Broadband availability: Sign up and wait

Being able to buy broadband doesn't mean you can get it-at least not right away. Despite repeated horror stories about troubled installations and customer support issues, people are clamoring for high-speed Internet connections-and ISPs are hustling to sell it. Unfortunately, broadband customers often have a long wait for installation after they sign up.

Overall availability of high-speed access via cable and digital subscriber line services continues to improve, says Brian Gilman, senior technology analyst at the research firm eMarketer. The company reports that half the U.S. population now has access to cable Internet service, and one third could, theoretically, get DSL service now.

But demand is outstripping the increased supply. Nearly two-thirds of all PC-owning households say they want high-speed Internet access, and 40 percent are willing to pay up to $40 a month for it, research firm The Yankee Group reports.

As a result, Gilman says, people can wait weeks and even months to get their service installed. That can seem like an eternity in Internet time.

In addition to the flood of requests, the complex nature of the installations can make it difficult to get new customers serviced quickly.

"There is a great demand out there, but people just can't get the services," Gilman says.

Too Hot to Handle

"Broadband is very hot right now, and the entire industry is supply- constrained," says John Ellis, director of product marketing at national Internet service provider EarthLink.

On average, across the nation, EarthLink customers have to wait about a month from the time they place an order until their first day of service, he says.

EarthLink has more than 100,000 broadband customers. Because it partners with a number of local and regional providers to deliver broadband to its customers, EarthLink offers DSL or cable access, depending on availability.

Partnering with multiple providers allows the company more flexibility in managing demand, Ellis says. If one provider isn't keeping up, EarthLink can turn to others.

But that strategy doesn't always work, especially in tech-savvy regions with pent-up demand, such as the San Francisco Bay Area. That has caused some customer frustration, Ellis acknowledges.

SBC Communications is one of the companies that provides DSL access for ISPs such as EarthLink. With 425,000 customers, it is the largest DSL provider, says spokesperson Shawn Dainas. Currently the company has an average wait time of 10 to 20 days for service, he says.

The company is being very aggressive about increasing access and providing service, Dainas says. Since the beginning of the year, SBC has tripled its number of installation technicians, adding hundreds of people, he says.

"Managing growth is a challenge," Dainas says. "But it is a good challenge to have."

Not every broadband company is falling behind on installations, insists Steve Brookstein, senior vice president of affiliate operations at Excite@Home. The company-which offers mostly cable access (with DSL service in locations where it doesn't offer cable)--also partners with local providers and has greatly streamlined the installation process since its launch four years ago, he says.

Excite@Home's partners have avoided large backlogs by hiring contractors when necessary, Brookstein says. They know that telling a customer they have to wait eight weeks to get service is going to cause many of them to cancel, so they simply don't let that happen, he says. An Excite@Home spokesperson says that the time between a customer's signup call and installation of service generally runs about two weeks.

It used to take two technicians several hours to install cable Internet access, Brookstein says. Today a single technician can do the job in one and a half hours on average, he says.

Streamlining installations has allowed the company to greatly increase its subscriber base, he says. It took the company 48 months to reach 1 million subscribers, and about 9 more months to reach 2 million. Excite@Home expects to add its third millionth subscriber in a fraction of that 9 months.

Self-Installation

In an effort to speed the process, a growing number of DSL and cable providers are offering self-installation kits, Gilman says. However, he's not sure the technologies are mature enough for that approach yet.

DSL installation in particular is a complicated procedure, he says. "I'm very interested to see how well this will work," he says.

Both EarthLink and SBC are currently promoting self-installation packages. EarthLink has offered a package since the beginning of the year, and it has helped to decrease wait times, Ellis says.

People who can install service on their own can benefit by not having to coordinate their schedules with those of DSL installers. And with the right hardware, instructions, and technical support, most people have few problems, Ellis says.

Excite@Home is confident self-installation of cable modems is coming, Brookstein says. The company is preparing self-installation promotions.

Need More Competition

EMarketer's Gilman says more broadband providers would alleviate service backlogs. Only a small percentage of the more than 7000 ISPs in the United States offer broadband access. Once more companies get involved, and more technicians hit the streets, the long waits will diminish.

Right now, the lag between signup and installation probably isn't costing broadband companies too many customers, Gilman says. People who want broadband now want it badly enough to put up with the hassles. "Going forward, people will be less tolerant," he says.

By the Numbers

According to eMarketer, residential and small-business users of DSL in the United States currently number about 1.4 million-up from 390,000 in 1999. That's about 5 percent of the 31 million houses that are capable of receiving DSL service, Gilman says. And those 31 million only represent about a third of all U.S. households.

Cable is still ahead of DSL, Gilman says. EMarketer reports about 2.9 million cable modem users in the United States-up from about 1.47 million in 1999. That's also only about 5 percent of the 58.6 million households capable of cable-modem Internet access. EMarketer predicts DSL (residential and business) will overtake cable in total subscribers by the year 2003, he says. By that time the company estimates there will be 9.78 million cable-Internet users and 10.95 million DSL users.

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