AT&T dives into metro Ethernet

ATLANTA - AT&T will become the first of the big three wide-area carriers to enter the Ethernet-based service game when it launches two offerings at NetWorld+Interop 2001 this week.

Even though AT&T will initially offer the services on a metropolitan basis only, the announcement is significant because it represents the largest carrier embracing a potentially disruptive technology. End-to-end Ethernet could ultimately trash the cost conventions of traditional wide-area datacom services, a fact that has caught the attention of many carriers.

For its part, AT&T is expected to introduce its Metro Ethernet and Managed Internet Service (MIS) Ethernet Access offerings. The Metro services will let users in 68 cities establish point-to-point Ethernet connections ranging in speed from 50M to 600M bit/sec. The MIS service will let users in AT&T's local markets access the Internet at up to 1G bit/sec.

Metropolitan Ethernet services offer users an alternative to standard SONET OC-3 or OC-12 services, says Nick Maynard, an analyst at The Yankee Group. There are fewer hassles handing off an Ethernet connection to a metropolitan or Ethernet network, and the cost is expected to be lower.

"There is every reason to believe that Ethernet services will become very popular," says Lisa Pierce, analyst with Giga Information Group and a Network World columnist. Users want bandwidth flexibility at lower costs, she says.

AT&T is not the first company to offer local Ethernet services. Yipes Communications, Cogent Communications and Telseon offer bargain-basement bandwidth to business users. Cogent, for example, is offering 100M bit/sec access links for $1,000 per month.

Pricing from long-haul providers is not expected to be as low, however. Large providers such as AT&T will launch Ethernet services and see how the market reacts, Maynard says. "The rates will be lower than OC services, but they won't offer disruptive pricing like Cogent," he says. AT&T won't detail its pricing.

AT&T's pricing may not be as aggressive as Cogent's because of its installed base of SONET users that the new Ethernet service providers don't have to worry about.

"The key benefits of the service is that users hand us an Ethernet signal directly. They don't need SONET equipment or expertise, which gives them a cost savings," says Chuck Lindow, product manager for MIS Ethernet Access. If they have a Gigabit Ethernet interface, customers can upgrade from 50M to 150M bit/sec or 300M to 600M bit/sec quicker than any Optical Carrier service, which would require new cards, he says.

AT&T is looking at Ethernet services in a phased approach, says Jennifer Nisendoff, AT&T's director of data products. "We are using some of the same network elements in the local network, like our multiservice platforms, and we are deploying Ethernet switches," she says. Nisendoff would not identify which vendors AT&T is using to support the services.

Today both services are only available in New York. AT&T says it's launching the services in a controlled introduction with general availability slated for the first quarter. The MIS Ethernet Access service will be launched in nine more cities by year-end, Lindow says. He says it will turn up in San Francisco next, but would not reveal the other cities.

Like other providers, AT&T is looking to team with third-party Ethernet local exchange carriers, or ELECs. "We are well down this road and have completed agreements with one provider," he says, but he would not name the carrier. The plan is to have "near national coverage as it makes sense."

Other camps

Rival WorldCom has Ethernet service plans of its own. The company has been testing metropolitan area and Internet access Ethernet services for about two months in Washington, D.C., and is in the process of provisioning beta version customers, says Dennis Richardson, director of access product marketing at the carrier.

The company expects the trial to continue for another couple of months. Richardson would not say when the service might be commercially available.

WorldCom will use its existing local fiber infrastructure to support the services, but Ralph Montfort, director of IP access services, stresses that national coverage is critical to success. Like AT&T, WorldCom will work with third-party providers to extend its reach.

Giga's Pierce estimates that WorldCom won't announce any Ethernet services until at least January. Trials always take longer than expected and it's late in the budget cycle for most carriers to get funding for new services. But WorldCom isn't too far behind its competitors.

Sprint, the third-largest telecommunications company, says it doesn't have any formal plans to offer Ethernet services in its metropolitan or long-haul networks, but Broadwing Communications is bullish on the service. Broadwing announced Ethernet service plans at the last NetWorld+Interop conference, in May (see www.nwfusion.com, DocFinder: 5985).

The company is expected to officially launch its point-to-point long-haul Ethernet service Oct. 1. This offering will let business users establish dedicated Ethernet links across Broadwing's fiber backbone. The company is using local Ethernet service provider Telseon to provision metropolitan connections.

Like its competitors, Broadwing would not reveal pricing, but users can expect to save up to 15% compared with SONET services, says Jamie Heinze, director of optical services. Customers will pay a flat fee for the dedicated bandwidth they choose, and that price will vary depending on how many fiber miles the traffic travels, Heinze says.

McAfee.com has signed up for the service and says the difference in price is only one of the benefits.

"I'll have a Gigabit Ethernet port at my front door where I can use as little or as much as I want on a real-time basis," says Doug Cavit, CIO at the Sunnyvale, Calif., security software company. With SONET you have to buy bandwidth in set increments and have to buy equipment each time you upgrade, he says.

McAfee is connecting its data center in Northern, Va., to its data center in Sunnyvale using Broadwing's point-to-point service. Broadwing is deploying Juniper M5 devices equipped with a Gigabit Ethernet card at customer locations to support the service.

The Broadwing service will initially be available in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Seattle, Miami and Denver. The company says it will use third-party local Ethernet service providers to reach additional cities.

More cities, more speed AT&T is introducing its first Ethernet services at NetWorld+Interop 2001 this week. Here are the details:
Service	Features	Availability
Metro Ethernet	Lets business users set up dedicated point-to-point metro-area connections at 50M, 150M, 300M or 600M bit/sec.	Currently in New York. Will be available in Q1 2002 to most of the 68 cities where AT&T has local high-capacity fiber optics.
Managed Internet Service Ethernet Access	Lets users set up dedicated Internet access connections to AT&T's backbone at speeds from 10M to 1G bit/sec.
Note: No pricing information available at this time.

Contact Senior Editor Denise Pappalardo

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