Vienna, Va. - Cable & Wireless, Inc. has introduced a managed ISDN dial backup service to provide users with an alternate local route to the long-distance carrier's network.
The service is aimed at frame relay users but can be used for backup access to any long-distance service. As part of the service, Cable & Wireless will configure, install and manage ISDN terminal adapters and network termination devices from Adtran, Inc.
The long-distance company also will order and coordinate installation of ISDN Basic Rate Interface circuits from local exchange carriers (LEC).
In the event of an outage in the primary local access line - typically a T-1 or other dedicated access pipe - Cable & Wireless automatically will reroute the user's traffic to the ISDN circuits. Those circuits can include a combination of bearer channels that total up to 512K bit/sec.
Cable & Wireless did not disclose the price of the managed ISDN backup service. In addition to the monthly service price, users must pay nonrecurring in-stallation charges imposed by the LEC. However, as part of the service, Cable & Wireless pays usage charges generated by activation of the backup ISDN channel.
Users of the ISDN backup service enjoy a higher network availability guarantee from the carrier. Ordinarily, Cable & Wireless guarantees 99.7% uptime on an end-to-end connection. The ISDN backup service lifts that guarantee to 99.9%, said Larry Wolter, director of product management for Cable & Wireless' data and bandwidth services.
But because most outages occur in the local loop, he explained, the availability of alternate routes enables a higher end-to-end guarantee.
Analysts said Cable & Wireless is one of the first U.S. carriers to formally offer to manage such a service nationwide, although other carriers do it on a case by case basis.
Some noted that services such as this are unnecessary. Users do not necessarily have to buy a managed service to gain these advantages, said Tom Jenkins, a broadband consultant at TeleChoice, Inc. in Verona, N.J. ISDN terminal adapters in several long-distance carriers' points of presence will activate user-provisioned ISDN backup circuits in the event of a cut in the primary dedicated access line, Jenkins said.
Cable & Wireless: (703) 905-7000.
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