MCI to use HP's total tester

MCI's field service personnel soon will be able to test ISDN, T-1, frame relay and other services through a single test unit, helping the carrier simplify installation and speed repair work.

MCI will use Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Internet Advisor units and specialized testing modules to support and troubleshoot a wide variety of circuits used for data communications. Internet Advisor will allow service personnel to use a single tool kit instead of an assortment of devices, saving the service provider money and making testing easier.

"In the past, if you wanted to test for service A, you needed box A, and service B required box B and so on," said Brian Main, senior manager for technical support at MCI. "By having one tool that does it all, we realized a significant cost savings."

The HP Internet Advisor family of tools can anticipate and diagnose problems on fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, fiber distributed data interface and ATM networks. The system's analysis software simplifies identification and resolution of network problems by capturing and decoding network traffic. It then presents this data in an intuitive, graphic format and suggests possible error causes and solutions.

The advent of competition has placed a greater emphasis on quality of service, Main said. To address this, the system's capabilities extend beyond the traditional carrier world to include testing features for enterprise-style problems. "Around 40% of [MCI's] problems are in reality customer problems," said Main. "We need to sort those out as fast and as effectively as possible."

These features also could allow MCI to extend its network management offerings in the future without requiring new test tools, said Rick Cornetti, product manager at HP.