Posted: 06/1999
Network Plus Launches Wholesale SDSL
Integrated communications provider (ICP) Network Plus Inc., Quincy, Mass., announced that it is making its symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL) service available for resale.
The announcement coincides with the launch of the company's new Command Plus Communications Network, a proprietary network in the Northeast and the Southeast. The company has 632 fiber miles in the Northeast with a network operation center (NOC) on Long Island, N.Y. A mirror network is being constructed in the Southeast. The company also has long distance switches in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Orlando, Fla.
The wholesale SDSL product will be offered from the Command Plus multiservice network in those two "superregions," explains Bob Bradley, director of marketing. The service will be available in selected metro markets across the United States. Off-network service will be carried by data competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) NorthPoint Communi-cations Inc., San Francisco, which supplies the service to Network Plus under a wholesale agreement the two companies reached in April.
DSL technology offers small and medium-sized businesses an alternative to low-speed analog connections, complex integrated services digital network (ISDN) dial-up access or expensive T1 leased-line services with an affordable, dedicated Internet connection at speeds up to 1.54 megabits per second (mbps).
Because Network Plus also offers Internet services, Bradley says the SDSL connection can be paired with its Internet access product, offering resellers a bundled high-speed Internet service to sell.
After completing its wholesale SDSL beta in April, Network Plus will offer the service in two phases, Bradley says. Initially, the company will offer it to a dozen handpicked resellers, he says, noting that at a later date it will be more generally available.
Bradley says an SDSL agent program is set for launch in July. Network Plus currently wholesales all of its local, long distance and data products, and 25 percent of its business now comes from alternate channels, he says.
