Carrier news briefs

Network World
February 03, 2003 12:08 AM ET

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The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved Level 3 Communications' planned acquisition of Genuity. Genuity announced it will lay off 700 to 800 more employees. Level 3 is expected to offer permanent positions to about 1,400 to 1,500 Genuity staffers, but the final number of employees is not guaranteed at this time. Level 3 announced its plans to acquire Genuity for $242 million in November as the ISP filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The companies expect the acquisition to close this month.
SBC last week launched a portfolio of managed services designed to appeal to midsize businesses that are thinking about outsourcing some or all their network and telecom needs. In the past, SBC has concentrated on selling managed services only to large businesses. SBC will market the services under the brand name PremierServ. The packages will include a number of options, including long-distance voice, local voice, Internet, data transport, managed customer premise equipment, hosting and security. Initial services will include ATM, frame relay, IP VPN, managed remote access services, e-services, video services, integrated access service, premise-based IP telephony and security. SBC will manage both LANs and WANs, including network equipment that customers own.
The MPLS Forum and Frame Relay Forum plan to merge their organizations to coordinate activities and gain operational efficiencies. Pending approval of members from both organizations, the merger should be completed by March 31. Association Management Solutions, manages both forums and is looking to align their technical directions. Frame relay access to a Multi-protocol Label Switching network core is coming into vogue in the industry.

Read more about lans & wans in Network World's LANs & WANs section.