Bell regional holding companies and competitive local exchange carriers face a copper wire shortage in the emerging competitive market. RHCs will have to give up an estimated 30% of their local loops to new competitors, while CLECs, under the current slow unbundling process, are scrambling for copper lines.

That's why HDSL2 appeals to both. Unlike high bit-rate digital subscriber line (HDSL) service that requires two copper pairs, HDSL2 can move data at the same bit rate of 1.5 Mb/s using only one pair.

The T1E1.4 working group has started taking comments and proposals working toward an HDSL2 standard. In the meantime, the first HDSL2 products will be announced this week by Telmax, a California-based local loop access technology company.

The WebXpress 2300 is a single-pair, symmetrical customer premises box that can be connected as T-1 service at 1.5 Mb/s or with an Ethernet interface up to 2.3 Mb/s. Telmax also has a central office chassis called the Xpress Central that holds Xpress 2300 cards.

Both the WebXpress and Xpress Central are available for evaluation, with units shipping in September.

Brooks Fiber West has already field tested the 2300 and plans to deploy more than 500,000 T-1 lines, said Bruce Young, Telmax's chief technology officer.

"I'm surprised to see a product available this quickly, given that vendors have just begun working on putting together an HDSL2 standard," said Kieran Taylor, broadband consultant with TeleChoice. He expects the other major competitors in the HDSL market - PairGain Technologies, ADC Telecommunications and Adtran - to introduce products by the beginning of next year.

Telmax is also working on an ISDN product that will allow the data service over a standard voice line while maintaining lifeline voice if power is lost. That product is part of a joint venture and will be announced soon, Young said. Telmax believes the HDSL2 will be particularly interesting to CLECs, while the ISDN product appeals more to RHCs.

"The security factor is that we have ISDN today. Going forward with the HDSL2 technology, we have it today. It's just a matter of how fast it can be taken up," Young said. "Our insurance policy is ISDN. Our future is multimedia symmetrical and some asymmetrical DSL."