AT&T Corp has announced a set of private label IP service aimed at ISPs or companies that want to appear to be offering their own ISP service. The packages include web hosting and co-location, dial-up and virtual ISP services, as well as a global IP transit service aimed at ISPs and PTTs. The dial-up technology comes from IBM Corp’s Global Network, which AT&T is in the process of acquiring, the transit is a combination of AT&T and IBM’s networks, while the hosting and co-location services are pure AT&T.
AT&T says the target market for these private label services is very broad, ranging from PTTs and top-tier ISPs, through web portals, PC manufacturers to enterprises. It says the minimum number of dial-up subscribers required for the virtual ISPs is 50,000 to start with, but expects that number to fall as the services are rolled out.
Under the banner of virtual ISP services AT&T will offer dial-up access though 1,300 PoPs worldwide, growing to 2,000 by the year- end as IBM and AT&T’s networks are combined. AT&T is offering options such as POP3 email, personal web pages, toll-free and ISDN access and an internet dialer branded with the virtual ISP’s brand. It is a similar service to PC company Gateway Inc’s gateway.net ISP, which uses MCI WorldCom Inc’s UUNet as the underlying ISP. AT&T says it can start taking orders for the virtual ISP service in June.
The co-location services include managed or self-managed web servers in AT&T’s co-location centers in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Amsterdam, where customers will be able to connect directly to AT&T’s backbone. These services are available now. The IP transit services offers ISPs and PTTs connection to its backbone at speeds ranging from 2 Mbps to 155 Mbps at any of the company’s 600 POPs in the US, as well as points in the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Caribbean and Latin American PoPs will be added in the third quarter of this year. The deal also includes full customer support and secondary DNS services.
