DSL provider MegaPath extends reach

Broadband provider MegaPath Networks revealed recently that it has signed partnership agreements with all four regional Bell operating companies, letting MegaPath offer enterprise customers a wider geographic reach.

MegaPath also has partnership arrangements with several competitive DSL providers.

Although MegaPath is a broadband provider, the company doesn't have any DSL access multiplexers. Instead, it buys wholesale DSL connections from partners and terminates them on its own IP switches located in central offices. MegaPath then routes that DSL traffic over its IP network.

MegaPath's value proposition to customers is that it offers a wider geographic reach than any single DSL provider, packaged with a service-level agreement and one point of contact, says Dan Foster, a senior vice president at MegaPath. The reach is a major benefit when going up against competitors such as AT&T and UUNET, he says.

Enterprise clients don't seem to be too concerned about which DSL technologies MegaPath uses to reach their offices, Foster says. MegaPath could wind up patching together a network using symmetrical DSL from Covad Communications for offices in some areas, and asymmetrical DSL from the RBOCs in other areas.

"As long as you can manage the service-level agreement, they tend to be happy," he says.

One such customer is RadioShack. The home electronics retailer relies on MegaPath to connect 2,400 of its stores across the country to customer and sales information stored on mainframes at the company's data center. The connections also help RadioShack showcase its Microsoft MSN Internet Access service in-store for potential customers.

RadioShack decided to go with MegaPath as its DSL provider at the recommendation of MSN, says Evelyn Follit, CIO of RadioShack. RadioShack previously relied on DSL provider NorthPoint Commmunications for its DSL connections, and the company was left scrambling for a new provider when NorthPoint declared bankruptcy and turned off its network in early 2001.

What RadioShack likes about its relationship with MegaPath is that there's only one point of contact for problem resolution and project management, Follit says.

While many DSL providers have gone out of business in the past year, Follit is confident MegaPath won't join the ranks of the bankrupt. MegaPath has backing from MSN, she adds.

"And as they add relationships with the incumbent carriers, we gain more confidence in them," she says.

While MegaPath's specialty is DSL, the company also offers traditional connections such as T-1 lines. The company has rolled out some IP VPNs in parts of the country and plans to roll out the service more broadly later this year.