**OT** 5/98 tele.com article. Info on NN/Qwest
teledotcom.com
Briefs
All for One, ATM Style
If you can't build it, and you can't buy it, maybe you can barter
it--that's part of the strategy behind InterconX, the partnership
between competitive carriers American Communications
Services Inc. (Annapolis Junction, Md.), fONOROLA Inc.
(Montreal), and IXC Communications Inc. (Austin, Texas).
InterconX is an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switched
data network that operates at OC-12 (622-Mbit/s) speeds
over more than 21,000 fiber router miles throughout the
United States and Canada. The three partners are pooling
their ATM backbone resources to create InterconX; they're
able to do that because they're all using ATM technology from
Newbridge Networks Inc. (Kanata, Ontario), including 36170
MainStreet backbone ATM switches and Newbridge Multi
Network Service Controllers. According to the InterconX
partners, that ATM continuity means they can collaborate to
provision a corporate customer's entire enterprise network.
Customers can order any ATM, frame relay, or other data,
voice, or video service from any partner. The three companies
will work together on network operation and management but
maintain their own sales operations and pricing.
Qwest for Firepower
The jury is still out on whether the $154 million buyout by
Qwest Communications International Inc. (Denver) for
European Internet provider EUNet International B.V.
(Amsterdam) will trigger the kind of backbone buildout now
going on in the United States. The EUNet acquisition gives
Qwest infrastructure in 13 European countries, most of it built
around E1 (2-Mbit/s) circuits, with E3 (34-Mbit/s) links
between larger cities. Those pipes pale in comparison to the
OC-192 (10-Gbit/s) bandwidth that Qwest is laying in its
16,000-mile IP fiber backbone in the United States. Qwest
officials haven't yet committed to significant new funds for
expansion of EUNet's network but did say that services will
be cobranded. "EUNet's infrastructure and network strategy
are complementary to our own, especially in its move toward
Internet telephony," says Reynaldo Ortiz, Qwest's international
managing director. To connect its networks, Qwest has leased
four transatlantic STM-1 (155-Mbit/s) undersea circuits.
School Bells
A division of BellSouth Corp. is helping to provide a
value-added service that signals the arrival of the local school
bus. Since January, BellSouth's Cellemetry Data Service
division (Atlanta), which provides monitoring services using
cellular technology to utility, home security, and business
customers, has been trialing the new notification application.
The service, called BusCall, was developed by application
provider and marketer Global Research Systems Inc. (Rome,
Ga.). BusCall uses the cellular control channel messaging
technology from Cellemetry to communicate between the
vehicle and the local switch, enabling a customer to be notified
via a distinctive ring when the morning school bus comes
within a designated proximity--say, one block--of the home.
Service providers can target the offering at consumers that
have safety or weather concerns about leaving their children
unattended at a bus stop. According to Cellemetry, Rural
Cellular Corp. (Alexandria, Minn.) and Paul Bunyan
Telephone Co. (Bemidji, Minn.) are both in trials with the
offering, which will cost less than $10 a month when
commercially deployed.
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