Sprint sprouts ION details

By Rebecca Sykes
IDG News Service, 12/08/98

Sprint yesterday outlined the offerings for its Sprint Integrated On-Demand Network (ION) for voice, data and video, which are slated to deliver business services beginning in January.

First announced last June, ION is designed to consolidate communications over a single network. The service offerings include Sprint ION for frame relay, ATM, voice and Internet services, according to Jeff Anderson, senior director of strategic development at Sprint.

To connect, customers will need an integrated services hub installed at their premises. Sprint will install and manage this at no charge to customers, Anderson said.

"They will have zero capital investment, both initially and over time," he said.

The ION service contains several different components. Access is priced at a flat monthly charge, which ranges in price depending on the local-loop charges in a given location, Anderson said. The price range for monthly access is expected to be from $300 to $1,200.

Transport charges will operate using the same structure as traditional services for the first six months so that customers can more easily compare the price difference, but in the third quarter of 1999 the transport charge will shift to a service-level structure, Anderson said.

"With a truly integrated network we will charge customers depending on the quality of service," Anderson said. "The customer can determine what level of service they want...and that will determine the pricing charge."

Sprint ION service will be rolled out to seven cities in January and will increase to 27 cities total by the end of the first quarter, Anderson said.

One stumbling block for Sprint, traditionally a long-distance carrier, has been gaining access to digital subscriber line (DSL) local loops without paying huge sums to local telcos. Sprint is doing a DSL build-out of its own and also is pushing telcos to offer Sprint service a line at a time over which Sprint can provide DSL, according to Mike McRoberts, director of next-generation network product management at Sprint.

However, one analyst said Sprint might be overly optimistic about the local-loop hurdles.

"It takes a lot more than an agreement to get a service actually rolled out," said Jilani Zeribi, an analyst with Current Analysis in Sterling, Va.

Sprint is "constantly announcing ION," but to be competitive the company needs to make the services available, especially because MCI WorldCom is already offering integrated services, Zeribi said. When the services do materialize, they will be valuable.

"The concept of having one point of contact for voice, video and data and having (Sprint) manage that end-to-end is...definitely what the industry is going to and what many customers want to hear from their carrier," Zeribi said.

Another analyst agreed that for certain users integrated communications services would be especially welcome.

"For high-bandwidth users who have been stymied in the past trying to get flexible broadband transport, I think this sort of network can have great appeal," said Lisa Pierce, a director at Giga Information Group in Cambridge, Mass.