Two long-distance telephone service rivals have announced initiatives to provide wireless data access to their high-speed transmission networks.
MCI Telecommunications Corp. said it will implement circuit-switched cellular access to its HyperStream Frame Relay network by the end of March. “MCI’s HyperStream remote LAN dial access extends the enterprise network to deliver critical information and computing resources to remote mobile workers where and when they need it,” said Stephen Von Rump, vice president of marketing for MCI’s Data Services Division.
AT&T Corp. went a step further by announcing it will offer interconnectivity between its InterSpan Frame Relay network and cellular systems using the emerging Cellular Digital Packet Data technology.
“Because every business has unique data networking requirements, our new portfolio of end-to-end connectivity options lets them choose what’s best for their individual needs,” said Joe Lueckenhoff, marketing vice president of AT&T Data Communications Services.
At this time, AT&T said it only offers CDPD access to Frame Relay from its own cellular network-AT&T Wireless Services.
MCI spokesperson John Houser said his company is not planning to provide CDPD access to its Frame Relay network.
Frame Relay technology was introduced in 1992 to provide faster data service than the existing X.25 packet data networks, especially for local area network interconnection.
The service reportedly grew 400 percent last year and AT&T has about 40 percent of the market, according to company spokesperson Christine Corliss. MCI claims a 26 percent share.
Corliss noted that Frame Relay is most beneficial for applications where there are a large number of locations, a large number of data messages or large data files.
