Local ISP DCANet still battles giants Verizon, Comcast
DCANet, one of the Philadelphia area's original Internet services, tries to keep pace with giants Comcast and Verizon with new Ethernet-over-copper in a deal with XO Communications
DCANet, of Wilmington and Philadelphia, started offering Internet service way back in 1994. "We were one of the original ISPs. Now we're competing with Comcast Business and Verizon FiOS head-to-head, and the monopolies have gotten stronger, and there's fewer companies like mine," says president and owner Keith Duncan. "Our claim to fame is local service. When you call me you get someone quickly. And we monitor your sytem proactively. We see something, we'll call you. 24/7."
DCA's latest move: a deal to offer Ethernet high-speed service, via customers' copper phone cable, starting at 5 megabytes/second, through XO Communications of Herndon, Va., at $745 a month, for "guaranteed dedicated access with dedicated IP," suitable for businesses with email addresses on a local mail server. Fiber Ethernet "costs maybe twice that," Duncan added. "Fiber is infinitely upgradable, but price point is important," especially in a slow economy. "This gets people into the game. And we can upgrade to 20 mbps."
DCA's longtime clients include DuPont Co. and the Morris James LP corporate law firm in Wilmington, Mannington Mills in South Jersey, WHYY and the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia -- more than 2,000 in all, mostly businesses, but some individuals who've stuck with the service since its early retail days, Duncan says.