Later-And Maybe Better: AT&T adds its integrated network strategy to the mix

AT&T may be a little late in joining rival interexchange carriers on the integrated network wave, but its organized scheme and the breadth of facilities the carrier controls should help it make up for lost time.

The company used the ComNet forum in Washington, D.C., last week to showcase its Integrated Network Connection plan, an architecture that will ultimately allow voice, frame relay, asynchronous transfer mode, private line and Internet protocol traffic to be groomed onto a single link to business customers. The architecture inches the carrier farther over the customer edge by including an AT&T-owned and managed ATM multiplexer that sits at the customer premises (see figure).

The INC scheme appears to be AT&T's answer to Sprint's Integrated On-Demand Network plan and MCI WorldCom's On-Net architecture. But the extensive local capabilities AT&T gained through its Teleport Communications Group acquisition should help the carrier better address the question of how it will provide access to business customers.

AT&T plans to rely on several access methods that will decrease its reliance on reselling local exchange carrier T-1 (1.54 Mb/s) links. Those will include direct fiber links and broadband wireless facilities via the 38 GHz licenses it owns in 215 markets, said Bob Annunziata, president of AT&T Business Services.

We have more fiber built to more buildings so we can utilize our own local network," he said. "Other companies don't have as [many] buildings on-net as we do."

The INC scheme, which is in trial now and will be generally available in the second half of this year, is expected to support up to 40 voice calls together with 512 kb/s of data traffic. In its initial format, however, INC will support only voice, frame relay and IP traffic-private line and ATM capabilities will not come until later.

One analyst said the amount of local facilities AT&T already owns should help drive down the cost of offerings based on INC. The bandwidth management characteristics AT&T is proposing also set its plan apart, said Lisa Pierce, director of telecom services and carrier analysis for Giga Information Group. "It's a fully managed offering where the carrier puts the ATM device in the premises and manages it, and the ATM device automatically reconfigures between voice and data," Pierce said. "Sprint's ION doesn't seem to do that right now; it seems to have a more static configuration."

Like other carriers' integrated network schemes, however, AT&T's was somewhat sketchy around the question of premises equipment-particularly in terms of how much it would cost, which party would absorb the cost and what vendors would supply the gear. Tim Murray, vice president of business network services at AT&T, said many of those factors will vary depending on customers' individual needs and usage.

"Customers will move to a converged access technology based on what's in it for the customer," Murray said. "Our expectation is [that] customers will adopt this technology on a location-by-location basis. We don't expect everyone to convert to this overnight."

AT&T also announced that it is offering a new virtual private network service that provides frame relay performance levels for IP applications.

"A business can get frame-like performance and security for IP applications and do so with fewer [permanent virtual circuits]," Annunziata said.