MCI Communications Corp confirmed that it will launch its US-wide HyperStream Asynchronous Transfer Mode service in December: it says an important feature of its HyperStream ATM Service is the planned internetworking with other MCI wide-area data services, enabling customers to integrate their current services with Asynchronous Mode while protecting infrastructure investments; MCI expects to introduce Frame Relay and Switched Multi-Megabit Data Services interoperation with HyperStream ATM Service in 1995 and the service will offer scalable access at a range of speeds including 1.5Mbps, 45Mbps and up to 155Mbps; the network backbone will be mainly based on Synchronous Optical Network with 155Mbps trunks; the company says the service is also expected to be the first to offer virtual paths, which enable users to configure their own virtual channels between locations from their in-house equipment rather than going through a provisioning process with MCI; it will initially offer flat-rate pricing but will follow up with both flat-rate and usage-based billing options; and, as reported, the Apex switches represent a big pay-day for Middlebury, Connecticut-based General DataComm Industries Inc.
