Williams Targets ISPs: Transit Offering is First Step

Fiber network operator Williams Communications last week extended its wholesale-only strategy to the Internet service provider market, announcing a transit offering at T-1 to OC-3 rates. Transit agreements eliminate the need for smaller ISPs to negotiate peering agreements with other networks; instead ISPs reach those networks through their transit provider.

"Peering is out of reach to 95% to 98% of ISPs in the market today," said Matt Beal, product manager of IP services for Williams. "Providers like ourselves can deploy more economically and meet or exceed service parameters at prices lower than [ISPs] can do on their own."

Beal acknowledged that because Williams does not yet have a large customer base, it will not be able to obtain free peering agreements with the largest backbone providers. Instead Williams will use a mixture of paid peering and participate in new peering approaches, such as the brokered private peering initiative spearheaded by several smaller ISPs. As it continues to build out its network, Beal expects Williams to supply fiber routes to the larger ISPs and negotiate more favorable peering terms with them.

While agreeing that Williams' use of the latest technology may give it an edge on cost, Robert Cohen, president of Cohen Communications Group, said he sees a trend toward ISPs wanting to build their own infrastructure to ensure performance levels. "This is not a real panacea unless they have [service level agreements] they're going to keep to," he said.

Williams plans to add digital subscriber line, dedicated access and virtual private networks (VPNs) to its wholesale offerings in 1999. The VPN offering will include "Layer 2 and various flavors of Layer 3," said Beal.

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