With the Bermuda Telephone Company (BTC) scheduled to introduce high-speed phone lines Tuesday, Logic Communications, its sister company, announced its accompanying Internet access rates yesterday.

The high-speed lines, known as digital subscriber lines (DSL), can download information at 1,500 kilobytes per second, compared to 56 kilobytes per second with an analogue modem and phone line. BTC is limiting the service, branded "Velocity", to residential subscribers and small businesses without commercial telephone systems.

Logic's packages will offer download speeds beginning at 128 kilobytes per second. According to a press release, customers who choose that speed will pay $59 a month for 25 hours or $99 a month for unlimited access.

Customers will also require a new DSL modem, which BTC expects will cost about $250.

All three Internet service providers - Logic, plus North Rock Communications and Cable & Wireless - will allow access through DSL. North Rock said it plans to release its rates on Tuesday, while Cable & Wireless, which serves the small business market exclusively, could not be reached before Press time last night.

Although 128 kilobytes per second is about half or a fourth as fast as access speeds available with DSL elsewhere, Bill Dickinson, Logic's senior vice president of sales and marketing, is convinced that the package will sell in Bermuda.

"Most home users will be amazed by the speed," he said. "It is certainly adequate speed given what the Island has persevered with up until now."

Mr. Dickinson added that given current Internet usage, no home users required a package that used all of the capacity of BTC's new lines, which would match the Internet connection of a large company.

Line rental from BTC will begin at $89 a month, although the company expects that many customers' bills will go down because customers who used to have a separate phone line for surfing the Internet will only need one line because DSL is capable of handling voice and data connections simultaneously.

Subscribers will also avoid overcalls, which irked many computer users as the Internet became more popular and modem calls quickly depleted the 50 local calls included in the line rental charge. Extra calls cost 20 cents each.

BTC said it will convert lines within three to ten business days after a customer requests DSL. The deployment speed will vary according to the quality of a customer's existing phone line.

The service will not be available to everyone, though - at least not yet. BTC has scheduled a gradual roll out of service, and expects to have the entire Island connected by the end of next year. The area around Cobbs Hill South will be the first to receive service after Velocity is officially launched on Tuesday.

On the Net:

http://www.btc.bm/velocity

http://www.logic.bm/dsl