Carriers unite to span continent

Three relatively obscure carriers have formed an alliance and agreed to link their respective ATM backbones to form an OC-12 network spanning 21,000 route miles across the U.S. and Canada.

Together, the InterconX alliance members - IXC Communications, Inc., American Communications Services, Inc. (ACSI), and Canadian carrier Fonorola - can compete with the big boys, said David Parham, principal with Parham Associates, a network consultant in Wichita Falls, Texas.

When Parham set up a frame relay network for Barber Trucking Co. connecting five cities in Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri, IXC beat out AT&T and others because it offered the best price overall.

But Barber also wanted to tie in a location in Montana, which was beyond IXC's service area. IXC could have linked the Montana site, but the service provider would have had to buy the connection from another carrier at a prohibitive cost, Parham said.

With the InterconX alliance, the chances of running into that type of problem are reduced, Parham said.

The three companies will not develop a joint product line, but rather will use each others' networks to expand the reach of their own. They will work together to run and manage their networks as one, but will remain independent when it comes to marketing, sales and pricing. They could conceivably even bid against each other on the same projects, members said. The carriers agreed to pay each other a set amount for network resources they use, and those prices are below what the alliance members would have to pay other unaffiliated carriers.

Each will continue to offer its existing portfolio of services, which include dedicated lines as well as frame relay and ATM. IXC and ACSI also are planning to offer voice over IP.

Each of the three carriers already had expansion plans and is proceeding ahead with them, but the carriers decided to band together because they could grow their service territory faster by sharing.

IXC, ACSI and Fonorola all anchor their networks with Newbridge Networks, Inc. ATM switches. They also use a common management platform that allows them to provision designated ports on each others switches as if they were in their own network.

IXC: (800) 984-9253; ACSI: (888) 398-2271; Fonorola: (514) 954-3666