BellSouth unveils Gig-E transport service

ORLANDO—BellSouth announced during the Competitive Telecommunications Association conference here a Gigabit Ethernet transport service that it said would provide customers with greater flexibility and economies of scale. Elliott Bryant, senior director of marketing, said customers with network fill rates between 60% and 65% would see a 30% improvement in their per-bit costs.

BellSouth is targeting the service to its existing OC-48 and OC-192 customers as well as prospective customers with applications that would justify the leap to the much bigger pipe. Homeland security is a key driver. For example, government agencies that would need to accommodate much larger data transmissions as the result of a disaster event are a prime target. The Gig-E transport service would allow them to significantly increase their bandwidth on short notice, for a short time period.

"We’re actually seeing that in RFP’s now," Bryant said. "Some of our clients have told us they need the flexibility to expand that bandwidth. In some cases it’s an insurance policy for them."

Other potential markets include healthcare organizations that perform medical imaging, entertainment events – such as the Super Bowl – which are in a location for a short amount of time but need enormous amounts of bandwidth, call centers that need to significantly alter their bandwidth based on the time of day, and the banking industry.

To create the service, BellSouth is applying the Ethernet capability to its existing TDM platform to take advantage of the attributes offered by Sonet, such as survivability and quality of service. "We’re trying to leverage the existing platform by bringing out enhancements that will allows us to tap particular niche markets," Bryant said.

Recognizing that some customers won’t need that much bandwidth, or might be hesitant to take the leap, BellSouth will offer a 10/100 Ethernet service by late third quarter or early fourth quarter 2004 that is designed to allow customers to increase bandwidth in a "stair-step" approach. "If you’re a small- to medium-sized ISP that’s thinking about moving into another market, the question becomes, how much bandwidth do you need to make it efficient," Bryant said. "If you have to go in there and bet on a new OC-12 or OC-48 to make it work, you might not go in there as quickly." BellSouth expects to trial this service in the second quarter.