Branching out: Providers expand fiber networks, services for international needs

Going global has taken hold. Several carrier's carriers announced plans last week at the CompTel show in Long Beach, Calif., to expand their international fiber networks and service offerings to support customers and gain foreign telecom carrier business.

Leading the charge was Global Crossing, which recently picked up Frontier Communications and apparently hasn't finished its buying spree. The wholesale carrier successfully bid for IXnet, an IP-based voice and data services provider to the financial industry, and its parent company, IPC Communications. With separate valuations, the transaction is worth about $150 million.

The acquisition fits with Global Crossing's charter to expand its reach and data offerings. IXnet offers desktop trading systems, so Global Crossing can move beyond its building-to-building services approach and into offices.

The catch may be that IXnet provides services to multinational enterprises, including Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns. That could put Global Crossing at odds with its carrier customers, which might view the IXnet acquisition as a competitive play.

Global Crossing officials don't think so. "We have wholesale operations and retail operations, but we're not in consumer markets," said Tony Palma, vice president of marketing for Global Crossing.

IXnet has presence in 37 countries, some of which will overlap with Global Crossing's 24-country network. That will give the combined provider a larger base from which to offer its IP-based and Web-hosting services.

Global Crossing last week also unveiled its Integrated T-1 service targeted at switchless resellers and international carriers. The service supports voice and data over the same T-1 link, making it a more attractive sell to the small business market. "Now [carriers] can justify a T-1 for smaller customers," Palma said. "If you can offer two to five services, you create customer loyalty and secure your revenue stream."

Also on the service front came announcements from Williams Communications. Williams has partnered with foreign PTTs to create a network that spans more than 100 countries.

"We're taking our U.S. services to the international market," said Eugene Mackie, manager of international services for Williams. "We will support our domestic customers with international needs and offer foreign telecom companies wholesaling services [to the U.S.]"

In tandem, Williams debuted its International Private Line services, three products that enable carriers to use the new international Williams network. The IPL services include 24-hour monitoring and centralized ordering, provisioning and billing.

With the first product, the Traditional service offering, Williams coordinates with foreign partners to provision the link to a central point, where it is picked up by the partner. The second option, One-Stop Shopping, goes a step farther. Working with its international partners, Williams handles the ordering and billing for both sides of the circuit but doesn't provision both sides. And using the Full Circuit option, the third product, Williams handles the end-to-end circuit provisioning for its carrier customers.

The Williams expansion follows an agreement through which it acquired $42 million in capacity and services on Teleglobe's Canadian and Pan-European networks.

Teleglobe used the show to provide an update on its international GlobeSystem network buildout. Since the GlobeSystem initiative was announced last May, "we have over 200 interconnection agreements in 150 countries worldwide," said Valerie Ianieri, vice president of U.S. carrier sales for Teleglobe. "We've been quietly building the backbone of a worldwide network."

The network is 36% complete, Ianieri said. A 15-city European ring and three data centers in London, New York and Toronto have been activated. The network is being upgraded from OC-3 to OC-12 in North America and Europe, the Internet backbone is upgrading to OC-48 and four satellites were added, bringing the total to 47, she said.

The fiber provider has agreements with some 800 carriers and more than 200 ISPs, Ianieri said. Teleglobe announced its most recent carrier agreement with RSL Communications at the show.

"RSL Com will get $34 million in network capacity and network services [linking] Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfort, London and Paris," she added.

Seemingly in the face of this international expansion, GST Telecommunications announced that it has sold its remaining assets in Europe - 1.5 million common shares of Global Light Telecommunications-to an undisclosed company for approximately $26.8 million. The network provider is concentrating on building up its integrated services in the U.S. market. The European network "was more of a distraction," said Jim Orr, director of network planning for GST.