Qwest takes iQ global

Qwest today is announcing a number of enhancements to its iQ Networking WAN product including an agreement with BT Infonet that will greatly expand the product’s footprint outside the U.S.

The company also has added an additional quality of service queue as well as a rental option for customer premise equipment, aiming at businesses that want to trim installation and maintenance costs.

As part of its agreement, Qwest now will be able to offer its MPLS services across 240 countries.

“We’ve done a lot of testing and we’re now taking that to market officially through our relationship with BT Infonet,” said Martin Capurro, director of dedicated Internet product management with Qwest. “BT Infonet from a bang for the buck perspective has a lot of coverage. It also lets other providers use our MPLS network to expand.”

For multinational corporate clients, the deal means being able to get the same level of QOS across their network regardless of location. Qwest eventually may extend that concept to other providers, but wanted to establish a framework first with BT Infonet, Capurro said.

“There are a lot of different standards out there and a lot of different implementations of [MPLS],” he said. “Right now we would basically get the benefit of Infonet’s footprint. It’s important to establish this model because you just can’t be everywhere.”

Adding the service queuing, which comes in the form of four different levels, came about as enterprise customers started demanding higher SLAs for specific applications.

“We launched with three QOS types a year ago, which was actually more than people wanted,” Capurro said. “Now what we see is a little bit of stratification as far as the higher end requirements.”

As enterprise customers layer on voice on to their data networks with remote or travelling users connected via soft phones , the company likely will look at still more diversification of QOS levels.

“Most of those connections [for traveling users] are best effort,” Capurro said. “I don’t know that we as an industry are going to be able to solve that just yet. The thought is that down the line, as more soft phones are deployed, that when they plug in at the hotel they can test to see if the connection is able to support a voice call.”