Mercury Communications’ Data Network Services division yesterday officially launched its new 5000 CDN Corporate Data Network, a fully managed data network aimed at large corporate users. Following the UKP8m upgrading programme of the Mercury 5000 data network, the new service will integrate with Mercury 5000, the 5100 international service and if desired the client’s existing private network to provide a corporate-wide information service over a virtual private network; unlike the 5000 service, 5000 CDN has a maximum, pre-arranged total fee as a key billing feature. Mercury will be responsible for network design, consultancy, implementation, commissioning of all lines, whether Mercury, British Telecom or international, as well as modems and all other network material up to including the client’s on-site nodes; management and support of all equipment and lines is also provided. X25, SNA and asynchronous protocols on digital and analogue circuits are supported within the same tariff structure, at speeds from 2.4Kbps to 64Kbps. Mercury’s objective is clearly to take from its customers all the trouble associated with running a private corporate network: one consequence of this is that although customers can monitor what is actually happening on the network, they are powerless to take any executive action to change what is going on. According to Lance Spencer, who joined Mercury from INS to work on this project, this aspect will not worry the larger organisations at which Mercury is aiming the service. The billing system is definitely constructed to attract this large user. 5000 CDN users pay a monthly fee for network management, plus a volume charge for data traffic – this is subject to a fixed maximum level, with discounts available for high-traffic accounts. The capped usage charge per month ranges from UKP40 per 2.4Kbps data link to UKP200 per 64Kbps data link; clients must install a minimum of five data links.
