Sprint Corp, Kansas City, Missouri has expanded its global public Frame Relay network to include Canada, France and Germany, and plans to add a further 25 countries by the end of the year. The service currently covers the UK and US only. The Sprint service provides a committed information rate, guaranteeing a minimum sustained throughput. Users are charged a flat rate for this committed information rate, although the service supports sustained bursting above this level, up to the full access channel capacity, at no extra cost. The top access speed is up to 256Kbps, depending on local network facilities. According to Leigh Saunders, director of emerging and strategic services for Sprint International, the proprietary switches used for the network can handle usage-based tariffing, but users prefer fixed-rate costs. Later, when we have more options ISDN, for example – we may have more of a market for occasional users, she said. The company has not yet announced pricing for the service. However, Ms Saunders said that in some cases, costs will be less than half that of a leased line.
