WAN pricing tools let you price several different combinations without having to know exactly what you want. As much as IT managers would like to believe that accounting will pay for whatever they want, they often have to sacrifice performance to fit within their allocated budgets. Being able to look at several size options quickly and compare bang for buck will help save time in the end. We wanted to evaluate the services to see what was out there and find out how useful the information really is. Is it possible to get accurate information without contacting the vendors directly? What types of services can we price?

We found that there are different ways of getting this information and that there are a wide variety of services that can be priced. Users can get estimates on just about every WAN service imaginable, whether it be raw SONET services or DSL intra-LATA (local access and transport area) connections. Pricing is an important issue when planning to buy new services. The final cost depends greatly on the carrier salesperson and how generous he or she feels. Larger customers can negotiate better deals than smaller customers. Therefore, unless you are dealing with someone who can guarantee the price, it is best to use these numbers only as a gauge. In other words, your mileage may vary.

Flexibility Wins

For this evaluation, we put LDCircuit's LDCircuit.com, Salestar/Network Analysis Center's WinPricer and Telco Exchange's Digital Line Pricing Tool through their paces. In the end, Salestar/Network Analysis Center took our Editor's Choice award because of WinPricer's flexibility in creating a network of any topology we could think of, quickly and easily.

Each service has its own way of doing things, which made it tricky to create a test that was fair to all three pricing tools. LDCircuit and Telco Exchange are Web-based, while Salestar's offering runs on Windows on a PC.

Reviews
Flexibility Moves WinPricer to the Front
A superior interface and a frame relay option help Salestar/NAC edge its competitors in the race to provide the best WAN quote service.
By Darrin Woods

Salestar/Network Analysis Center WinPricer
Salestar/Network Analysis Center's product, WinPricer, came out ahead in our tests because of its easy-to-use interface and the flexibility built into the software. Although not Web-based like the others, it was the only tool to handle our mixed hub-and-spoke and meshed frame relay environment correctly.

As a software product, WinPricer installs itself onto a user's Windows 95, 98 or NT computer in a single-user or multiuser environment. A Web-based version is also available for large groups, such as sales forces that need access to pricing. We would like to see wider availability of a Web-based version so people without Wintel computers can get quotes.

We found WinPricer's interface to be the best of the three. To price point-to-point connections, the user is presented with a map of the United States, with central offices noted by dots. You select the type of connection, the carrier and the speed by clicking on two dots (cities), then WinPricer presents the price for the connection. You can select carriers individually or choose an "all carriers" option to get pricing from all carriers at once.

If clicking on dots is not your thing, you can instead use the NPANXX number, which represents the Numbering Plan Area and exchange. Entering the NPANXX is the preferred method, unless you are pricing services in an area covered by only a single exchange, because of the close proximity of the dots in a metropolitan area. Salestar/NAC is working on single-state views but does not currently have a larger view available for each state. Pricing information can be saved to the disk or printed for your perusal.

WinPricer's frame relay pricing capabilities were by far the best of the bunch. They let us create whatever type of network we desired. We specifically designed a network that was not a generic hub-and-spoke model to test the pricing tools and their flexibility. WinPricer was the only pricing tool that did not assume a hub-and-spoke network.

Pricing a frame relay network is very easy. Simply input the network locations by NPANXX number, then define the end points of whatever PVCs (permanent virtual circuits) you desire between those locations. Once the entire network has been defined, you have only to click on "Price," and WinPricer will create a pricing report from its database. Unlike the point-to-point connections, however, there isn't an option to price all listed carriers at once. Because there are 24 listings for frame relay providers, this may be a good thing: A report would be very long, and you may want prices from only two or three carriers. You can compare multiple carriers by selecting a different carrier in the pop-up box, querying the database again and saving each pricing to your hard drive.

If you're interested in last-mile pricing, Salestar has you covered as well. If you enter the exact street address, WinPricer will detail last-mile pricing for your IXC (interexchange carrier) of choice. WinPricer tells you not only the distance to your local CO (central office), but also the distance from the CO to the carrier's PoP (point of presence). Available as an option, this tool has to be purchased on a state-by-state basis or in packages of states. The cost of the state databases can range from $450 to $3,500 per state, depending on how many are purchased at one time.

