Jun 4, 2002 : BellSouth Expands Data Portfolio Focus

📅 June 4, 2002 - Communication services company BellSouth Corporation (bellsouthcorp.com) announced on Monday that it has developed a three-phase strategy targeting businesses seeking secure and reliable data solutions. The $4.2 billion data communications provider says it plans to focus its data expertise on the still-growing metropolitan data networking market.

BellSouth says that according to a February report by Infonetics Research, the metropolitan data space is "one of the few remaining hotspots in today's economic downturn,? and is expected to continue growing through 2006 as businesses demand more bandwidth and services between their sites and connecting to backbone networks.
The company says that with the FCC's approval last month, giving BellSouth permission to provide long distance services in Georgia and Louisiana, it began Phase II, extending its data solution to region-based customers. Phase III, says the company, will further expand the delivery of BellSouth's data services to businesses nationally.
Among the next steps in BellSouth's plan is the trial and launch of a fully managed, network-based IP VPN solution, ultimately enabling businesses to use BellSouth's network to extend data communications to remote workers and locations.
"The key advantages of network-based IP VPNs touch on the core operational issues that are top-of-mind with most companies today: capital expenditures, security, ease of management and increased productivity," says Mark Kaish, vice president of data services at BellSouth.
BellSouth says it will complete its IP backbone network by the end of 2002, beginning trials of the IP VPN service next quarter in segments such as education, healthcare and transportation. The company says it plans to make the service available to customers by the end of the year, making it the first regional carrier to offer comprehensive MPLS-based IP VPN services.
Also included in the set of new data services being introduced by the company are a high availability server clustering service for BellSouth Managed Dedicated and Premium Co-location hosting customers; a global load balancing service that optimizes traffic between customer servers in multiple locations; managed service for VoIP that provides a full suite of network management services for customers using Cisco AVVID IP telephony equipment; small office managed firewall solutions that provide low-cost protection against Internet security risks; and a managed site VPN for small- and medium-sized business with multiple locations.
BellSouth says it has maintained growth in its data services business from 1995 to 2001, and is currently on path to reach $4.8 billion in data revenue by year's end.