Increasing the Bandwidth
Competition and innovations abound among telecom providers

Scratch the term “phone company.” These days consumers are dealing with high-tech telecommunications companies intent on pushing all the right buttons to win not just your phone service, but a whole lot more.

The rush to meet consumers’ demands for a wider range of services at a lower cost is a result of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 which helped open local markets to more competition. The Kentucky Public Service Commission and the Federal Communications Commission support and help enforce the Act.

“Our goal is for the consumer to have good options at good prices,” said Michael Balmoris, the FCC Telephone Bureau spokesman in Washington, D.C. “Competition is good.”

It certainly appears to be so for Kentuckians, who now have a myriad of options. Many traditional phone companies and other newer firms now offer a package of services that includes everything from telephone and cellular phone to cable TV and Internet service, coupled with the convenience of only one bill.

For Louisville-based Lightyear Communications, formerly UniDial Communications, a mix of services has worked for its small- to medium-sized business clients across the country.

“From the customer’s perspective, they are using more and more applications that require broadband communications,” said G. Henry Hunt, Lightyear Senior Vice President. “Said simply, local ad agencies are transferring information, primarily via Internet. Very large applications are used, requiring a lot of bandwidth so a lot of connectivity is required. Engineering firms are transferring information. Banks are transferring large amounts of financial data. Larger and larger bandwidths are required to transport such information. This is the business communications explosion being faced by today’s customer.

“The same goes for the home, where today’s consumer needs greater bandwidth and connectivity to do things like download music and download photographs and do so at greater and greater rates of speed.”

Private consumers have just as many choices as businesses these days. Insight Communications, best known in the cable television arena, now offers high-speed Internet access and if its plans with AT&T move forward, Insight will also provide local phone service. And BellSouth, best known for its phone service, also has high-speed Internet connection services and was testing cable-TV service in some markets last summer.

So what is it business customers need? Hunt says it varies.

“The primary business, particularly those in the market segment we serve which is spending about $1,500 to $15,000 a month in telecommunications services, is using local service, long distance and some degree of Internet,” Hunt said. “They’re typically hosting a website for either their internal or external workings.

“In many cases, they are transferring some degree of data – be it sales data or transaction data which may be going over the Internet or a private network. They need someone to help them get the most efficiency out of what is, in essence, a private network that they’ve built. It allows them to grow and change in the future. They need to change as technology changes. For example, those companies that weren’t doing the Internet just five years ago are heavily dependent on the Internet now.”

Lexington’s telecommunications options got a boost in August when Gabriel Communications brought its integrated local voice, data, long distance, and Internet services to the area. Though Gabriel has only been around since 1998, the company is rather widespread, especially after its recent merger with TriVergent, formerly State Communications.

“Technology is evolving so that the Internet browser is gradually replacing traditional communication devices as the new standard interface,” said David L. Solomon, Gabriel’s vice chairman, chief executive officer and director. “This reality is Gabriel’s foundation, and our focus is to ready Lexington’s small and mid-size businesses with web-based applications, Internet services and e-commerce solutions.”

Also moving quickly into the Kentucky telecommunications landscape is Greenville, S.C.,-based NewSouth Communications. NewSouth, as the name might imply, is focusing its efforts in the southern United States, already in nine. Lexington and Louisville customers can choose from a wide range of packaged telecommunications services offered by NewSouth, which has plans for Frankfort and Owensboro as well.

According to the company, NewSouth is moving into a lot of territories where such high-tech options have never before been available, especially in such a wide range of combinations.

If you’re not satisfied with the options now available, just wait, said Balmoris, the FCC spokesman.

“These companies are fighting to keep up with technology if not producing it themselves,” Balmoris said. “In the next few years, you’ll see many more companies enter the local markets with more options than you can now imagine.”

Julie Roberts is a staff writer for The Lane Report
johnclark@lanereport.com

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