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SOURCE:Bell Atlantic; Ascend Communications, Inc.
Bell Atlantic Moves Forward to Meet Data Demand
Market-Leading ATM Technology from Ascend Drives Data, Voice and Video Over One Network
NEW YORK, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- With the market for data communications expected to at least double over the next five years, Bell Atlantic is gearing up to meet the explosive requirements of its local and long distance customers.
The company has selected Ascend Communications, Inc. to supply multiservice Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) products to combine data, voice and video services over a single network, making innovative products and services available at affordable prices.
"Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of combining data, voice and video, enabling our customers to use one network for all their communications traffic," said Joe Farina, president and chief executive officer of Bell Atlantic's Data Solutions Group (DSG). "Use of leading-edge technology from Ascend will provide the capacity, reliability and flexibility we will need to deliver the latest products and services to satisfy the ever more sophisticated data demands of our customers."
Ascend, recently named the top ATM provider to public carriers by Vertical Systems Group, is the latest vendor chosen to provide key elements of Bell Atlantic's long-distance network, which will serve customers across the company's home region, as well as national and global customers. Construction of the new network began in July. Deployment of services over this network depends on regulatory approvals, the first of which are expected to occur in the first quarter of next year.
"We are building a state-of-the-art, ATM backbone network to meet the increasingly complex needs of our data customers while delivering high-quality voice and video services," said Stu Verge, president -- Bell Atlantic Global Networks, a unit in DSG created to build and manage Bell Atlantic's next-generation, long distance network.
The Ascend equipment will enable the company to easily interconnect with other carriers in its service region and around the world to offer customers a seamless integration of local and long-distance data communications.
The market for data services in Bell Atlantic's region could top 80-90 billion annually by the year 2003. In expectation of that tremendous growth, the new network will be ready to support services such as virtual private networks, work-at-home and audio and video streaming over the World Wide Web. The network also will provide high-quality, high-speed transport services platform services such as Internet access and backbone transport, and a complete range of value-added applications, such as Intranet/Extranets, electronic commerce and video conferencing.
"Bell Atlantic is raising the bar for advanced network services with the roll out of its next-generation, long-distance network," said Tom DeCanio, vice president, product marketing, Core Switching Division at Ascend. "We are pleased that Bell Atlantic chose Ascend to provide key ATM core and multiservice switching technology for this groundbreaking project."
The Bell Atlantic network is based on Ascend's GX 550 "Smart" Core and CBX 500 ATM switches. These platforms, when combined with Ascend's Navis(TM) Core and NavisXtend family of network management products, will enable Bell Atlantic to offer customers a full suite of advanced products and services on a single network, greatly reducing the cost of using separate networks for data, voice and video communications.
Bell Atlantic will deploy GX 550 switches at a series of hub locations in major markets throughout its region including New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC and Boston. The switches will be activated as soon as the company receives permission to enter the long distance business.
Formed in March 1998, the Bell Atlantic Data Solutions Group (DSG) is dedicated to providing globally integrated network solutions that seamlessly connect businesses with their customers, partners and employees. DSG provides all aspects of data networking from network transport and integration to advanced network applications such as Intranets and Extranets, virtual private networks, web hosting and multimedia services. DSG will offer complete, end-to-end solutions through third party alliances and partnerships it will form nationally and globally.
Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and information industry. With more than 41 million telephone access lines and more than seven million wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are premier providers of advanced wireline voice and data services, market leaders in wireless services and the world's largest publishers of directory information. Bell Atlantic companies are also among the world's largest investors in high-growth global communications markets, with operations and investments in 23 countries.
Ascend Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASND) develops, manufactures, sells and services wide area networking solutions for telecommunications carriers, Internet services providers and corporate customers worldwide. For more information about Ascend and its products, please visit the Ascend web site at ascend.com, or send e-mail to
info@ascend.
Ascend is headquartered at One Ascend Plaza, 1701 Harbor Bay Parkway, Alameda, Calif. 94502 phone is 800/ASCEND4 and fax is 510-814-2300.
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