Technology - January 2000

Teleconnections

by Jennifer Rachel Baumer

AdvancedTelCom Group

Brand new in Northern Nevada and lo­cated in one of the most important buildings in the telecommunications game in Reno is ATG, Advanced TelCom Group. Currently under construction as a CLEC, competitive local exchange carrier, ATG is facility-based — it has its own switching equipment, transmission equipment, Inter­net routing equipment and Internet server. ATG provides local long distance, high-speed Internet access and Internet hosting.

The company only started last year, but with a bang. “We raised more money in venture capital last year than any other company in the U.S.,” says Mike Callahan, general manager. “Well over $100 mil­lion.” The company is headquartered in Santa Rosa, Calif., and serves the commu­nities of Santa Rosa, Calif., Salem, Ore. and Tacoma, Wash. Reno represents the fourth city in which ATG is in the process of building services, but the company has plans to be in 100 cities by the year 2005.

“In August we purchased Shared Com­munications,” says Callahan, speaking of a company with a small presence in Reno but a large presence in Washington and Oregon. In October ATG purchased a com­pany in the Virginia area, NewCom Net, and is merging with that company to be­come a coast-to-coast carrier. Since ATG’s arrival in Reno, the company has been fill­ing out its network, completing office fa­cilities and building fiber rings around Reno — a downtown ring and a ring around the entire city. The rings are called a Syn­chronous Optical Network, technology that uses fiber optics to support high-speed transmission services in a self-heal­ing ring architecture. The system ensures that if the ring is cut in one direction, it au­tomatically routes the services. ATG is also putting in its 5ESSS electronic switch­ing machine from Lucent. “We expect to have everything in place and ready for ser­vice January 3,” says Callahan.

The company located in Reno because executives felt a void existed in the mar­ketplace, with small to medium-sized business customers under-served. The company markets in what are sometimes referred to as Tier Three cities, bringing competition to those communities. On January 3, ATG expects to establish ser­vice in Reno with local telephone service, long-distance service and high-speed In­ternet access DSL.

For more information on ATG, check out its Web site at callatg.com.

Nevada Bell unleashes Project Pronto

SBC Communications, Inc., parent cor­poration of Nevada Bell, is launching a $6 billion initiative in the U.S. to trans­form the company. Through Project Pron­to, SBC intends to bring high-speed, in­stant-access, always-on Internet service to 77 million Americans through its compa­nies, which include Ameritech, Nevada Bell, Pacific Bell, SNET and Southwestern Bell. High-speed voice, data and video services will be provided by the new DSL (digital subscriber line) technology. By working with Williams Communications, Inc., SBC will be able to provide fiber optic capability to more of the communi­ties using their services and bring togeth­er the voice and data backbone systems into what they are calling a “next-genera­tion, packet-switched, designed-for-the­Internet network.” Working with Williams Communications, SBC will be able to pro­vide one of the most sophisticated and scalable networks in the Internet.

DSL broadband capacity means always being online. It means Internet at users’ fingers when they want it. And SBC antic­ipates that as broadband services become more available, demand will grow for ap­plications dependent on the service, such as video messaging and in-home cordless Web devices.

As Project Pronto pushes backbone ser­vice into more areas over the next three years, it will make DSL service available to more customers, putting in fiber and creating “neighborhood broadband gate­ways.” SBC describes these gateways as digital electronics, which will essentially push network capacity now based in cen­tral offices closer to the customers, elimi­nating constraints imposed by distance and bringing DSL service to virtually all of SBC’s customers.

Over the coming year, SBC will be of­fering services such as:

•    Voice Over ADSL — four lines in one, making a single line capable of han­dling four voice lines in addition to a DSL line and a primary voice line.

•    Switched Virtual Circuit — technology that will allow users to switch between their ISP (Internet Service Provider) and Local Area Network (LAN) without rebooting their computer.

•    HDSL — technology which allows users to send and receive data-intensive files with both upstream and downstream connections.

What does all this mean for Nevadans? Well, for one thing, says Dick Bostdorff, vice president and general manager of Nevada Bell, while DSL will be employed principally in Washoe County and the Carson Valley area over the next two years, there is a plan to have the services to 80 percent of Nevada over the next three years, bringing everyone into the high-speed future.