Cable firms cloud AT&T's VPN vision

AT&T says it wants to make IP VPN services available to all customers, including those using broadband cable services. But the company, which has spent nearly $100 billion during the past few years to build a cable network empire, claims its plan is encumbered by other cable providers that restrict business traffic over their networks.

AT&T is testing its cable IP VPN service in just two markets claiming that so-called acceptable use policies (AUP) from other cable providers are forcing it to move slowly. An AUP, similar to an ISP's "terms of service," outlines rules for using a provider's cable modem Internet access service.

Caught in the middle are network executives who want ubiquitous access to corporate IP VPNs, regardless of whether end users are served by cable modem, DSL or other access services.

"We have been looking at using cable and DSL to link up employees with the high-speed service that's available in their area," says Rich Gay, IS director at Linbeck Construction in Houston, which is in the midst of an IP VPN migration. "The cable companies are still clueless about what customers really need."

While users with cable modem services at up to 1M bit/sec may want to link to their corporate networks from home, cable providers have varying levels of restrictions that either dissuade or prevent the practice.

AT&T's legal department says AUPs from companies such as Comcast Online Communications, Cox Communications and even MediaOne (which AT&T Broadband owns) will prevent AT&T from rolling out an IP VPN cable service as a bundled offering, as it would like to. Instead, AT&T plans to offer the service where users will order their own cable modem Internet access and AT&T will provide the VPN support, says Jonathan Cohen, director of advanced IP network services at AT&T. By having users order cable service on their own, the question of AUP violation is not on AT&T's shoulders.

"Managed IP services over a cable network are at least another 18 months to two years away," says Michael Paxton, senior analyst at Cahners In-Stat Group. "Most cable modem users today are Web surfers, at least 95%."

That means fewer than 100,000 cable modem customers are using the service for business purposes.

And that's not likely to change any time soon, especially when companies such as Comcast make it more difficult.

Last year, Comcast changed its AUP, which now forbids VPN access on its @Home cable Internet access service.

"The policy shows a lack of understanding about how people need to access VPNs," says John Lawler, an analyst at Infonetics Research. The company should set bandwidth restrictions for customers, not application limits, he says.

But Comcast defends its position.

"People were using our service for commercial applications and it's a residential service," says Suzanne McFadden, national director of marketing for Comcast. The company was tipped off by customers calling into Comcast's support centers with questions about accessing VPNs, but claims that less than 1% of its customers were accessing VPNs.

"We didn't anticipate people would use the service this way," she says.

Despite the fact that all cable modem services run over a shared network, Comcast is not claiming that business traffic would hog too much net capacity. Rather, the company's position is that business users should pay for a business service.

Comcast points would-be VPN customers to its business Internet access service, @Work Pro. This service costs $95 per month, about $40 to $50 more per month than Comcast's @Home service. The added monthly cost does not get users a faster service or performance guarantees.

Business and residential customers are on the same network, with the same bandwidth capabilities of up to 1M bit/sec downstream and 28K bit/sec upstream. Business users are not offered more IP addresses or better management capabilities.

While Cox and AT&T Broadband claim their AUPs do not forbid business traffic, both stress that their services are residential offerings. AT&T Broadband says it would not prevent telecommuters from accessing their corporate VPNs, but would restrict a user from connecting a VPN server to its residential cable modem service.

Although these two providers' AUPs are not as strict as Comcast's, AT&T's legal group is still uncomfortable with the "intended for residential use" language. Such AUPs severely limit AT&T's ability to reach at least 28 million users, or roughly half of the market. Comcast and Cox have six million customers each. AT&T Broadband has 16 million.

AT&T's cable IP VPN service trial is using an IP Security client on a customer's PC and an AT&T-developed Linux gateway that sits at a user's corporate site, Cohen says. AT&T is testing the service over cable networks in New England and Texas. But it is up to the customers to order and maintain their own cable modem Internet access service.

Others are forging ahead with VPN service plans for business users.

Cox Business Services is set to launch an IP VPN service by the end of May. The company is using NetScreen Technologies' NetScreen-5 VPN appliance at customer sites during a trial period and will likely use the same equipment when it rolls out the service.

"We certainly do not want to restrict our customers from using VPNs, but we do see a teleworker as a business user that's located in a residence," says Rich Mazurek, senior data product manager at Cox Business Services.

But unlike Comcast, Cox does not claim to patrol its cable network to find customers who are using its residential services to access a corporate VPN. Cox recommends teleworkers use its existing Cox@Work Internet access offering, because it provides higher levels of service, he says.

"For our business customers, we would hop in a truck at 2 o'clock in the morning if they were to lose their service," he says.

Cox guarantees it will respond to an outage within four hours and provides Internet domain name hosting, managed e-mail applications and corporate billing.

As if AUPs aren't confusing enough, AT&T Broadband has yet another take on business usage. The outfit, which AT&T is looking to spin off into a separate company, is fine with teleworkers accessing corporate VPNs. The provider does not allow its residential cable modem customers, which use the @Home service, to connect servers to its network to set up a VPN, but it does not restrict VPN access, says Manish Malhotra, director of broadband business service at AT&T.

AT&T Broadband is offering business cable modem Internet access service in five cities, which might explain why the company is more tolerant of teleworkers on its residential service. The company does not have a widely available business offering to push on @Home users if they want to access a corporate VPN on a regular basis.

Cable companies want to attract business users to their services, but don't seem to have the know-how to support such offerings, In-Stat's Paxton says. And if cable broadband services will not be a serious option for business users, that limits service choice for telecommuters and small-office workers.

Even though services such as DSL have problems, especially when it comes to installation, Paxton says business users can expect more robust service options in the near term.

"There will be DSL IP VPN services way before there are cable IP VPN services," he says.

Cable firms cloud AT&T's VPN vision

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