Following a similar announcement from Verizon earlier this month, SBC Communications Inc. today unveils its national data services strategy, which sets the stage for the company to offer the same interLATA pricing and slate of features for its ATM, frame relay and private line services across its 13 states and the out-of-region areas in which it operates.
Also as part of the news, SBC announced for these services alternate routing, disaster recovery and permanent virtual circuits with quality of service; a new bundled offering for locations outside of SBC’s local service territory; enhanced service level agreements; “seamless” international frame relay and IP services covering 48 countries; and dedicated international private line service to Mexico.
These networks and related services, which SBC manages on an end-to-end basis, are available today in Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and service will be offered in Connecticut later this year. The company’s data network backbone will be further expanded once SBC is permitted to provide long distance services in the SBC Pacific Bell, SBC Nevada Bell and SBC Ameritech territories. Approval for long-distance in California is anticipated late this year, while approvals in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin are anticipated in 2003.
Additionally, SBC anticipates completion of the national expansion phase of its data and IP network backbones by mid-2003, including a fully redundant OC192 IP platform. This will allow SBC to serve its customers in 50 of the nation’s largest cities with a full range of data and IP services.
Byn standardizing its ATM, frame relay and private line services across its terroritory, says David Natho, AVP of national data services, SBC is providing business customers with a more simple package, the reliability SBC is known for and an opportunity to expand their relationship with the carrier. “We enjoy relationships with a very very large number of customers in that area,” he says. “We will try to enhance that wallet share. We already have sales relationships with those customers. Many customers are looking for a singular service provider. SBC’s stability makes us a very good choice.”
He explains the company did not include IP-based services such as IP VPNs or IP Centrex in its announcement today because those offerings are already consistent across its networks. Natho also tells XCHANGE SBC has plans in the works to offer in 2003 what he terms “third-generation” VPN offerings that “blur the lines between IP-enabled frame vs. network VPN.” SBC expects to make an announcement detailing those plans in the next few weeks, he says.
