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To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (34571)	10/2/2001 1:17:53 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 68187

Pricing trend in metro market. ************** Friday, September 14, 2001, 3:08 PM ET. AT&T Metro Ethernet Too Inflexible: Users By Margie Semilof Though AT&T is one of the first major carriers to introduce metro Ethernet service, perceived inflexibility in the available speeds may make it a tough sell to enterprises. AT&T, which introduced its Metropolitan Ethernet Services last week, is targeting ISPs, ASPs, storage area network providers and other companies with large-scale needs to connect facilities. "They're not exactly going after the average T1 customer," said Yankee Group analyst Nick Maynard. The carrier is initially providing only 50-, 150-, 300- and 600-Mbps options. The service will roll out early next year in 100 metropolitan areas in 38 states, company officials said. AT&T's best customer is a large enterprise with multiple facilities, Maynard said. Some enterprise were disappointed to learn that customers wouldn't have the ability to roll out bandwidth more fluidly. ACTS Retirement Life Communities, a not-for-profit company that operates 16 retirement communities between Pennsylvania and Florida, is currently a customer of metropolitan area Ethernet company Yipes Communications Inc. Last week, Yipes introduced an on-demand service. "AT&T's range of speed would be a problem for me," said Dan Brindell, director of network engineering at ACTS. "With only four speeds, it kind of takes the flexibility out of it." Brindell said he originally paid $400 per month for 128-Kbps frame relay service and now pays $800 per month for about ten times the bandwidth. AT&T didn't disclose pricing. Monthly pricing for a 45-Mbps DS3 is about $15,000 from a large carrier such as Qwest or AT&T. Customers can get DS3 services from regional carriers for $9,000 or so, however. Mike Cutler, a senior systems administrator for PDI Dreamworks in Palo Alto, Calif., said he was dismayed over what he considered the inflexibility of AT&T's offerings. The company would like the ability to switch from 50 Mbps to 600 Mbps, Cutler said. But since AT&T's service starts at 50 Mbps, it would be hard justifying keeping 50 Mbps most of the time, he said. PDI Dreamworks, the animation division of movie company Dreamworks, is also a Yipes customer and regularly uses about 10-Mbps Ethernet service. Other carriers are considering offering metropolitan Ethernet services, but only Qwest is offering Ethernet services in its metro markets. The Qwest service gives users a choice of speeds ranging from 2 Mbps to 1 Gbps. Executives at WorldCom recently said the carrier is testing Gigabit Ethernet services on a "limited, individual case basis."