LAS VEGAS--BellSouth this morning announced both a nationwide data service capability and new optical Ethernet services.

The nationwide data service will provide a network-based virtual private network (VPN) service that will enable business customers to link multiple locations around the country more easily. BellSouth Managed Network VPN provides the integration of disparate sites onto a managed backbone network, providing each site with its needed service and tying all sites together, eliminating the need for multiple point-to-point links.

"We are targeting customers in our region who might have out-of-region needs and want us to manage that for them," said Lee Priest, vice president-business marketing. "We can give them one bill, one service."

The service also allows customers to assign a class of service to prioritize their own traffic as it is carried on BellSouth's managed network.

"We are extending the class-of-service capabilities we have in region to the national network," Priest said. "And we are offering proactive service level agreements--we automatically credit the account financially if we don't live up to the SLA."

BellSouth is providing the national coverage through an agreement with Sprint that was announced in December, prior to the decision to merge with AT&T. Sprint is providing access through 1200 points of presence nationwide.

In addition, the company also announced today that it is integrating Ethernet services into its self-healing optical service, to deliver SONET protection for mission-critical IP applications that now often use Ethernet services. This capability is the fourth phase of BellSouth's transition of its SONET network to a multi-service provisioning platform, which began in 2003.

The new level of protection for Ethernet services ensures they will continue running in the event of a fiber cut or other network problem, and provides a type of protection not associated with Layer 2 Ethernet.

This has become particularly important in the Southeast for business continuity, Priest said. "Interest in that service has been heightened by Katrina," he said.