DSL, Ordinary Phone Lines Go Together

Avail Networks Inc. on Monday introduced new customer equipment as well as a concentration device that enables carriers to deliver voice and data services to tenants in a single building or office park.

The Frontera 4000 is an aggregation box that supports up to 48 DSL or regular phone lines and backhauls the traffic to carrier switching offices via T-1s, T-3s or OC-3 fiber connections.

The Frontera 4000 supplements Avail's earlier Frontera 2000. Frontera gear supports quality of service that enables delay-sensitive voice services.

The devices support regular voice, voice over DSL and data traffic. The gear uses symmetric DSL (SDSL) to distribute broadband services over regular copper wires. An entry-level configuration of the box costs $17,000.

Avail is also introducing the Frontera 600 integrated access devices, which sit in customer sites to support voice and data. The 600 comes with eight or 16 voice ports, a 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet port and an SDSL port for the WAN connection. It costs $1,295.

Avail, in Ann Arbor, Mich., is at: www.availnetworks.com.