Telecom Eireann may roll out ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) - a technology using electronics at either end of existing copper phone lines to give Internet access speeds 10 times faster than ordinary modems - before autumn, according to sources.
Telecom has been conducting staff-only trials of the service for several months. A company spokeswoman said Telecom would now begin testing the service with a limited number of customers in Dublin - probably "a couple of hundred people" drawn from both home and business services - before introducing the service generally.
While the Telecom spokeswoman said it would probably be "months" before the company offered ADSL, "depending entirely on how the trial goes", several sources close to the company believe the service could be available within weeks or, at latest, by early autumn. According to one source, Ireland would be likely to have ADSL before British Telecom rolls out its ADSL package, expected in September.
According to industry observers, Telecom will be anxious to establish market share for its ADSL offering before Cablelink's buyer, NTL, offers Internet access via cable modem. At the time of its purchase of Cablelink, NTL indicated it would begin offering cable Internet access to some subscribers within six months, which would mean by late autumn or around the end of the year. Cable Internet access rates are considerably faster than ADSL.
While in the past Telecom has tended to move slowly to implement new services and technologies, one industry source says people "might well be surprised at how quickly they can move" if a new service is seen as strategically important.
"It's also a very natural progression that once a company goes public, they'll act faster," the source said.
ADSL allows digital signals to be sent and received over the copper phone wires already in place at a customer's premises. Because it uses a frequency bandwidth higher than the voice line operating in the same copper wires, the two services don't interfere with each other.
Deutsche Telekom is introducing ADSL this month, and Spain's Telefonica SA has said it will provide ADSL this year. BT's offering is expected to supply unlimited access to the Internet via ADSL for about £30 sterling a month.
