Also: Corio updates its hosting platform
Sprint is exiting the wholesale dial-up Internet access business by selling it to Level 3 Communications for $34 million. The deal includes all of Sprint’s wholesale customers, mainly service providers, and much of Sprint’s dial-up infrastructure, including modem banks. Sprint also revealed it is now outsourcing all its dial-up Internet access network support to Level 3 in a separate deal. Sprint will continue to bill and offer customer support to its business dial-up customers, but all users are being migrated to Level 3’s network. The acquisition boosts Level 3’s growing dial-up Internet access network. The carrier has recently bought a handful of networks from service providers such as ICG and Genuity. Level 3 says the Sprint deal will allow it to reach smaller markets where it currently does not offer service.
Application service provider Corio last week upgraded its hosting platform for enterprise applications to offer customers the ability to automate common tasks and to test new or enhanced applications before deploying them. Applications on Demand 2005 lets administrators perform 20 common tasks – such as migrating an object or deleting a printer – from their desks, instead of having to submit a request to Corio, the company says. By avoiding the request process, customers can execute these tasks more quickly and economically, according to the company. The upgraded platform also offers testing suites to customers who don’t have the infrastructure to effectively work the kinks out of a new program. These testing suites can be used and paid for on an as-needed basis. The new version also keeps customers up to date on compliance with federal regulations such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Pricing for Corio services, which are based on a monthly rate and vary based on application, remain unchanged.
