Business DSL service features

1 Overview

This report is the second in Point Topic's Business DSL series, and continues our July 2003 analysis of the market for symmetrical DSL services. Nine months on and the symmetrical DSL market is continuing to show positive development. As a result we have added a further 13 service profiles to our analysis, which brings our global coverage to 38 of the world's leading symmetrical DSL providers.

Our July 2003 analysis showed that symmetrical DSL was very much an embryonic service, with many service providers failing to make public basic information. In our 2004 analysis, we have conducted more detailed enquiries with service providers. This has helped us find more information on key areas such as contention ratios and service level agreements.

There are still significant differences between services offered in the Americas, Asia Pacific and Europe. For example there are a greater range of speeds offered in North America compared to Asia Pacific and Europe. Having said that, 'high-speed' services in Europe are on average offered at a higher bandwidth than in North America.

Most of the operators surveyed have cut their prices for symmetrical DSL services, many by large proportions. Prices in the European market are falling most sharply, with reductions of up to 70% in the amortised monthly rentals for both 'entry-level' and 'high-speed' services. Prices in the North American market are also steady or falling. The small number of Asia-Pacific operators covered have mostly kept prices steady in local currencies, which can translate as a rise in dollar terms.

Our analysis suggests that European incumbents are becoming less paranoid about cannibalising leased line revenues, and are finally beginning to compete with CLECs wanting to increase their market share of business users.

Overall our results show that service providers are becoming more comfortable in offering symmetrical DSL as a viable service to businesses. As a result they are showing greater transparency in their service offerings, and offering better value to business customers.

In this report we cover the following areas of symmetrical DSL services:

• Bandwidth; the different speeds offered by service providers
• Contention ratios; the extent to which bandwidth is guaranteed
• Included facilities; the basic facilities included in a typical symmetrical service
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs); analysis of the performance contracts offered
• Tariffs; analysis of pricing strategies