Walk softly, carry a big guarantee

Quietly but confidently, AT&T announced several new services for its Internet users last week, saying it plans to become the leading Internet service provider for businesses.

AT&T WorldNet Business Services, announced at Networld+Interop '97 in Atlanta, is a mix of old and new. The business dial-up and intranet connect services were previously announced. But they and the Managed Internet Service (MIS), a high-speed, dedicated access service, are now being provided on the carrier's own Internet protocol backbone. Previously, AT&T had been offering Internet services through an arrangement with BBN Planet Corp.

"We want to provide the customer with the quality of service they expect when they see the AT&T logo," said Eric Wolford, marketing director for WorldNet. "Our strategy is to build [the network], test it and then announce it.'

AT&T WorldNet MIS supports private line, frame relay and integrated access where voice and data share the same T-1 line.

Now that it is using its own backbone, the carrier is offering a service availability guarantee. If a user's service is downfor 15 minutes or more, he or she will be credited for one day of service.

Even more significant, AT&T will launch a virtual private network service by the end of the year, said David Goodtree, director of telecom strategies at the Forrester Group. The service will include several guarantees concerning latency, dial-up port availability and trouble ticket responsiveness, he said. UUNet is expected to offer a similar service in February.

MCI FOLLOWS SVC PATH MCI has announced frame relay switched virtual circuit capability, following announcements earlier this year by AT&T and Sprint. The new Hyperstream service won the grand prize for Best of Show at Networld+Interop last week and will be available in December.

NORTEL TAILS NETSPEED Northern Telecom has announced a minority investment in DSL vendor NetSpeed, which will integrate its technology with Nortel's ATM infrastructure solutions.

STEPPED-UP SS7 Bellcore last week introduced the DCOS-2000, which lets carriers automate the collection, monitoring and analysis of data on the CCS or SS7 network, as well as the digital switched network. The new version of the DCOS-2000 monitors network service quality and capacity.