GTE expands Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) data trial

Company to add third modem vendor and The Microsoft Network to high-speed initiative

April 2, 1996

GTE to demonstrate very fast Internet access, work-at-home solutions, using high-speed data ADSL modem technology during Networld+Interop West. GTE booth #3289.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- GTE Telephone Operations, which launched the nation's first data trial using Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) technology in February, announced today that it will move rapidly to enhance its high-speed test involving small businesses and residential customers.

In April, customers will begin using the Overture 4 ADSL modem made by Amati Communications Corporation of San Jose, Calif. Amati becomes the trial's third modem vendor. To demonstrate the ability of supporting multiple on-line products over a single service, GTE also plans to add The Microsoft Network to its trial.

Adding a third ADSL modem vendor and The Microsoft Network to the trial will enable the company to make a better decision on whether it can commercially deploy ADSL as early as the fourth quarter of 1996 or early 1997, GTE said.

"Considering that our pioneer participants have expressed nothing short of praise about ADSL, we are very pleased with the early results of the trial," said Barry Nalls, director of business data products and services for GTE. "We expect that the next four months will confirm our belief that the marketplace is primed and ready for ADSL." Amati and The Microsoft Network Join ADSL Trial

"The GTE trial is an excellent opportunity to test ADSL technology in a data application," said James Steenbergen, President and CEO of Amati. "With growing demand for faster Internet access, we believe ADSL offers significant potential to satisfy users who want to upgrade their access connections from existing, slower technologies.

"This will also be the first time telephone customers will be able to view ADSL technology as a viable add-on to their existing service, enabling high-speed digital data to co-exist on the same line that delivers their plain old telephone service (POTS)," noted Steenbergen.

For all trial participants, a desktop "client page" will be created on which the icon for MSN_, The Microsoft Network, will appear, providing a friendly point-and-click link to MNS content at ADSL speeds.

"We believe that MNS's interactive content and applications will shine over ADSL," said sr. director Dan Rosen of MSN Services at Microsoft Corp. "Customers will really love MSN over ADSL from GTE."

Because ADSL operates over a combination of existing network infrastructure and off-the- shelf products, it can service as an alternative to cable modems because less than five percent of the CATV plant in the United States has been upgraded to provide two-way cable service, said Sean Dalton, GTE's Internet access/ ADSL product manager.

ADSL Modems Provide Lightning-Fast Speed

In addition to Amati Corp., GTE's trial includes the use of ADSL modems provided by Westell Technologies of Oswego, Ill., and Aware, Inc. of Bedford, Mass. GTE's trial will initially use Amati's Overture 4 modem that carries data at speeds of 1.5 Mbps downstream and 160 kbps upstream over an approximate three-mile distance.

Westell's FlexCap modems transmit data at 1.5 Mbps downstream and 64 kbps upstream, over a distance of about three miles. Aware's ADSL Internet Access Transceiver modems tout 4 Mbps downstream and 500 kbps speeds, transmitting data over distances of two miles.

Bay Networks of Billerica, Mass., continues to provide routers and switches used to provide connection between the ADSL access lines and the Internet, and the GTE subsidiary, GTE Intelligent Network Services, provides Internet access.

Trial to Include 30 Participants

GTE's six-month trial, designed to test the high-speed communication capabilities of ADSL over existing telephone lines, currently involves the Irving, Texas, Public Library system; ProTech Books (a sister company of Taylor's Bookstores); a Circuit City store in Irving, Texas; The Internet Store (Plano, Texas); and area GTE employees. The trial will ultimately include about 30 participants.

Computers at three GTE central offices have been equipped with ADSL modems to create a virtual private network between the trial participants' locations, and provide visitors and employees with Internet access, electronic messaging, whiteboarding and desktop business conferencing capabilities.

To obtain additional information about GTE's trial, visit the company's ADSL data trial web site at http://wcn.gte.com/Adsl/.

GTE Telephone Operations is the largest U.S.-based local telephone company, providing voice, video and data products and services through more than 23 million access lines in portions of the United States, Canada, South America, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Its parent organization, GTE Corporation, is one of the largest publicly held telecommunications companies in the world.

Background: Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line

Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a high-speed modem technology that converts existing twisted-pair telephone lines into access paths for multimedia and high-speed data communications.

Using ADSL technology, people can simultaneously make standard voice calls and use their personal computer to send or receive information to and from remote offices or the Internet at speeds 10 times faster than Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), and more than 100 times faster than a conventional 14.4 kbps dial-up modem.

Because ADSL can simultaneously transmit data at speeds up to 6.144 Mbps downstream (to the subscriber), and up to 640 kbps upstream, its current major uses include Internet access, remote access to corporate enterprise networks, multimedia access, video on demand, whiteboarding and home shopping, all of which require high data rate demands downstream, but relatively low data rate demands upstream.

To provide ADSL service, a pair of ADSL modems are connected to each end of a telephone line; one in the telephone company's central office and the other at the customer's premise. An ADSL circuit connects an ADSL data modem on each end of a twisted-pair telephone line, creating three information channels -- a high speed downstream channel, a medium speed upstream channel, and a plain old telephone service (POTS) channel.

To guarantee uninterrupted POTS service even if ADSL fails, the POTS channel is split off from the digital modem by filters. The high-speed downstream rates range from 1.5 to 6.1 Mbps, while upstream rates range from 160 kbps to 640 kbps. Each channel can be submultiplexed to form multiple, lower rate channels.

In February, GTE launched the nation's first data ADSL trial in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex involving small businesses, a city library system and GTE employees. ADSL modem vendors in the six-month trial include Amati Communications Corp., Aware Inc. and Westell Technologies. The trial's router and switch vendor is Bay Networks. Internet access for the trial is being provided by GTE Intelligent Network Services.