MFS/UUNet ply point-to-point ISDN

About a year ago, MFS Communications noticed ISDN capability going to waste. Although ISDN is a switched service, most people using it today deploy it as point-to-point technology. Internet users dial in to the same number, usually a local point of presence, every time.

So MFS partnered with Ascend Communications to devise a way to permanently connect users without going through a voice switch. Last week, MFS introduced its unswitched digital subscriber line service, which will be available in the first quarter of 1997 and priced at a flat rate between $50 and $150, depending on local competition.

Ascend announced the service as ISDN DSL two weeks ago (Telephony, Dec. 9, page 6). The service uses an ISDN modem to connect to a DSL card in the Ascend MAX data switch in the central office, bypassing the voice switch and alleviating Internet and data-heavy switches. MFS officials expect to add partners when other manufacturers see the benefits and add the capability to their switches.

"This is really the first product that comes out of the union of UUNet and MFS. UUNet didn't have the local loop, and MFS did. Together we can offer this new service," said James Crowe, MFS chairman and chief executive officer.

Although Bell regional holding companies don't have to do anything special for the new connection, they will still have to condition the lines for MFS just as they would for any regular ISDN service of their own. In some areas, wait times for ISDN lines are six months or longer.

However, MFS doesn't think it has problems with the RHCs and Independents. As Crowe and Ronald J. Vidal, vice president of new ventures for MFS, pointed out, the telcos have to follow the law. And the Telecom Reform Act says they have to give as many ISDN lines as they put up.

"We would buy an ISDN line," Vidal said. "They would hand that to us and we would switch it out, without going into the CO switch, by frame relay to the nearest POP and [Internet service provider].