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Managed Customer Premises Equipment

Service providers believe they can leverage their networking expertise and provide users managed customer premises equipment services. The marketing approach utilized by the service providers is to convince network managers their life is made more simple by allowing the service provider to assume the responsibility for all CPE issues including site preparation, installation, maintenance, training, and monitoring. CPE management provides the network manager a single focal point for all network concerns and needs.

Managed CPE may not be installed, maintained, and managed by the service provider who signs the ATM service contract with the user. As many as four or five other companies could be involved in managing CPE. The relationship between these third-party vendors and the service provider may depend largely upon the ambiguous business relationships between and among the companies. Know before you go ...ahead and sign the contract. A safer approach is to contract with a network management company to provide all facets of network management including managed CPE.

Port Oversubscription

Port oversubscription is actually a service feature that each service provider may or may not allow. Port oversubscription allows the user to burst above the contracted PCR for some amount that is agreeable to the service provider. The practice is risky if the network is heavily subscribed. Currently, some service providers allow users to oversubscribe, with no additional charge, up to their access speed. The service provider does not guarantee oversubscribed traffic. After all, those paying customers who are still transmitting at or below their PCR get first crack at the bandwidth. Users can expect the freebie to disappear as the networks become more heavily loaded. However, oversubscribing while the opportunity exists and transmitting in the wee hours of the morn can save a financially ailing enterprise some big bucks.

ATM Service Contracts

A word to the wise. Read and understand all the fine print in ATM service contracts. Since the duration of the typical service contract is two or three years with access charges as much as $50,000 per month (or more), the smart network manager knows and understands the implications of the finer points of the contract.

Typical ATM service contract clauses include the following service descriptors:

Review the contract service descriptors for compliance to the user network requirements. Also, read and understand the penalties for changing service. A three-year contract is a long time in the network world where situations and prices change almost overnight.

Hurdles

Usage-based ATM billing is not yet a reality. Users are allowed to burst up to the access speed without penalty. Service providers are still in the individual case basis (ICB) phase, and are just rolling out service. Service providers still do not have equipment certified and order entry, provisioning, billing, invoicing, and trouble management systems are not ready for automated ATM service. One-stop shopping is not yet a reality. Only limited access speeds are available such as DS-1, DS-3, and OC-3. Inverse multiplexing over ATM (IMA) is just coming on line as this book is printed.

Certainly, we need Internet access faster than 9.6 Kbps if we wish to view graphical based web sites without wasting a lot of time waiting for images to download. Figure 8-7 contrasts the various methods of accessing the Internet and their associated costs. How can a user get Internet access faster than 9.6 Kbps? The user can opt for 28.8 Kbps LAN access at $250 non-recurring and $225 per month recurring. Or, a56 Kbps modem can be utilized for the price of the modem, about $125. But, you really want ISDN which runs about $1,500 non-recurring and $250 per month for a paltry 64 Kbps. Okay, so you want to fly at double ISDN rate, that is 128 Kbps, for another $1,500 non- recurring and $475 per month. How about jetting around with Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) which provides asynchronous access (downlink) at 400 Kbps and is available for about $400 non-recurring cost forthe satellite dish and $150/month recurring cost? All of these approaches to Internet access are much more economical than the $1,500 access charge for 64 Kbps ATM. So why ATM?


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