A new Internet diagnostic system promises to allow Internet service providers (ISPs) real-time data on the "real world experience" of their dial-up customers, tracking busy signals, hang-ups, and sluggish downloads.
Inverse Network Technology claims Internet AccessRamp will offer ISPs a means to prove to their customers that they are meeting service-level agreements. Such agreements promise customers a certain level of uptime when they sign up for dialup Internet access.
However, unless the ISP specifically decides otherwise, that uptime - and downtime - data will not be made available to dialup customers to use in comparison-shopping between providers.
The Internet AccessRamp system is composed of three segments. An AccessRamp client lives on a dialup customer's desktop, where it uploads a connection history to the ISP - including failed attempts, error codes, and connection speeds, as well as user profile information such as corporate affiliation. That information is passed to an AccessRamp Collector, which resides on the server, and from there into the "nerve center," where the statistical data is fed into a relational database.
So far, Concentric Network, FASTNET, IBM Global Services, Pacific Bell Internet and Prodigy have all signed up for the service, which costs ISPs between $30,000 and $34,000 depending on terms of the license and number of dialup customers.
Neither AOL nor Netcom will use the service, according to representatives at those companies, who said that they had their own in-house quality-assurance tools.
"We have a comprehensive set of measurement tools that enable us to measure all aspects of our member experience," said AOL's Tricia Primrose.
