AOL inks high-speed DSL deal with GTE

Making another significant stride into the high-speed Internet sweepstakes, America Online today signed a deal with GTE to use the local phone company's network to bring faster Net access to its dial-up customers.

The multiyear alliance between AOL and GTE gives the online giant access to high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet technology in GTE's territory, which spans 17 states in the western United States.

AOL and GTE recently joined forces in the fight for so-called open access against cable operators like AT&T. The two firms even staged a demonstration in June to prove that third-party ISP access to cable TV networks can work--something that AT&T has denied.

Today's DSL deal comes in the wake of a loss in the firms' open access fight. Although the companies' lobbying push for so-called open access laws has been successful in two municipalities, the city of San Francisco yesterday declined to immediately impose open access requirements on AT&T.

AOL claims nearly 18 million dial-up customers, but the company still wants to offer its users a faster connection to the Net, as evident in its recent broadband deals. Industry experts have said that high-speed Net connections will give online companies higher profit margins and facilitate e-commerce.

The partnership marks the fourth DSL deal that AOL, the world's largest ISP, has signed with a Baby Bell company.

Last week, AOL signed a similar DSL deal with Ameritech. AOL already had signed DSL partnerships with Bell Atlantic and SBC Communications. Rounding out its high-speed interests, AOL invested $1.5 billion in Hughes Electronics, which offers Net access via satellite with its DirectPC service.

GTE recently cut the price of its DSL service by 17 percent. AOL expects its high-speed version to cost $20 more than its regular monthly cost for dial-up access.

DSL is a high-speed, or broadband, technology that allows standard copper phone wires to carry Internet data at much faster speeds than current dial-up modems. DSL, which allows users to surf the Net and talk on the phone simultaneously, is the chief competitor to cable modems in the residential broadband Net access market.

[beccajohn7]

My husband and I have been longtime customers of A.O.L. (at least 10+years) We are wanting to have the faster service but have the ($20 extra costs show on our AOL bill). How do we go about gettng this set up? Are there any extra devices that we need to hook our computer up to and then hook it into the phone line? Please respond with all of the information/prices/discounts with using the AOL highspeed service?
Thank you so very much,
[e-mail]