Pricing information is modified by specifying the length of the contract (monthly or from one to seven years) and whether you want the closest or least expensive POP. This gives you a few options for comparison, because the closest POP may not be the cheapest. Salestar is the only service to offer such a feature. Installation costs for all services are also included in the reports. The amount of available information is impressive. With ATM pricing to come later this year, the only feature we missed is a Web interface for pricing information so WinPricer could be accessed from any browsing-capable computer. Unlike its competitors, Salestar/NAC doesn't offer line provisioning.

WinPricer comes on several CDs, along with a floppy disk that unlocks the particular portions that are authorized for use. Customers can download updates directly from Salestar/NAC's Web site, and Salestar also sends an update CD to customers every quarter. A single-user PC version costs $5,000, and a 10 simultaneous multiuser version is $12,500.

WinPricer (will be changed to NetPricer this year), $5,000 (single PC), Salestar/Network Analysis Center, (800) 765-4622, (516) 935-2525; fax (516) 935-2667, www.salestar.com.

Telco Exchange Digital Line Pricing Tool
Telco Exchange approaches pricing from a different direction; its service is available on the Web free of charge to its customers. Telco Exchange will also order circuits, and provision and manage the installation of lines from start to finish for its customers. It currently provides provisioning for 30 carriers and LECs (local exchange carriers) and has been doing so for five years. For those who want to use the pricing tool without Telco Exchange's other services, a license to access the Web site is available for $5,000 to $20,000 per year, depending on features accessed.

Pricing information is specified for a wide range of services, including ISDN, BRI, PRI, DS-1, DS-3 and OC-3. DSL pricing and provisioning is also available; those capabilities are missing from WinPricer and are less extensive in LDCircuit. Currently you can price services such as frame relay, local loop, VPN (virtual private network) and Internet access; ATM pricing is scheduled for later this year.

In our testing, we found one slight problem with the way Telco Exchange handles frame relay connections. By default the Web site assumes that you are creating a hub-and-spoke network. Because our network was a combination of meshed and hub and spoke, Telco Exchange's pricing was inaccurate as its Web site was not designed to handle the type of request we made. There is no way for the Web site to handle a meshed network; you have to contact Telco Exchange directly via phone or e-mail to obtain more accurate pricing. When we talked to representatives at Telco Exchange, they said a large portion of their customers don't create meshed networks, so they typically don't encounter this problem. While this is probably true for a small business, it may not be for a midsized or larger company, in which operations are spread around the country and offices need to send data to each other more than they do to their corporate office.

The Web site is set up in a very straightforward manner, with tabs to select the type of service you want priced. A customer is provided with a user name and password to log in. Tabs for digital services and frame relay take you to that area and allow you to begin entering the node information. If you order circuits from the Web site, Telco Exchange's system handles the entire order electronically. Circuits ordered from carriers that work with Telco Exchange are provisioned for free. If you prefer to use a carrier of your choice, however, then Telco Exchange will charge $100 to $200 per site to handle the process.

Once a user logs in, it is very simple to price options. For frame relay, the hub site is defined by the NPANXX number and the port speed. Hub sites are also listed on this first Web page but are not completely defined. The next page provides a section for each hub site listed on the previous page. In the appropriate section, the user will define the connection by port speed and CIR (committed information rate) back to the spoke.

The only reason these need to be defined on the first page is so that the site will know how many sections to list for input on the second page. We found this a little confusing at first but soon figured out how Telco Exchange expected us to enter information.

When you're ready for pricing information, the site provides a page showing all the connections, along with the pricing for each end point and installation.

One feature unique to Telco Exchange is its telecommunications research area, which provides users with white papers and other material on telecom issues. It also supplies links to other sites featuring telecom information. We found Telco Exchange's Web site very easy to use. We also appreciated the fact that it can be used from any Internet-accessible Web browser.

Digital Line Pricing Tool, free service to national line-ordering customers, $5,000 per year for others, Telco Exchange, (877) 988-6484, (703) 385-3688; fax (703) 385-3788, www.telcoexchange.com.

