Verizon tests super-fast DSL as it also rolls out fiber optics
Verizon Communications Inc. is going back to the future in the race to be the cutting-edge provider of broadband.
The telecommunications giant, currently trying to bring high-speed fiber-optic lines into customers' homes, is also testing a super-fast version of its digital subscriber line technology, which delivers Internet services over old-fashioned twisted copper telephone lines.
Verizon is testing DSL with download speeds double their current limits in some of its employees' homes in Texas. If the service proves popular among its workers, Verizon could crank up its high-speed residential connections from their current download speed limit of 3 megabits per second to as much as 7.1 megabits per second.
The DSL upgrade, reported by Cnet last week, comes as Verizon is also rolling out FiOS, its fiber-optic offering that is the backbone for the company's new venture to provide video service, in competition with cable companies.
FiOS offers download speeds 10 times faster than DSL's current quickest speed. It can also deliver cable television and even home phone service over the same line at the same time. The fiber service would eliminate the need for the copper wires that currently carry Verizon's phone and Internet service.
Verizon spokeswoman Sharon Beadle acknowledged that FiOS is a more powerful service, but said a DSL upgrade would give many of its customers the option of quicker connections now, while the company undergoes the laborious process of stringing thousands of miles of fiber-optic lines.
''You've got to go neighborhood by neighborhood, right to peoples' homes. That's a huge undertaking. We can't be everywhere at once," said Beadle.
Verizon's fiber-optic lines are at the center of its strategy to remake itself as a broadband company that delivers all manner of content, such as home entertainment, to consumers, and provides the high-speed pipes for them to receive it. So far, FiOS is available in parts of about 20 Massachusetts cities and towns, mostly in the Boston suburbs.
Verizon's lowest-priced FiOS Internet service costs $34.95 to $39.95 and provides download speeds of up to 5 megabits per second.
Beadle said Verizon hasn't yet decided whether it would even offer the higher-speed DSL, much less at what price.
Jeff Bray, a technology and media analyst at Babson Capital Management in Boston, said that as fast as FiOS is, the higher-speed DSL makes good business sense for Verizon right now because at least 75 percent of its customers won't have access to the fiber service in the near future.
Currently, its fastest and most popular DSL connections cost $29.95 per month with an annual contract. In August, it started selling a stripped-down version of DSL, with a maximum download speed of 768 kilobytes per second, for $14.95 a month.
Boosting DSL could help Verizon compete in the broadband market against cable rivals such as Comcast Corp., which already offers faster Internet service. It also signals that like its rivals, Verizon can bump up its broadband speeds when it needs to.
For example, Verizon's $29.95 monthly DSL service had a maximum speed of 1.5 megabits per second before the company doubled it to its current speed in April.
Comcast's cable Internet connections are more expensive, but also faster. The cable company offers a choice of a 6 megabits per second or 8 megabits per second. The slower service sells for $42.95 monthly when taken as a bundle with cable service, or $57.95 monthly a la carte.
Comcast chief executive Brian Roberts has said Comcast could increase that to as much at 100 megabits without needing to significantly upgrade its existing network.
Meanwhile, Bray said, the faster DSL service could also be a stopgap measure by Verizon in its battle against cable companies. Given how long it will take Verizon to fully roll out FiOS, he said, the faster DSL could retain customers who otherwise might be lured away by ever-faster speeds offered by cable companies.
Keith Reed can be reached at reed@globe.com. 
