Sprint plans to deploy a “government grade” private IP network by June that the telecom giant hopes will be attractive to federal agencies. The network will offer virtual LAN, virtual private networks and voice over IP but will not be connected to the public internet.
Mimicking its SprintLink system, intranet will use dedicated routers to move traffic over Sprint’s proprietary network. No traffic will be routed to other networks and Sprint will provide the local loop at the government agencies. Sprint says the network will be marketed to government agencies with security concerns.
According to several industry analysts, Spring is the first company to offer a private IP network to government agencies. A Sprint spokesman said government employees using the private network would have to switch to a public backbone to send outside e-mail or surf the Web, but the employees won’t be able to detect the switch in networks.
Sprint is promoting the efficiency of IP networks over frame-relay networks and ATM networks.