What intrigues me is the non-specified applications for which the E-1* circuits are to be used.
To the degree that IXC's network is IP-based, for example, then long distance calls can be routed in such a way that they potentially bypass PTT/PSTN access charges and surcharges. They could provide both the IP/PSTN and ISP connections for Cyberfax, and at significantly reduced cost, for example. Merely leasing E-1s from IXC is not significant to me: any company with a suitable switch and $$$ can do that. But obtaining E-1 circuits (visualize an E-1 as being a fraction of a strand in Rapunzel's hair in a network such as IXC's) on a favorable basis to reduce prepaid calling card and prepaid cellular costs, obtaining Internet/ISP interconnections and possible Cyberfax resale POPs, that's something else again.
I do not know Mr. Murphy, except by reputation. But today's news can be viewed as the glass being half-empty or half-full. I have no reason to infer that Mr. Murphy was pressured into making this deal, nor that DCI was in desperate straits. This transaction is noteworthy not for what it accomplishes, but for what it presages. The ability to scale to the limits of one's ability to create marketing relationships without having to simultaneously scale the infrastructure necessary to optimize those relations is indeed a wonderful playing card. This is no longer ante.
* An E-1 is the European equivalent of an American T-1. However, a T-1 has a bandwidth of 1.544 megabits/sec whereas an E-1 has bandwidth of 2.048 megabits. When used for traditional (non IP-based) voice/fax transactions, using traditional PCM multiplexing at 64K/sec, an American T-1 yields 24 channels while the European E-1 yields 30.
HTH,
Steve Bergman |
