GTE hits the road

GTE Internetworking will announce this week that it is using its global network to spread Internet use beyond the desktop with a unified messaging product in the United States and an expansion of global Internet services to more than 30 foreign locations.

The unified messaging product will run over GTEI's national backbone and will direct voice mail, e-mail and faxes to a single mailbox accessed from a Web site via PC or any telephone. End users will be able to listen to e-mail over the phone or read voice mail on a computer. They will also be able to listen to the header of a fax and direct it to print at a nearby fax machine - potentially attractive to business travelers.

"We can provide that fax service because of our global network infrastructure," said Roger Smith, product manager for GTEI's IP telecom division. "Our national backbone allows us to provide transport throughout the country at minimal cost." The U.S. portion of that network includes 17,000 fiber miles that will be fully lit by the end of this year, capable of running at OC-192.

GTEI plans to wholesale unified messaging to Tier 2 and Tier 3 Internet service providers, who will brand it and retail it to subscribers for a flat rate - probably $15 to $20 a month, excluding Internet access.

"This is a new paradigm of any message, anywhere, any time, and for one flat price, as opposed to the usage-based services out there," says Matthew Kovar, a senior analyst with The Yankee Group. "The GTE backbone is an economic advantage that will make it difficult for other providers to compete on price for the same service."

The GTE global initiative fleshes out the February announcement of GTEI's Net.Alliance, a program to recruit international ISP partners to resell GTEI's services. Among services the telco is pushing is DiaLinx, a dial-up access program to more than 350 local points of presence in 30 Western European and Pacific Rim countries. Calls will be covered by service level guarantees of 97% busy-free dial, 95% call success rate and an initial modem connect speed of 24.6 Mb/s.

The carrier will also expand its VPN Advantage service to 39 countries outside the United States, where GTEI can offer field service and federal export licenses for encryption.

"We help the customer through the import-export process for encryption technology," said Robert McKinney, GTEI's director of VPN and Internet security services. "We don't send them off to a reseller to buy the box locally or make them buy it in the U.S. and ship it themselves." GTEI will offer regional or "zoned" global SLAs for virtual private network service too, guaranteeing availability and latency of dedicated or remote access connections based on the origin and destination points of a customer's call traffic.