Sprint, in partnership with Nortel Networks, introduced a new metro optical connectivity service for "high-bandwidth" enterprise customers. SONS is an end-to-end managed solution that connects multiple metro locations via private ring-based networks while providing enterprise customers with high-speed, direct connectivity to the entire Sprint network. The managed service is especially targeted at large enterprises with offsite back-up requirements. Federal regulations that could set minimum requirements for the storage and recovery of sensitive data are looming in several vertical industry markets.
SONS customers will be able to choose DWDM, SONET, or a combination of both as the underlying transport technology. The service can carry voice, data, video, and multimedia traffic over a single, dedicated fiber. Capacity scales up to 32 channels of 10 Gbps traffic.
Sprint plans to make the service available across the U.S., with a focus on 12 major U.S. markets in 2003: New York City; Dallas; San Francisco; Chicago; Kansas City; Seattle; Houston; Minneapolis; St. Louis; Los Angeles; Atlanta; and Reston (VA).
SONS will use Nortel Networks' equipment, including its OPTera Metro 3000 and OPTera Metro 5000 Multiservice Platforms, which support next-generation SONET/DWDM.
http://www.sprint.com
http://www.nortelnetworks.com
- Earlier this month, Sprint announced the activation of two large fiber-optic rings spanning 180 miles throughout the Miami area. The Miami metro network is part of a nationwide Sprint initiative aimed at extending its fiber deeper into the metro areas of more than 30 U.S. cities before mid-2004. Other cities with newly active Sprint fiber networks announced this year include Kansas City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Denver, Phoenix, St. Louis, San Francisco and Boston.
- In May 2003, Sprint launched its migration from a circuit-switched telephone network to a packet network with the replacement of its entire local switching infrastructure in Gardner, Kansas. Sprint will be capable of combining three separate "overlay" networks into a single, ATM network for voice, data and private-line services. Class 5 circuit switches will be replaced using Nortel Networks' Succession Communication Server 2000 superclass softswitches, Succession Multiservice Gateway 4000, Succession Media Gateway 9000, and Nortel Networks Passport 15000 Multiservice Switches. Nortel Networks will be responsible for all delivery, installation and testing of the new packet equipment. Financial terms were not disclosed. In addition to Gardner, Kansas, the locations that are scheduled for conversion to packet switching in 2003 include five towns in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Florida and Ohio.
