The fast lane

U S West has proved itself to be somewhat of a digital subscriber line standout among its Bell brethren, but the carrier's aggressive access network upgrades are just the on-ramp to an eventual total network overhaul.

U S West is moving quickly toward integrating its voice, video and data transport capabilities onto one network, but as it does, the carrier is cognizant of the reliability concerns that strategy creates.

"You definitely have all your eggs in one basket, so we have to ensure that that basket is as reliable as possible,"says Chris Paulen, director of product development for U S West !nterprise Networking.

Like others pursuing similar multiservice strategies, U S West is answering that reliability and quality of service concern by looking to asynchronous transfer mode as the mechanism for meshing its networks together.

"We're really trying to move more and more of our services onto an ATM core," Paulen says. "We see ATM as a strategic backbone technology for us to integrate disparate services. It gives us the optimum savings and transmission efficiencies."

But the carrier has probably been most aggressive in the DSL area, recently unveiling a line of asymmetrical DSL-based MegaBit services in more than 20 cities in its region. U S West's data network is powered primarily by ATM and Internet protocol-based equipment from Cisco Systems, and the carrier recently struck an alliance with Cisco and Dell Computer to equip Dell computers with high-speed DSL modems and market them to U S West customers.

U S West also recently became one of the first Bell companies to pursue in-region long-distance when it struck a hotly contested deal with Qwest Communications to market that carrier's long-distance service to U S West customers.

U S West's affiliations with Cisco and with Qwest-which operates a backbone network based entirely on IP-are likely harbingers that the Bell company will continue to embrace IP more and more firmly as it becomes more reliable and more ubiquitous.

"You really need a network that supports multiple products and services," Paulen says, noting that an increasing number of end user applications are based on IP. "As that happens, we can move more toward an IP-specific network."