New Edge Comes to Arkansas Cities
by October 9, 2000 12:00 am 109 views
New Edge Networks of Vancouver, Wash., is using $77 million in venture capital to bring high-speed Internet access to Arkansas and other states through an old-fashioned medium — ordinary telephone wires.
Larry 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. Chief among the new service areas are Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers and Fort Smith.
“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.
“We’ve already found that there’s a huge pent-up demand for broadband service in Arkansas.”
New 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), comes to subscribers’ homes to install the necessary modem equipment.
The hardware, supplied by Alcatel Inc. of 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.
Russellville, Little Rock, Cabot, Jacksonville and Conway are other cities being targeted by New Edge. The company already has its equipment in six Southwestern Bell hubs and is working with ISPs like Aristotle Internet Access and Futura Inc. in Little Rock.
New Edge has grown in one year from five co-founders to more than 400 workers through seven regional offices. The privately held firm is active in 20 states, including Oklahoma.
White said New Edge’s goal is to be in 800 market-dominant telephone company offices. It’s currently got equipment in 350.
“People are fed up with the slow progress of dial-up modems,” White said. “This will change the way people in small- to mid-sized markets conduct business.”
White is also a former sports editor of the Springdale News.