A self-described "techno-geek," Rebekah Wright has been online since before most people even heard of the Internet. In fact, she can mark her life according to modem speeds starting at 9.6 kilobits and working her way up. "Before my son was born, I had a 24K modem and I had one of the Internet applications called Delphi. ... You’d sign on and you’d get into chat rooms," Wright says. Her life really started taking off when she started using America Online in 1995. She could do more on her computer and faster, too. "It saved my life, because it was my contact with the world when he [her son] was little, and it was great."

DSL customers like Rebekah Wright are hooked. "I couldn't — wouldn't — go back" to dial-up modems, she says. Photo by Wayne Scarberry

Today Wright is ready to go even faster. The managing partner of a Richmond-based free-lance writing and editing group called four14, she easily spends four to five hours a day online. When Wright started the small company, her 56K modem was getting a bit slow. After studying current available technologies such as cable modems, Wright decided in April to go with a digital subscriber line, better known as DSL.

Many Net users such as Wright are making the same choice. Compared with the 56K modems found in most of today’s computers, DSL has it all: more security, competitive prices, and above all the three things all Web surfers crave — speed, speed and more speed. DSL can transmit data as much as 140 times faster than a 56K modem. Indeed, many computer users are in the same boat as Wright. As they become ever more reliant upon their machines, they need to send data at faster and faster speeds.

Even so, DSL isn’t the only kid on the block. It faces some stiff competition, including cable modems, fiber optics and wireless communications. DSL’s toughest competition is cable modem service, which had a head start because its groundwork already existed, says Adam Guglielmo, a DSL analyst in Denver with TeleChoice Inc., a telecommunications industry consulting firm. Fiber optics can offer speeds even faster than either DSL or cable modems, and wireless will provide a mobility simply unavailable at the moment. But neither is yet serious competition for DSL or cable modems.

In their current match-up, cable modems have an edge over DSL because the service is generally more available. That won’t last long. "DSL will overtake cable pretty quickly. The quarter to quarter growth was over 50 percent for DSL. For cable, it was maybe 20 percent," Guglielmo explains. However, cable will still maintain an edge in residential neighborhoods because cable TV systems are so widespread, says Ron Westfall, a senior analyst with Current Analysis Inc. in Sterling. In fact, he says cable’s ahead in neighborhoods by a two-to-one ratio.

That ratio is flipped in business districts. While cable is holding its lead in residential circles, "They are having a tough time challenging DSL overall in the business world," Westfall says. That’s mainly because business districts are apt to have far more telephone lines than cable lines. For one reason, cable is still based more on entertainment that’s watched at home. "One advantage DSL has over cable modems is that unlike cable modems, DSL is a point-to-point connection that is not shared with other users," says Zachary Lowe, ISP marketing manager for DSL provider Cavalier Telephone in Richmond. "Speeds don’t decrease with DSL if multiple users in the general area are logged on, unlike cable modems."

For the short term, there’s no clear winner of the Internet wars. Once everyone makes the inevitable transition from 56K modems, there will be a patchwork of services, rather than one prevalent technology. The research firm Current Analysis estimates that by 2003, there will be 2.2 million business DSL lines nationwide, representing a $1 billion market if monthly fees average about $20. That’s more than a 250 percent growth rate each year for the next three years. But by 2003, Westfall says, 46 percent of residential Internet users in the United States will be using cable, while 40 percent will use DSL. The remaining 14 percent will be those on the cutting edge — the early pioneers of fiber optics and wireless technology. That’s what the long-term picture has in store for Web surfers, both Westfall and Guglielmo agree. "Eventually, everything will go to fiber," Guglielmo says, "but that’s 20 years down the road."

Today, DSL is widely available in Virginia’s major metropolitan areas, such as Northern Virginia, the Richmond area and Hampton Roads. Service is lacking in the rural, western parts of the state, Guglielmo says, but college towns such as Williamsburg and Charlottesville are big markets for DSL. Verizon is by far Virginia’s main provider of DSL, but smaller local exchange carriers are starting to get into the act. Guglielmo predicts that these smaller telephone providers will be the ones to offer service in the rural areas.

Even so, DSL and cable both present some big problems as they make their transition into the broader markets. For instance, although DSL offers faster Internet service than the standard 56K modems, actually getting the service to your home or business can take a lot longer than just plugging in a phone line and installing software. Brian Butler of Graphicslab Inc., a Richmond-based marketing and printing company, had to wait three months for Network Access Solutions, his DSL provider, to install the necessary equipment in the area. Once his service was hooked up, Butler couldn’t have been happier: "I don’t have to dial on and dial off. It’s always connected. ... It’s a much faster process." Of course, it’s not completely failsafe. "Sometimes it doesn’t connect and it seems the DSL goes down. But that’s rare and it’s only for a matter of minutes," Butler says.

Still, why did installation take so long? DSL relies upon regular phone wires, but not everyone with a phone line is automatically able to receive DSL service. Customers must be within a certain distance of one of the service provider’s central offices or switching centers — currently the distance is roughly three miles — in order to be equipped with a digital subscriber line. As more of these centers are built, more customers — such as free-lance journalist Wright — won’t have to wait to receive service. She got her service from the former Bell Atlantic in just three days.

Once the location hurdle is passed, the rest of the setup is fairly easy. Technicians set up the outside line, install software and a special DSL modem on your computer. The modems cost about $100, but eventually consumers should be able to choose what type of internal modem they want when they purchase a computer.

Competing methods require less time to install because the groundwork has already existed. That’s one reason why Jerry Williams, an independent contractor, decided to go with a cable modem instead of DSL when he wanted faster Internet access. Williams didn’t want to wait for a switching center to be built in his area.

As available technology continues to progress at a rapid-fire rate, DSL providers will be able to solve this problem. "Distance provisioning will become easier and more potential customers will be able to get DSL service," Cavalier’s Lowe predicts. In fact, a whole new breed of DSL is just around the corner, Guglielmo says. "A lot of companies are starting to deploy DSL within a building. They will put a DSL box in the basement," he notes. The box will work as the concentrator, which sends signals back to a central location. "With this, all those [distance] limitations get thrown out the window."

For all the buzz now, in a few years DSL and cable will be a nostalgic memory — like the clunky Commodore 64 — replaced with the likes of G.SHDSL, the next generation of digital subscriber lines, and fiber optics. "Everybody’s sort of planning on fiber being the next thing. Then you’ll have what you’re seeing right now," Guglielmo says of the transition from the old school dial-up modems to the latest technology. "There’ll be early adapters, then the mainstream, then the late adapters."