BellSouth is beefing up its portal in an effort to get closer to customers so it can later reach them with "a rich slate of communications tools," says Stan Yeatts, vice president of portal and applications development at BellSouth. The company recently added a variety of new content providers to its site, which it says already offers "rich and relevant content" for dial-up and DSL users alike categorized into multiple "channels", a sophisticated search engine, and click to chat access with the BellSouth help desk. BellSouth hopes the portal will help build its reputation as being more than a pipe provider so customers will later consider buying e-mail services with built-in presence features, instant messaging and other services from the telco. "The applications are the very next low hanging fruit," says Yeatts.
In other BellSouth news, the company has launched its Enterprise Data Backup Service providing business customers with backup and restoration services. Mission-critical data from subscribing businesses will be stored in off-site BellSouth Managed Storage Facilities utilizing high-speed connectivity methods such as BellSouth Gigabit Ethernet Service (up to 1gbps) or other transport services. The service can be configured to back up data as often as customers require while initializing data restoration in as little as 30 minutes.
Verizon Wireless plans to commercially launch applications based on QUALCOMM's Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) platform. Verizon Wireless will begin rolling out BREW applications in a portion of its coast-to-coast footprint as early as this spring. Verizon Wireless will be the first carrier in North America to launch BREW-enabled applications, allowing customers to download a variety of entertainment and productivity applications over the air.
National broadband service provider Speakeasy has launched MyFirewall, a combination of firewall and desktop intrusion protection. MyFirewall utilizes Internet Security Systems' BlackICE technology, which Speakeasy has further enhanced to provide centralized security control, customized and round-the-clock protection, and automatic service updates. MyFirewall is the first of several products to be included in the Speakeasy Neighborhood Watch Program, which will eventually include SPAM filtering, content filtering, and anti-virus protection. The service now is available only to Speakeasy customers and costs $4.95 per month, including a free three-day trial.
Outsourced IT managed services firm Myrient has launched a bundled product which combines its ZIPBackup on-line backup solution and broadband access. The company hopes small- and medium-sized business owners will be enticed to acquire a bundled service offering for approximately the same monthly fee other providers would charge for broadband access or online data storage alone.
