Telemedia International Ltd, the value-added service subsidiary of Telecom Italia SpA, has announced an international Frame Relay service. The network is Telecom Italia’s first Frame Relay service to operate outside Italy, and will span Europe, the US, Latin America, the Asia Pacific region and Australia. Telemedia says it is aiming the service at international companies based in Italy, as well as its existing customers outside Italy. The company anticipates that up to one fifth of its revenue will come from low speed wide area data services, including Frame Relay services at speeds of 2Mbps and below. Nine Internet Packet Exchange nodes are operational, linking Rome, Geneva, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Brussels, Amsterdam, New York and Hong Kong. Installation of the remaining nodes is scheduled for the summer. The network is built around 30 StrataCom Inc Internet Packet Exchange narrowband Asynchronous Transfer Mode switches and FastPAD access devices and, as well as providing the physical nodes, the San Jose, California company is providing a facilities management service for the network. This is said to include the programme management, housing and maintenance of the installation, together with the provisioning and management of the lines at each site. The service already has its first customer, Italian manufacturer and automotive industry supplier Pirelli SpA, but details such as tariffs and further rollout plans were not disclosed. According to Dataquest projections, the public Frame Relay market in Italy is expected to grow revenues to an estimated $58.3m in 1998 from just $76,000 in 1994.
