BY MIKE BOYER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnatians can now speed onto the Internet up to 50 times faster with the Zoom digital subscriber line service unveiled Thursday by Cincinnati Bell.
The service, which also allows customers to use the phone and surf the Web simultaneously over a single phone line, is billed by Cincinnati Bell as the most inexpensive introduction of Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) service in the country.
ADSL is a technology that allows existing copper telephone lines to digitally transmit voice and data simultaneously at high rates of speed.
Richard G. Ellenberger, president and chief executive of Cincinnati Bell, said, "Zoom will transform the Internet from the World Wide Wait into the World Wide Wow!"
Initially, Zoom will be available to about 380,000 of the more than 1 million Bell customers in the Tristate.
Zoom will cut into Bell's business of selling second phone lines and ISDN digital lines, Mr. Ellenberger said. But it will also mean significant new revenues from additional new services such as video-conferencing, video-on-demand and video-capable telephones in the long run, he said.
Although they declined to provide details, Bell officials said the company will introduce a new interactive communications service using Zoom on Nov. 5.
- Zoom is being offered in three different speeds and prices initially. ZoomSpeed, at $29.95 a month, provides data to your computer at the rate of 384,000 bits per second (bps), more than 13 times the more typical 28,800 bps available with current modems. Outbound data from your computer travels at 90,000 bps.
- TurboZoom, at $59.95 per month, provides links to your computer at 768,000 bps and outbound transmissions at 384,000 bps.
- HyperZoom, at $159.95 a month, provides data at 1.5 million bps and sends data at 768,000 bps.
Installation costs $150 plus $350 for the ADSL interface box, but initially Bell will waive those charges for customers who sign up for a year of service.
To subscribe, Bell customers must be in telephone exchange capable of receiving the service, have a 486 or Pentium personal computer with 16 megabytes of RAM and a Windows 95 or equivalent operating system.
Subscribers, initially, also must have an Internet service provider account with either Bell's Fuse, OneNet Communications or ChoiceNet.
