Paris - A new ATM service from Global One is aimed at multinational companies that want to connect branches in different countries via a managed high-speed telecommunications and data network.
Global One, the joint telecommunications venture between Sprint, France Telecom SA and Deutsche Telekom AG, has launched the Global ATM service in 13 countries, including the U.S., Canada, Belgium, Denmark, Israel and Japan.
The Global ATM service can carry voice, data and Internet services simultaneously at up to 155M bit/sec. Ideally, the service will save companies money because they can integrate their existing data networks, such as frame relay and leased-line voice networks, into one ATM network, Global One says. The other user benefits are increased reliability and service guarantees, the company says.
Global One will monitor the Global ATM service 24-7. Network automation software carries out fault protection, proactive monitoring, testing and diagnosis, and automatic corrective actions. Global One will also offer local support services on a 24-7 basis.
Behind Global One's ATM service is a newly unified global network of about 100 Magellan ATM switches from Nortel Networks, which incorporates Sprint's Nortel domestic ATM network. The switches are being used for more than the Global ATM service.
Just as Sprint in 1997 moved its domestic frame relay service to the Nortel domestic backbone to offer new classes of frame relay service, Global One has moved its Global Frame Relay service to the Nortel international backbone, says Tim Colis, Global One's director of product management.
The result is better frame relay and ATM integration. For example, Global One now has nine Nortel switches in the U.K. alone, shortening the access links that users must purchase to reach the international backbone. In other countries, though, there is still only one Nortel switch and a connection must be made between the Global One international backbone and the domestic ATM network using other switches.
Access speeds for Global ATM will begin at T-1 and rise to OC-3, with Global One supporting ATM Inverse Multiplexing for users who don't want to make the leap from T-1 all the way to T-3 when traffic grows. One hole remains: Global One does not yet support international frame relay-to-ATM interworking so users can pick frame relay at some sites and ATM at others without having to construct two separate international WANs. That ability is coming in 1999, Colis says.
Global One declined to disclose prices for Global ATM.
Essick is a correspondent with the IDG News Service in Paris.
RELATED LINKS
More details of Global One
from Sprint
AT&T, BT customers to gain from alliance
Network World, 8/3/98.
