Qwest will now deliver high-speed Internet access to parts of Central Oregon, giving some users another broadband connection option.

The telecom company announced Tuesday its central offices are now equipped to offer digital subscriber lines (DSL). DSL is an always-on Internet connection through a phone line. It can offer connection speeds up to 25 times faster than a 56k modem, depending on conditions, and the phone and the Internet can be used at the same time. Some cable television and satellite companies also offer high-speed Internet connections.

Qwest can offer DSL service now that it has the additional fiber-optic capacity to keep Central Oregon connected – even if a backhoe cuts through a cable. Twice in 2001, the fiber-optic line to Central Oregon was severed, leaving residents and businesses in a communications blackout. Long distance phone service, the Internet, lottery machines and automated banking went dead until the line was repaired.

DSL will allow businesses and residents located within a three-mile radius of central offices located in Bend, Black Butte, Culver, La Pine, Prineville, Redmond, Sisters and Spring River to get high-speed access to the Internet.

The price to plug into DSL is $39.95 per month, though the cost goes down if customers ”bundle” services when Qwest begins offering long distance in late April, said Erin Dunn, a company spokeswoman.

Qwest (NYSE: Q) would not disclose the locations of its central offices for security reasons, but is providing telephone numbers to its residential and commercial customers who are interested in finding out if DSL is available to them.

Those who are located in the three-mile radius and able to receive DSL will be notified via mail.

The company expects to have additional remote DSL sites up and running by the end of summer as well, Dunn said. The remote DSL sites will serve customers outside the current range.

For example, Qwest is moving ahead on remote sites that will include Metolius, Plain View, Tumalo, Terrebonne, Squaw Creek Canyon, Crooked River Ranch, Powell Butte, Camp Sherman and another in the Redmond area.

The Denver-based telecom giant began its effort to offer DSL to both urban and rural areas following the passage of Oregon Senate Bill 622 in 1999. That legislation established a fund that made financial support available to communities showing a need for increased bandwidth, route diversity and access to advanced telecom services for their residents.

Qwest, then known as US West, was the only company to participate in SB 622, providing $70 million for rural technology upgrades in exchange for freedom from traditional regulation of rates. A portion of that money – $3 million – was set aside for the statewide DSL remote sites.

A large part of that upgrade was the Central Oregon fiber-optic ring, which was completed last summer and offers ”redundancy” or a back-up system.

That means continuous service and less chance of customers losing their Internet or phone service when a major fiber optic line is cut.

”In order to provide DSL to Central Oregon, we had to put a network in place that could handle the technology, including increased capacity (provided by the fiber optic ring), ATMs (high-speed switches) and the DSL system itself,” Dunn said. ”It took two and a half years to build the system for Central Oregon.”

Completion of the ring was delayed for several weeks last May when contractors on the project ran into a problem with right-of-way on Highway 97. In late June, the company began to roll telecommunications traffic onto the ring.

The ring links Madras, Redmond, Bend and La Pine to Oakridge and then north again to Portland. Previously, the line had come from Portland, over Mount Hood, through Madras and Bend and then stopped in La Pine.

Residential customers who want to know if they qualify for DSL service may call 800-244-1111; small business customers may call 800-603-6000.

BendCable, Crestview Cable and Chambers Cable offer high-speed cable Internet access in Central Oregon, according to their Web sites. Other companies also offer it via satellite.

Lisa Rosetta can be reached at 541-617-7812 or lrosetta@bendbulletin.com.