Global Capacity on Monday unveiled a new service solution that will allow business customers to migrate from legacy Frame Relay services to a private IP network solution.
Delivered through the virtual network operator's (VNO) automated access network platform, One Marketplace Access Exchange, Global Capacity will offer a Frame Relay solution that it says will give customers a way to simultaneously migrate their service while upgrading their network infrastructure to support new high-bandwidth services.
Given the diverse needs of every business customer, Global Capacity will develop a "multi-phase migration plan" that it says will help "customers manage all aspects of the planning and execution of this technology migration."
In working with customers looking for alternative network service solutions, Global Capacity will not only conduct an analysis of a customer's existing Frame Relay inventory, but also develop a migration plan, and project management and execution of the physical circuit migration. The service provider claims that this process will deliver three benefits: higher network capacity, better QoS, and lower cost per Mbps.
While the near-term opportunity for the solution is to help businesses migrate away from Frame Relay, Global Capacity's One Marketplace Access Exchange will provide them with an automated solution for access network pricing, ordering, provisioning and delivery of new services it can deliver through its relationships with hundreds of service providers interconnected to the platform.
Such a platform will likely resonate with multisite business customers that have a diverse set of sites in U.S. and international locations.
This offering comes at a time when the major telcos and IXCs (Internet exchange carriers), including AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Sprint (NYSE: S), are signaling they want to discontinue Frame Relay services in favor of new offerings like Ethernet. For many existing business customers this means either agreeing to upgrade to their service provider's IP service platform or choosing an alternative provider.
Verizon in particular has been outspoken about shutting down its ATM and Frame Relay networks. However, even though the service provider has been aggressively upgrading its network to provide next-gen IP-based Ethernet services, it still has a large base of ATM and Frame Relay customers.
During the 15th Annual Oppenheimer Technology, Internet and Communications Conference held in September, Fran Shammo, Verizon's Chief Financial Officer, said that despite having a large legacy service customer base the telco said it's not cost effective to support anymore.
"We can't continue to invest in those networks and we can't continue to dedicate resources to that platform," he said.
The major telcos' migration from Frame Relay to IP-based services like Ethernet continues to drain their near-term revenues.
Verizon in Q2 2012 reported that enterprise revenues were $3.8 billion, down 3.4 percent compared with Q2 2011. However, strategic service sales, including those via Terremark as well as Ethernet, were up 4.4 percent during the quarter.
For more:
- see the release
Show coverage: COMPTEL Fall 2012: Continuing coverage from Dallas
Related articles:
Global Capacity promotes COO Jack Lodge to president
Verizon's Shammo wants more enterprise customers to migrate to IP services