Sprint ION limping to a site near you
Convergence offering has few beta
users; doubts mount over carrier's
strategy.
(A FLOP WITH CSCO EQUIPMENT MUST READ, GOES TO SHOW YOU ANNOUNCEMENTS BY SALESMEN LIKE CHAMBERS DOESN'T CUT IT. YOU NEED VISION AND PRODUCTS IN THIS BUSINESS,) here is the article
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(THIS IS INTERESTING) (csco and sprint hyped this one made a huge FUSS).
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.
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