Internet competition heats up; providers offer faster, more mobile connections to superhighway

Arkansas Business, Dec 12, 2005 by Chip Taulbee

AS ARKANSAS VOTERS decide this week whether to let the state issue more bonds for highway construction, new onramps are being built for one of the state's other major thoroughfares, the "information superhighway."

Telecoms, Internet service providers and cable companies, alike, are offering more options to access the Internet in Arkansas. Connections are faster and less frequently interrupted, and the new products allow more mobility.

Last month Alltel Corp. of Little Rock rolled out wireless broadband service in central Arkansas.

On Monday Verizon Wireless of Bedminster, N.J., is scheduled to announce an array of wireless offerings, including Internet products, as part of its first foray into the state.

Next week, Aristotle of Little Rock will officially launch wireless broadband services in downtown Little Rock, and the company plans to expand that service throughout the capital city and some surrounding counties by the second quarter of next year.

Meanwhile, the state's largest Internet providers, the artist formerly known as SBC--now AT&T Corp., following the two companies' $16 billion merger last month--and Comcast Cable, continue to promise a wide array of bundled services at faster speeds.

Ironically, one result of the SBC/AT&T merger for Arkansas customers is that customers will have more opportunity to buy Internet access piecemeal instead of in the bundled packages the company has made its calling card.

Aristotle President Elizabeth Bowles agrees: Arkansas' Internet competition is heating up.

They Do EVDO

Some 70 percent of central Arkansans are connected to the Internet, one way or another, and last month Alltel gave its customers yet another way to surf the Web with its wireless broadband service, Axcess Broadband.

Axcess Broadband uses Evolution Data Optimized (EVDO) technology, which allows users to download large, graphics-rich files and streaming audio from the Internet to their laptops, cell phones or other wireless devices.

To be sure, Alltel was not the first wireless carrier to offer EVDO in Arkansas. Sprint Nextel Corp. of Reston, Va., won the EVDO race in Arkansas when it launched the services in October, but only at the Little Rock National Airport. A spokeswoman for the company said, however, that the rest of central Arkansas would be covered by the end of the year.

Sprint's EVDO service, called Sprint Power Vision, offers speeds of 400 Kbps to 700 Kbps with bursts of 2 Mbps.

Axcess Broadband allows users to browse the Internet with bursts up to 2.4 Mbps and average speeds of 300 Kbps to 500 Kbps and costs $60 a month (not including a requisite wireless card).

Alltel's expanding broadband service continues to be a growing part of its business.

Last quarter Alltel gained a record 41,000 net broadband customers despite its wireline business losing access lines, bringing its broadband customer base to 360,000. And the company is scheduled to reach its goal of adding EVDO service to a dozen new markets in 2005.

In Arkansas even more high-speed data products are still to come.

Cingular Wireless of Atlanta, which is a joint venture between AT&T and BellSouth Corp. of Atlanta, does not yet offer its best high-speed data and voice product, BroadbandConnect, in Arkansas. But when it does, customers will be able to use data and voice at the same time with data speeds that could eventually reach 14.4 Mbps.

Company spokeswoman Lauren Butler said that although average speeds will at first be similar to other companies' EVDO products, BroadbandConnect will provide higher peak data rates in the near future and is expected to become the world standard for international roaming.

Butler could not say exactly when Arkansas would get the service but said, "We expect to have coverage in most of the major market areas by the end of 2006."

Verizon is scheduled to announce its product offerings for Arkansas on Monday. A company spokesman declined our request for a sneak peek, so Arkansasbusiness.com will post an update.

At least initially, Verizon's only wireless broadband service for Arkansans will be its relatively slow NationalAccess broadband service, which moseys along the Web with average speeds of 60 Kbps to 80 Kbps and bursts of up to 144 Kbps.

Eventually, however, Verizon customers in Arkansas will be offered the company's BroadbandAccess product, which has speeds comparable to broadband offered by Alltel and other wireless providers.

The NationalAccess plan currently retails for $60 a month, and the faster BroadbandAccess fetches $80 per month or $60 a month if accompanied by certain two-year voice calling contracts.

While wireless broadband products used over cell phone networks offer a wide range of mobility, Aristotle's Bowles discounts their stability.

"Cell phone technology might be better if you're driving out in the field somewhere and you need to get a signal, but if your cell phone is not getting a signal, your wireless won't get a signal," Bowles said.

Aristotle's new wireless broadband will not operate on a cell phone network, thanks to recent technology developments that made the service affordable in the first place.