51-10-31 Global Frame Relay

Many organizations accustomed to the convenience of domestic frame relay service are considering international service to expand their markets. Global Frame relay services facilitate this process by providing a means of linking remote LANs to international sites. A growing market demand ensures the continued increase of service nodes worldwide. Based on revenue figures, AT&T (Warren NJ) controls 36% of the domestic Frame relay market, Sprint (Westwood KS) maintains a consistent 20%,and MCI Communications Corp. (McLean VA) controls 16%. Domestic Frame relay, in many cases, is less expensive than dedicated leased lines. As a result, more users are migrating to Frame relay now that it is possible to support voice over Frame relay. To encourage the transition to Frame relay, service providers are offering greater discounts and conveniences such Internet and World Wide Web access through gateways. Users must, however, carefully consider their bandwidth requirements for Internet access. Frame relay access requires 56K bps or higher. The user could be billed for 56K-bps access to the Internet when 9.6K-bps access may be all that is required.