I just got this off of zdnet. Seemed interesting.
Smiles
Sprint has its ION network applications
Businesses will get the first crack at it, but the ION technology will roll out to consumers, too.
By John Rendleman and Erica Schroeder, PC Week
March 14, 1999 9:04 PM PT
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Deep into the deployment of its next-generation network, Sprint Corp. is turning its focus toward developing applications and services to take advantage of those high-speed lines.
The telecommunications company is beta testing ION (Integrated On-Demand Network), its asynchronous transfer mode-based IP network, at both large corporate and consumer sites. It plans to begin offering commercial ION services to selected corporations by midyear, officials said during interviews with PC Week at the company's headquarters here last week.
With ION promising connection speeds from 1.5M bps to 45M bps and beyond, Sprint (NYSE:FON) is creating a stable of networked applications to take advantage of the higher bandwidth.
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In the works: videoconferencing, video-on-demand and software downloading services; hosted applications such as groupware, messaging, collaboration and supply chain management; telecommuting services; portals; and Web content and hosting.
The move from developing just the pipes of a network to the applications that ride on top of it -- and delivering both as a single package -- is a new one for Sprint as well as customers.
Big potential
"The potential here is huge," said Sprint CEO William Esrey. "But it is a bit of uncharted water."
Large customers seem ready to set sail. "We're eager to get started," said ION beta tester Larry Hardin, director of operations and communications at Sysco Corp., in Houston. "The potential of the bandwidth is very attractive."
Sysco delayed deployment of the ION services while it relocated one of its offices but is now ready to begin testing, Hardin said.
To ensure a strong applications base when it launches ION, Sprint is recruiting and working with application developers and service providers to build applications and deliver content for ION.
To that end, Sprint plans to launch over the next six weeks a high-speed desktop videoconferencing service, officials said. The company currently is beta testing PictureTel Corp.'s 384K-bps videoconferencing software, but the new service will perform at speeds beyond 384K bps, officials said.
Sprint is also planning a hosted e-mail service and has narrowed down its choice of a partner to Microsoft Corp., with Exchange, or Lotus Development Corp., with Notes, officials said.
Universal messaging service
A new universal messaging service will also be part of the ION offerings. Sprint currently is testing hosted voice mail boxes but plans to broaden the offering by the middle of next year to include fax and e-mail. It also plans to combine voice mail for ION services with its own wireless personal communications services network on a single system, officials said.
With a broadband network in place, application developers could use ION as a distribution channel for downloadable software or "rentable" network-based applications. Sprint officials said they are looking to partner with vendors to offer database, network storage, electronic commerce, supply chain management and other applications.
"The point of entry for us is executing on access and transport, doing local service, [and] integrating the services for businesses and residential [users]," said Kevin Brauer, Sprint's president of national integrated services. "But at the same time, if we're not aggressively working the applications side, too, we'll lose momentum."
Also in the works for ION is Sprint-developed "dashboard" software, a Web-based desktop manager for monitoring and managing traffic between ION sites. Sprint also plans to add to the software the ability to manage non-ION sites, officials said.
In addition, Sprint is testing low-speed wireless access to ION using its existing personal communications services spectrum at data rates of 14.4K bps, with hopes of increasing that to 384K bps, officials said.
ION will connect to a customer's site via a piece of Sprint-managed equipment called an ISH (Integrated Services Hub), which can range in size from an asynchronous DSL (digital subscriber line) router to a large, multiservice edge switch.
This quarter, Sprint will deliver ION Basic, a 1.5M-bps version of the service. By the third quarter, Sprint will finish tests of Cisco Systems Inc.'s MGX 8850 multiservice edge switch as the premises-based integrated services hub for large-business customers, said Mike McRoberts, director of product management for ION.
Sprint also plans to extend ION via DSL and a Cisco-developed ISH for consumers and small-office and branch-office customers. Sprint expects ION to be fully available nationally in the first half of next year.
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