Currently, Qwest’s DSL service is only available in a roughly three-mile radius from the company’s central switching offices on Bainbridge Island, Silverdale and Bremerton. However, new technology can extend DSL services to areas not covered by the high-speed service by utilizing the remote sites. Qwest officials are tight-lipped about the location and timing of the new service for competitive reasons, but expect to make a formal announcement within several months.

Jane Nishita, the company’s regional community affairs director, presented the plan as part of a presentation to the Kitsap Regional Economic Development Council’s Regional Telecommunications Committee. Other providers, such as Sprint and CenturyTel, offer local DSL service but neither has stepped forward with the extended DSL service that Qwest is offering.

Nishita noted also that the new 564 “overlay” area code is scheduled to go into service in the coming year, and that since it is an “overlay” that covers the already established 206, 360 and 253 areas, it’s possible that a person or business could have two different area codes under one roof. Nishita was asked if it didn’t make more sense to simply assign the new area code to cell phones and pagers in the three area codes rather than land-based phones to avoid that possibility. She agreed it did, but said that a legal challenge in another state ruled such a practice was discriminatory and that’s why it couldn’t be done.

She also noted that because of those changes, phone users will soon be required to dial 10 digits even to make a local call.