ICG Dumps Netcom Subscribers

ICG/Netcom is getting out of the residential dial-up Internet access market. The company last week announced its intent to sell off Netcom's subscriber base while retaining the nationwide network infrastructure.

ICG expected to eliminate the residential dial-up part of Netcom's business, when the company acquired Netcom in January, according to Hank Carabelli, chief operating officer of ICG's telecom services group. ICG's plan was to "acquire a data network, so that when we start offering data products and services to our targeted telecom customers, we have a platform over which to offer those services," he said.

Three's company Compaq Computer is hoping to propel high-speed Internet links to consumers by teaming with several breeds of network operators and packing three broadband access methods into its personal computers.

Under its Triple Play program announced last week, the manufacturer is establishing partnerships with telcos, cable TV operators and satellite service providers to co-market high-speed Internet access. Compaq ultimately will equip its PCs with modems capable of providing access via digital subscriber line, cable modem or satellite links.

UUNet puts national bet on DSL UUNet, the Internet subsidiary of MCI WorldCom, will begin a nationwide rollout of digital subscriber line service that will reach 600 U.S. points of presence by March 1999 and 1000 by the end of that year.

The new service, announced by MCI WorldCom Vice Chairman John Sidgmore at Comdex last week, will bring high-speed Internet access to small businesses and, through UUNet's Internet service provider, to individual end users. America Online and EarthLink will begin trials of the service by the end of this year.

Bell Atlantic tries new long-distance route Bell Atlantic last week offered up a new plan to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities that the regional Bell operating company claims should allow it into the long-distance market. Competitors, however, said the proposal amounts to little more than a stalling tactic.

Responding to the findings of a July proceeding, Bell Atlantic's latest plan includes offers to combine network elements for residential service, develop a database to track service problems and offer computer connections directly into the RBOC's operations support systems.

Carriers follow Pan-European trend It's beginning to look like any international carrier that hasn't started putting together a Pan-European network soon will be an outcast, as Cable & Wireless and Qwest Communications last week joined the fray.

C&W announced a near-term plan to build a 155 Mb/s network connecting 10 cities and a five-year project to connect a total of 40 cities over dark fiber leased from Global Crossing. Qwest announced that it would build a fiber optic European network with Dutch telecom company KPN that will link to Qwest's North American network.

Ending the firewall nightmare for ISPs Check Point Software is betting on a New Year's resolution with its most recent offering, Provider-1, which lets service providers offer managed services and virtual private networks with little operational overhead. The vendor is hoping managed security services will be one of the biggest concerns of 1999 for Internet service providers' corporate customers.

In today's environment, managing customers' separate firewall policies is a network operator's nightmare. Provider-1, allowing ISPs to manage multiple security customers through a single server, puts the management functions into one unit while separating the individual requirements for each customer.

AT&T, TCI oppose cable unbundling AT&T and Tele-Communications Inc., in reply comments to the FCC last week, said that unbundling cable Internet service would severely jeopardize their $48 billion merger.

The comments came in response to suggestions by several competitors that the merger be approved only if certain conditions are met. America Online and MindSpring Enterprises Inc. in particular said that, if merged, the companies should allow other providers to offer Internet service to customers over TCI's cable lines. Currently TCI only offers service by bundling access with service from @Home Corp.

SS7, IP converge in proposed standard Voice over Internet protocol networks soon may reap the benefits of the SS7 network as the Internet Engineering Task Force moves forward on a new standards-based signaling protocol submitted by Nortel Networks.

Code-named IPS7, the proposed standard will create an open architecture that allows SS7 networks to interconnect with IP networks.

GTE offers Web e-mail worldwide GTE Internetworking said last week that, along with content provider iName, it would offer free e-mail accessible to anyone via the Web, becoming the first major telco to offer such a service worldwide.

"It's not enough to be a dial tone provider," said Michael Bolduc, director of product management for GTE Internetworking. "We want to take the next steps."

Bellcore, Level 3 merge IP gateway protocols Scientists at Bellcore and Level 3 Communications have agreed to combine their companies' specifications for linking Internet protocol gateways to legacy public switched networks.

The new specification, called the media gateway control protocol (MGCP), will be submitted for discussion at the Internet Engineering Task Force's December meeting. It could be implemented in gateways as early as next January.

Relief is on the way Aiming for a smooth transition after acquiring Stratus Computers, Ascend Communications is integrating the two companies' separate product lines to create platforms for the next generation public network. Less than six weeks after closing the deal, the company announced its first combined product, the Ascend SS7 Gateway.

Built on Stratus hardware and software, the product is the only standards-based SS7 gateway on the market, company executives claim. Initially, the company is positioning the product to relieve the congestion on the public network created by Internet dial-up customers. Internet calls are diverted over the gateway to the data network. The gateway, which works with Ascend's Max TNT WAN access switch, enables the switch to communicate with carriers' SS7 networks.