SOUTHWESTERN BELL PREPARING FOR DSL SERVICE

DSL, which stands for digital subscriber line, will be offered in Cape Girardeau. The service features high-speed Internet access and telephone and fax service on the same lines.

Equipment is being installed at the Southwestern Bell Telephone office, 800 Broadway. "This will allow us to hook up a number of Cape Girardeau residents by late summer," said Donna Burk of Southwestern Bell in Cape Girardeau. "There's a big demand for DSL hookups, and Cape Girardeau will be the first area for the system in Southeast Missouri."

The company said it will push to put DSL service in more than 8 million homes by the end of the year.

Additional information will be available June 2 when Missouri SWB president Jan Newton visits Cape Girardeau. Newton will take in the Cape Girardeau First Friday Coffee June 2 and discuss DSL and long-distance, said Burk.

First customers to be installed will be businesses and residents within a three-mile area of the SWB office on Broadway. The company has committed to bring all of its customers high-speed Internet access by 2004 .

"Once we get that first phase operating, we'll be looking at the Jackson, Sikeston, Poplar Bluff and Farmington areas," said Burk.

More information is available on the Web site www.swbell.com/DSL.