AT&T Monday announced
it is expanding its frame-relay services, giving customers the opportunity
to have local, long distance and global frame relay services all on the
same bill.
The company said the service is geared to businesses using client-server
applications over their intranets
Frame relay offers packet-switching protocols for connecting devices
on a wide area network. It connects LANs and provides data transport
for Internet protocol services. AT&T said the service is ideal for
companies needing relatively inexpensive bursts of bandwidth. Speeds of up
to 45 megabits per second are supported.
AT&T said it will offer local frame relay service in 40 U.S. cities by the
end of this year. Chicago, Indianapolis and Milwaukee will get the service
first, with the other cities coming online in 1999.
Bob Annunziata, president of AT&T Business Services, said the service
provides a single platform, single bill, and single customer service
provider.
“Today is the day that business customers have been waiting for — the day
that one provider gives them local, national and global frame relay all on
one bill, on a single high-performance backbone, with one customer service
number.
“Adding local frame relay to our portfolio of business services also allows
us to more effectively serve customers who have local-only frame relay or a
mixture of local and national/global service requirements,” he said.
While specific pricing has yet to be determined by public utility
commissions, Noone expects costs to range from $255 to $1100 for 56 Kbps to
T1 speeds. Pricing for single ports includes access and costs remain the
same even if businesses use a different exchange company other than AT&T.
Bob Annunziata, president of AT&T business services said, “Adding local
frame relay to our portfolio of business services also allows us to more
effectively serve customers who have local-only frame relay or a mixture of
local and national/global service requirements.”
