Sprint ATM customers got a double enticement last week -- a voice-over-ATM service that lets them push data as well as voice traffic over one line and a service-level agreement guaranteeing a restored network connection within four hours of an outage.

Sprint is billing its voice-over-ATM offering as a step on the path to its heavily touted, yet largely invisible, Integrated On-demand Network (ION) service.

"This would let a customer get a taste of what ION will provide," says Melody Allen, a group manager with Sprint.

Sprint has been boasting about ION, which provides voice, video, data and IP services over an ATM backbone, since 1998. But the company has not announced many ION customers since then.

The voice-over-ATM service connects Sprint ATM customers to Sprint's DMS 250 long-distance voice network through Nortel Passport public switched telephone network gateways.

Sprint had been offering customers another voice-over-ATM service, but it relied on customer premises equipment and could only be used for interoffice voice traffic.

Allen says the new service is geared toward large corporate and institutional users, but could also fit into the plans of some smaller organizations. Customers using the service would still pay their normal voice fees and ATM network access fees, but would save money by eliminating their separate voice-access charges. Customers would also have to pay a small gateway fee, Allen says.

Sprint already has approximately 50 large customers using either the voice-over-ATM service or a similar ION service. The main difference between the two offerings is that ION includes more features and management options, says Greg Gordon, Sprint's director of emerging services.

Rob Carlson, an analyst with consultancy Current Analysis in Sterling, Va., says the voice-over-ATM offering should appeal to companies already running on Sprint's ATM network.

Sprint's new SLA for its frame relay and ATM customers expands on the provider's existing 100% availability SLA.

"We saw some customer concern over if there was an outage how quickly Sprint would get to it," says Joe Kimball, group manager of data services.

Internally, Sprint had a benchmark of four hours to repair outages. Now it has made that benchmark a guarantee. If Sprint does not repair an outage in four hours or less, customers will receive credits on their bills.

» posted by ITworld staff

Network World

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