Start-up carriers make converged services pitches

Two upstart carriers will use free or cut-rate 'Net access as a carrot to lure small and midsize businesses to sign up for new services that carry voice and data traffic over a single link.

In separate efforts, 2nd Century Communications and Urban Media are rolling out bundled services, with 2nd Century letting customers burst above their dedicated Internet access speed for free, and Urban offering 200K bit/sec Internet access at no charge.

Receiving voice and data services over a single trunk line can save customers money by eliminating the need to pay for separate access lines. It can also be more convenient than dealing with both a local phone company and an ISP.

The bundled offerings, among the first designed for small and midsize companies, feature local phone service prices that depend on the going rates in different markets. Long-distance is also included in the services.

2nd Century feeds customer sites via traditional T-1 circuits. It installs Vina Technologies integrated access devices at customers' sites. These devices have analog voice ports to handle phone connections and 10/ 100M bit/sec Ethernet ports to the sites' LANs.

Both voice and data are sent back via ATM to 2nd Century's switching office. Switches from AFC and Convergent dump voice traffic onto the public phone network, and Internet traffic is sent to an ISP.

While the network embraces cutting-edge technologies, it also relies on relatively untested equipment companies, notes Tim Smith, an analyst with DataQuest. "That's a risk they take as they go to market," Smith says.

2nd Century will sell to any customer in its service areas, which initially includes Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Boston; Houston; Jacksonville, Fla.; Orlando; Miami; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh and Tampa, Fla.

The Global Companies has upgraded its voice and data networks by switching to 2nd Century and is saving money to boot. For example, Global has gone from 28 to 38 phone lines at its St. Petersburg, Fla., site and pays $250 per month less than it did before, says Don Holcomb, Global's vice president of operations.

As for Urban, the carrier runs fiber from the basement of buildings to each tenant floor and multiplexes voice and data onto T-3 trunks back to its switching offices.

Urban sells only to businesses located in office buildings owned by a network of associated property-management companies. The carrier is rolling out services in Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, and the San Francisco Bay and Washington, D.C., areas.

Urban isn't saving customer Fort Point Partners any money over its alternatives, but Fort Point Vice President of Operations Mark Corrales says the carrier gets services installed faster and is more responsive to calls for help than other providers.

Both 2nd Century and Urban plan additional services, including application outsourcing, network management, virtual private networks and wireless LANs.

2nd Century: www.2ndcentury.com; Urban: www.urbanmedia.com