Bell Atlantic monitors frame nets

NEWYORK - Bell Atlantic is bringing network management and monitoring into its mainstream frame relay offerings now and plans to do the same for ATM services later this year.

The firm has introduced FrameView, the first of a planned family of products called Managed Data Network Services. With FrameView, Bell Atlantic monitors customers' frame relay circuits full-time and gives customers access to Web-based reports about the performance of their circuits.

The service made it faster and easier to install frame relay links in Net.Work. Virginia, a statewide university ATM network, says Jeff Crowder, program director for the net at Virginia Tech University. Because Bell Atlantic installs the DSU/CSUs, the net just had to plug in its routers.

The DSU/CSUs are part of Visual Uptime, a system made by Visual Networks that gathers data about traffic flowing into and out of each node of customer networks and compiles the data into performance reports. Bell Atlantic offered a similar service, but it was priced on an individual-case basis. The new service is designed to make it easier for customers to have frame relay monitoring installed.

"[Bell Atlantic] had to do this. They're all worried that when [long-distance carriers] get going with local services, smaller customers will buy from them," says Melanie Posey, an analyst with International Data Group.

FrameView's price varies depending on the bandwidth a customer buys and how many virtual circuits are on each line. For example, service for a 56K bit/sec line with a three-year contract costs $75 per month. The same service with a five-year contract costs $65 per month. The prices are in addition to the cost of the circuits.

Bell Atlantic: www.bellatlantic.com