Arkansas to Get New Edge from Old Technology
by October 2, 2000 12:00 am 69 views
New Edge Networks of Vancouver, Wash., is using $77 million in venture capital funding to bring high-speed Internet access to Arkansas and other states via an old fashioned medium — ordinary telephone lines.
rLarry White, New Edge’s communications manager and a graduate of the University of Arkansas, said his firm’s digital subscriber line (DSL) technology will enhance the service being introduced to 10 Arkansas communities including Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Fort Smith.r”Our strategy is to bring high-speed Internet access in a wholesale way to rural or semi-rural markets,” White said. “We want to bring the same benefits of high-speed access to rural businesses and people in home offices that their big-city cousins get.
r”We’ve already found that there’s a huge pent up demand for broadband service in Arkansas.”
rNew Edge uses the highband space on regular copper telephone lines that’s not taken up by slowband, voice transmissions. The company, or a partnering local Internet Service Provider (ISP), installs the necessary modem equipment.
rThe hardware, supplied by Alcatel Inc. in Dallas, and New Edge’s technology will eventually allow simultaneous voice and computer transmissions — thanks to last summer’s approval by the Federal Communications Commission. The technology is already capable of handling multiple computer transmissions.
rLittle Rock and Conway are other cities being targeted by New Edge. The company already has its equipment located in six Southwestern Bell hubs and is working with ISPs like Aristotle Internet Access and Futura Inc. in Little Rock.
rNew Edge has grown in one year from five co-founders to more than 400 workers through seven regional offices. The privately held firm is already active in 20 states including Oklahoma.
rWhite said New Edge’s goal is to be in 800 market-dominant telephone company offices by the end of 2001. It already has equipment in 350.