kit EarthWeb is a division of INT Media Group, Incorporated. Copyright 2001 INT Media Group, Incorporated All Rights Reserved.