LDCircuit LDCircuit.com
LDCircuit provided the most accurate pricing information. It acts as an agent to the WAN providers, so it does not charge the consumer for its services. Free is good. Although it can take from three to five days to receive information from LDCircuit, as compared with the real-time services of Salestar/NAC and Telco Exchange, the information is precise. This accuracy lets a user sign a contract with the carrier of his or her choice from the quote.

LDCircuit starts by getting information from the consumer on its Web site. The consumer fills out a Web form containing all the normal personal information, along with desired PVC information. Within a few hours someone from LDCircuit was on the phone with us verifying the configuration. The representative took the time to make sure that what the company envisioned from our data was in fact what we wanted quoted. Like Telco Exchange's Web site, LDCircuit's site assumes a hub-and-spoke frame relay network. The Web site can take non-hub-and-spoke information, however, and we were able to telephone LDCircuit to find out how to input our data correctly before receiving a quote. This personalized service was nice to see in a dehumanized Web world.

Our requested pricing was faxed to us, complete with quotes from five carriers, three days after defining our requirements on LDCircuit's Web site. Although not all major carriers were included in a typical quote, the quotes did contain a mix of well-known and smaller up-and-coming carriers, which we found helpful for comparison purposes. Once you choose which services and carrier you want for your WAN, LDCircuit continues its personalized service by working with you to get the circuits installed. The company works to get the circuits provisioned and will coordinate the installation to your location. The service doesn't end until the circuits are up and running, which is a really helpful feature for companies that have small IT groups or none at all.

We wish we could have received quotes more quickly, but at least we knew we were getting valid up-to-the-minute prices. Because the information is quoted directly from the carriers, it includes all the install charges, any discounts that the carrier would deduct relative to the size of the network and so on.

LDCircuit handles primarily inter-LATA (local access and transport area) services. It will provide quotes for leased lines, frame relay, VPN, Internet DS-1 or DS-3 and SONET. ATM pricing is available upon request. DSL is priced only as a part of VPN services.

LDCircuit has been in business only about eight months, but with the number of services it provides today, the company appears to be well on the road to long-term survival. Our only real complaint was that we couldn't receive quotes in real time, which is a function of having to get the information from the carriers as opposed to a database.

LDCircuit.com, free service, LDCircuit, (877) 532-4728; fax (708) 226-6003, www.ldcircuit.com

Send your comments on this article to Darrin Woods at dwoods@nwc.com.

Executive Summary WAN Pricing Services WAN pricing services can help IT professionals devise proposals for different WAN scenarios. Our Editor's Choice winner, Salestar/Network Analysis Center, provides a software tool for the Wintel user to quickly see national as well as international network pricing on services from point-to-point to meshed frame relay networks. Its tool is very easy to use and provides services, such as distance to CO (central office), that the others do not. Telco Exchange lets customers access pricing information in real time on the same services available from Salestar, with the added convenience of Internet access. The company extends its services by providing ordering and provisioning services. It will also manage an installation from start to finish. LDCircuit, which also provides an Internet-accessible Web site, excels in the quality of its quotes. While the other two services provide pricing solely for budgetary purposes, LDCircuit receives quotes directly from carriers, making its data more accurate. Although LDCircuit can take from three to five days to get this information, it saves you the trouble of calling carriers directly. How We Tested Testing for pricing services involved designing a fictional network for which the participants provided quotes. Our network comprised cities where Network Computing has offices or labs to give some realism to the configuration. This was also the easiest way for us to design the network, because each of the services needs to know not only the area code of the city but a prefix as well. We designed a fully meshed network among San Mateo, Calif.; Madison, Wis.; Syracuse, N.Y.; and Dallas. The Dallas site had a port speed of 256 Kbps, while the other three had port speeds of 512 Kbps. CIRs (committed information rates) from Dallas to the other sites were 32 Kbps, while San Mateo, Madison and Syracuse connected to each other via 128-Kbps CIRs. We then designed a PVC (permanent virtual circuit) between Chicago and Madison, and PVCs between Manhasset, N.Y., and Washington to connect to Syracuse. Each of these three smaller sites had 56-Kbps ports and 32-Kbps CIRs. WinPricer from Salestar/Network Analysis Center required us to load three CDs and one floppy onto a Wintel machine, while Telco Exchange's and LDCircuit's services are available from any Java-capable browser connected to the Internet.