Qwest this week is formally announcing a suite of wholesale services that bring new IP flexibility to that market.

Qwest IP Solutions, now available on the carrier’s nationwide network, brings the company’s multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) capabilities to the wholesale market, to enable carriers to offer new applications including voice over IP and streaming multimedia.

The IP services have been available from Qwest on a retail basis through its iQ Networking service, said Robert Bodman, product manager for Qwest’s wholesale division, and are now coming to the wholesale arena.

“The main application from reseller perspective is that this represents a lower-cost way to turn down their Layer 2 traditional networks, like frame relay, and migrate their customers onto an IP-based network,” he said. “These products were very successful on the retail side, and we are seeing that same success in the wholesale market.”

Product options, which were introduced to the Qwest sales force a month ago, include: Qwest Private Port, which provides secure, reliable WAN connectivity between various customer locations; and Qwest Enhanced Port, which adds service customization such as Internet access and quality-of-service prioritization options. The services are available at a variety of port speeds up to 2.4 Gb/s.

By providing a migration path to IP MPLS, Qwest is giving its wholesale customers a chance to lower both the capex and opex costs, while providing their retail customers with new applications such as VoIP, Bodman said.

“Carrier customers can connect all the remote sites and then hub all the traffic back to one location, and send it to the PBX or back to the Internet or offer all types of application services depending on what their customers want,” he said.

IP MPLS provides streamlined management, easier provisioning and greater scalability, Bodman added.