360networks Offers Local DS3 and Direct Internet Access Services

By: Richard “Zippy” Grigonis

360networks (News - Alert) (www.360networks.com) is a leading wholesale provider of communications products and services in the western United States. Interestingly, 360networks’ voice and data solutions are built and run over a sophisticated 17,200-mile fiber-optic backbone wholly-owned and operated by the company itself.

In 2008, 360networks impressed the industry with a Single Point of Interconnection T1 (SPI T1) service enabling 360networks’ carrier customers to provide point-to-point, clear channel T1s to their subscribers in over 974 wire centers in 32 markets. Customers can interconnect to 360network’s backbone network at one or more points of presence (POPs) and then easily order end-to-end T1 access from the point of interconnection to the end-user location at a flat-rate price per T1 without any additional recurring port fees, long-haul or local loop charges.

360networks recently announced that is has expanded its SPI offering by adding DS3’s and also is introducing a new Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) service to its portfolio. The new DIA service that was just recently launched is now available throughout the 360networks footprint.

360networks’ Senior Vice President, Rick Coma, says, “Our SPI T1 product is a Layer 1 service where we provide the customers with a channelized connection to a market of their choice, and then we deliver T1s out to all of their end-user locations. By expanding our capacity with DS3s, we’re basically just leveraging that same single point of interconnection so our customers can bring T1s and DS3s back through the same interface and our long-haul network to deliver services directly to their end-user customers. The SPI T1 and DS3 product allows our customers to easily deploy a variety of services to their customers such as hosted VoIP, SIP trunking or MPLS.”

“Our new Direct Internet Access, or DIA service is provided both at T1 and DS3 levels. The difference between our SPI and DIA service is that SPI is a clear-channel, Layer 1, point-to-point service and our new DIA service is a Layer 3 Internet access product. With the DIA service we are providing end-user Internet access and it’s all managed via 360networks, so there is no physical interconnection to the customer — it comes back to our edge routers and then to the Internet. Moreover, both the SPI and DIA products integrate well with our VoIP360 product portfolio so our carrier customers can provide managed hosted and SIP trunking solutions to their end-user subscribers. This rounds out our portfolio so by utilizing our VoIP and DIA products our customers can now package and deliver a fully managed on-net hosted VoIP or SIP trunking solution.”

“In a sense, we make it easy to become a provider of integrated voice and data solutions,” continues Coma. “If you have equipment in a single collocation facility you can now deliver a fully managed on-net solution across a large footprint without having to own or manage a network. It’s much like what the Session Initiation Protocol (News - Alert) (SIP) accomplished in the VoIP world, where you just need a single IP connection to serve multiple markets. The same concept holds with the SPI service you can bring all the traffic from multiple markets back to a single point of interconnection so you don’t have to manage your own long-haul or access network.

As a wholesale carrier we want to provide services that will help our customers deliver high quality solutions to their end user customers. By combining our transport assets with our next-generation IP and VoIP platform our customers can now deliver a cost-effective fully managed integrated voice and data solution. We will continue to build on our product portfolio and deliver services that will facilitate the delivery of quality end user services.” IT

Richard Grigonis is executive editor of TMC (News - Alert)’s IP Communications Group.

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