Lucent and SPIN Internet: Making communications work in a developing world One of the many positive impacts of the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993 has been the rapid evolution of the Internet in Mexico. In 1987, SPIN InternetTM founders Javier Matuk and Jorge Kobeh had already anticipated that expansion and the growth potential of InterNetworking Systems by establishing Mexico's first public bulletin board service (BBS), Microtel. As the nearby timeline shows, the founders of SPIN Internet have been growing their business incrementally over the past decade to increase their companyls market share. SPIN Internet Timeline 1987 Microtel offers first public BBS in Mexico using a single 1,200 baud modem and 60 MB of hard disk space. 1990 SPIN (Sistema Profesional de Información de México) is established as the first commercial BBS in Mexico enabled by four telephone lines running 2,400 baud modems. To localize their offering, SPIN develops first Spanish language communications program called PC-Courier. 1991 SPIN begins offering USA Today via its BBS, along with access to technical support from leading software providers like Microsoft. 1992 SPIN offers first Internet email service in Mexico, using 10 analog phone lines and 2.4K, 9.6K, and 14.4K modems connected to SPIN's X.25 national backbone, provided by Telepac. 1993 SPIN migrates from analog to 20 digital-over-fiber lines, all running at 14.4K. 1994 SPIN begins offering full Internet access to its nationwide clients. 1995 SPIN offers first email notification service through pager service providers like SkyTel. 1998 SPIN deploys PortMaster 3 InterNetworking Systems Concentrators, adding 180 ports to support a total of 210 digital lines. The new PortMaster 3 units are scheduled to support an additional 30 digital connections by year-end. The Challenge: Staying current with the latest technologies Headquartered in the high-density area of Mexico City, SPIN is currently growing at a rate of 40 percent per year. To keep up that pace, SPIN management needs InterNetworking Systems server (RAS) equipment that delivers the highest available levels of reliability and scalability. "When we decided to upgrade recently, we almost bought our RAS equipment from a Lucent competitor," explains Jorge Kobeh, systems director for SPIN. "But, when we tested that vendor's product against Lucent's product, we realized the PortMaster 3 offered far superior over-all performance. The PortMaster 3 had all the features we needed. Its compact design means it takes up a lot less space in our equipment room. Its low power requirements make it much more efficient. Best of all, the PortMaster 3 generates very little heat and therefore ensures optimum reliability, even during our peak production times." The Solution: The PortMaster 3 with V.90 protocol support SPIN Internet offers a variety of services including the largest BBS in Mexico, email, World Wide Web access, and Gopher and Telnet services. To support these services, SPIN has deployed three PortMaster 3 units at its Mexico City point of presence (POP), each equipped with digital 56K modems. Email and Web access are the most popular of SPIN's services, and more than 60 per cent of their customers use dial-up service enabled by Lucent modems. "That's another key reason we chose the PortMaster 3," says Javier Matuk, SPIN co-founder and CEO. "Before we installed the PortMaster 3 products, we could only offer 28K connections. Even then, our modems would sometimes fail. With the Lucent modems, we have been able to keep all our customers a lot happier. The fact that ComOS 3.8 running in the PortMaster 3 now supports the V.90 standard gives us even greater confidence in Lucent Technologies' capacity to help us stay competitive." To find out more about SPIN Internet, visit their Spanish-language website at http://www.spin.com.mx.