All, Twists in the ION story. This time from Network World. Not So Favorable. And a few surprises.
Enjoy, FrankC.
==================
"Sprint ION limping to a site near you"
Convergence offering has few beta users; doubts mount over carrier's strategy.
By David Rohde
Network World, 12/21/98
Sprint's heavily hyped Integrated On-Demand Network (ION) services are supposed to be available next month, but few of the convergence devices are in place and few users have beta-tested the network.
Muddling the picture further, the No. 3 long-distance carrier last week said it no longer plans to use regional Bell operating companies as extensively as it expected for ION facilities.
ION is designed to blend voice, video and data over a single access link via an ATM box provided by Sprint. Those access links originally included RBOC-supplied dedicated SONET and digital subscriber line (DSL) dial-up links. But last week Sprint said it will largely provide its own DSL facilities for dial-up customers.
Moreover, Network World has learned that of the six ION beta customers announced in June, only two have even begun running traffic over the network, and only in the past few weeks. Sprint officials concede that of the four customers that remain, at least two no longer plan to participate in beta-testing until well into next year.
The lack of outside testing, and Sprint's about-face regarding the role of the RBOCs, has rekindled previously expressed fears among analysts, especially those who doubted ION from the start. (NW, June 8, page 1).
"I don't know of a soul who actually believes stuff coming out of Sprint," says Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Network Architects, a consulting firm in Washington, D.C. "The company just creating it as it went along."
Meanwhile, the roster of key vendors associated with ION has been shifting. The original announcement included a partnership with Cisco for the on-premises Integrated Services Hub - a piece of customer premises equipment that would aggregate voice and data traffic over a single access facility.
Instead, the tiny band of test customers are using Nortel Networks ATM switches to perform that function, though the users intend to employ Cisco gear down the road.
For example, Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Mo., which in November was the first ION beta customer to get the service underway, has installed Nortel Passport ATM switches to reach the ION service nodes.
But Jim Miller, Hallmark vice president of IS, concedes that ION is missing a key benefit. The network is supposed to provide "dynamic allocation" of access channels, meaning that users can save money by switching some access links back and forth from voice and data traffic as time of day and other factors require. So far, Hallmark is running data traffic over some fixed facilities and voice over others.
Reliance on telco access facilities also has played a part in start-up delays. "It took us more than two months to configure the switches and to get the agreements with the local telephone companies to do what they needed to do," Miller says.
The other company to have tested IONis Yellow Freight. Sprint officials say the transportation company began running traffic shortly after Hallmark started its test.
Another scheduled beta user, Ernst & Young, is "still in the planning phases of the pilot," according to Russ Davis, assistant director of network services.
And the other scheduled testers have backed off a bit, citing a grab bag of reasons.
"We planned on having the trial up and running in the November/December time frame, but we are moving offices and have pushed off the beta trial for a short time," says Larry Harden, a manager of information services at Sysco Foods, a Houston food distributor.
Tandy has decided to delay its ION test until a switched-access option is available sometime during 1999 because the company is primarily interested in ION access at its Radio Shack retail locations, according to Mike McRoberts, director of next-generation networks product management at Sprint.
Ironically, Radio Shack is an ION partner and hopes to sell small-business and residential ION premises hubs in the future. The last announced ION beta tester, Silicon Graphics, also has not begun using the service, according to McRoberts.
But the commercial availability announcement last month is valid because Sprint has tested ION extensively in its labs and at 15 locations, McRoberts says. Thousands of Sprint employees are using ION services now. But McRoberts concedes that the beta tests will have to be completed before Sprint can set service-level agreements for ION.
Senior Editor Denise Pappalardo contributed to this story.
Contact Senior Editor David Rohde
Sprint's ION page
Sprint changes ION local-loop emphasis
Network World Fusion, 12/17/98.
Sprint sprouts ION details
Network World, 12/08/98
Changing the tune of telecom
Network World, 8/10/98
Pumping ION: Sprint's CEO talks up the carrier's new net
Network World, 7/27/98
Sprint doubts own ION plan
Network World, 7/13/98
ION: Paul Covington
Network World, 6/8/98
Special Report: Sprint's long march to convergence
Network World, 6/3/98
|
