Qwest this week is scheduled to unveil bundled data offerings designed to give customers more control over their WAN services.

Under Qwest's iQ Networking product line, customers will be able to select from four managed or unmanaged packages that combine VoIP, firewall, intrusion detection, remote access and hosting services across an IP/Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) backbone. Customers select a certain quality-of-service level depending on the bundle, as well as port speed and access type.

The rationale for Qwest iQ Networking is that customer buying behavior is shifting from technology selection toward end-to-end WAN services that support business applications. As a result, companies do not want to sign separate contracts with distinct service-level agreements (SLA) for the various access services - frame relay, DSL, ATM, Ethernet - they require, Qwest says.

With Qwest iQ Networking, customers sign one contract for a bundle of services accessible from various access technologies with end-to-end performance guarantees, regardless of access or egress service, Qwest says. Like the consumer voice bundles carriers offer, Qwest iQ Networking data services are discounted when purchased in a bundle vs. a la carte.

The company says it can provide these guarantees for traffic that leaves the Qwest IP network for the domestic IP networks of AT&T, Level 3 Communications, MCI and Sprint; and for the global networks of international carrier partners such as British Telecom, Equant and Infonet.

Qwest iQ Networking will compete with MCI's Private IP and AT&T's IP-Enabled Frame Relay/ATM VPN offerings, which are also enabled by MPLS. Qwest says its product surpasses those offerings by providing universal access options and simplified pricing, among other features.

"Those [competitor offerings] are just more stovepipes," says Eric Bozich, vice president of IP Connectivity and Security Services at Qwest. "They are not access agnostic and there's no end-to-end ownership" of SLAs.

But one of Qwest's challenges will be to prove it can provide SLA guarantees for off-net traffic, says Ron Kaplan, research manager at IDC.

"We'll have to see how that works," Kaplan says. "There are more possibilities for failures [with multiprovider networking in the equation]. It's one of the most challenging things they're trying to do."