More users cite Verizon capacity problems

Verizon's intercentral office fiber shortage in parts of Massachusetts, described in last week's issue (See article), appears to be affecting more than the two customers described in the original story.

One reader sent an e-mail saying his company should be added to the list of businesses waiting months for frame relay service. Another described a situation almost identical to the one in the original story.

Millipore, a Bedford, Mass., maker of purification products, won't be able to upgrade the frame relay network that connects its headquarters to its international branch offices until next year.

Millipore ordered T-1 lines from Sprint in July, says Keith White, senior communications engineer with Millipore. The lines originally were scheduled to be installed in September but were delayed because of the Verizon strike.

After the strike, the installation dates were set back again.

"Suddenly the two-week strike turned into a two-month backlog, which seemed strange," White says.

Finally in October, after multiple calls to Sprint, White says he was told "unofficially" that Verizon had run out of capacity and Millipore wouldn't be getting its new T-1s until 2001.

"No one has ever actually stated when we'll be getting them," White says. "They won't give us a precise date."

Millipore is getting by on its existing frame relay lines, but the company is in the process of moving to an Oracle 11i database, which will require more bandwidth for those tapping into it.

White expects the move to the new database will cause capacity problems.

White says Millipore is investigating the possibility of using broadband wireless technology from Teligent to increase its bandwidth.

"It's an interesting idea to try to get around Verizon," he says.

Unprecendented demand

Verizon spokesman Jack Hoey says the provider is aware of problems only with the two companies cited in last week's Network World story. But he adds he wouldn't be surprised if there were more cases.

"It's all connected to unprecedented demand for high-speed access of all kinds," he says. "In the last 22 months, we've built as much interoffice fiber as we'd built in the previous 100 years."

Hoey says Verizon should have the shortage under control by early next year.

Verizon wasn't the only carrier that received reader criticism.

One West Coast reader said that waiting a few months for a T-1 doesn't seem too horrible to him - because he's waiting until 2002 for a T-3 line.