MCI Corp has announced a US nationwide Sonet synchronous optical network, designed for data transfer that will link the metropolitan area networks of 22 US cities, and offer individual corporations data connections at up to 155Mbps speeds. The network, which is set to begin operation in mid 1998, is to be sold to corporates for point to point links on their private networks. MCI says that the new network is unusual because it will link up with MCI metropolitan area networks, and enable corporates to establish high speed fault tolerant links between their sites, thus avoiding the technical problems of traffic passing through a local exchange carrier network. MCI claims that the technology will enable it to offer service level agreements that are more competitive than the data services of its competitors. MCI is planning to announce the pricing structure for the service in the next few months.
