WORLDCOM'S NEW NAPS CHASE AN AILING MARKET

WorldCom said last week that it has opened up two new public peering exchange facilities in New York and Chicago. Though the idea is to provide an alternative to Internet network access points (NAPs), the carrier's decision to focus on the peering needs of ISPs and ASPs — many of which are struggling for survival — is risky.

“The Chicago and New York [metropolitan area exchanges] will enhance the flow of traffic between service providers,” said Vinton Cerf, senior vice president of architecture and technology for WorldCom.

Service provider demand for higher data rates and more peering diversity were primary drivers for the new facilities, he added.

Improving conditions for ISP and ASP customers is more important than ever, according to David Gross, senior analyst at CIR. “The reality probably has a lot more to do with the long-term trend of dispersing traffic among a greater number of locations,” said Gross.

Because many NAPs are out of space, the move may be a logical one, especially considering that WorldCom's own UUNet unit has been known to reject peers. In addition, heavy traffic flowing into MAE East and MAE West has forced service providers to add more points, according to Gross.

One competitor, however, claimed the new points are superfluous.

“If you have an international airport and all the airlines are using the airport, does it make sense to open up another one across the street?” asked Jay Adelson, chief technical officer at Equinix, which operates seven Internet exchanges around the country.

In order to address the difficulty providers have in connecting to each other within its NAPs, WorldCom introduced Web-based software called PeerMaker. ISPs can log in independently, see which providers have connections and data rates, and then establish a peering connection without WorldCom's interaction. “Before, that had to be done manually,” Cerf said.

While most agree on the need for more public peering points, the new MAEs aren't likely to give WorldCom the financial boost it needs. “This isn't a prescription for a company turnaround,” Gross said.

However, WorldCom did make some strides last week to trim down its heavy debt load. It sold its customer premises equipment provisioning business and related maintenance operations to Allegiance Telecom for $30 million in cash.