37 Oklahoma communities to get high speed access to Internet

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Thirty-seven Oklahoma communities will receive high-speed access to the Internet for the first time, thanks to SBC Communications, officials said. <br><br>As of this week, 14 communities

Thursday, June 19th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Thirty-seven Oklahoma communities will receive high-speed access to the Internet for the first time, thanks to SBC Communications, officials said.

As of this week, 14 communities have received digital subscriber line, or DSL, service for the first time as part of the Oklahoma FIRST! program, officials said. Those communities include Anadarko, Blackwell, Cleveland, Eufaula and Fort Gibson.

Twenty-three communities getting DSL service this year include Antlers, Bristow, Chandler, Dewey, Fairview and Marlow, officials said.

The company also will build neighborhood broadband gateways to extend DSL technology to 25 towns already getting the service, officials said.

Installing the DSL will help the company reach its goal of bringing to 81 the number of Oklahoma communities receiving the service, SBC officials said Thursday.

SBC wants to expand high-speed access service in 62 Oklahoma communities this year.

One of the initiatives of Oklahoma FIRST! is to increase from 790,000 the number of homes and small businesses receiving DSL Internet access to 925,000, or 15%.

The investment program comes as cutbacks are occurring in capital spending in the depressed telecommunications industry, SBC officials said.