CNET también está disponible en español. Don't show this again. "I think (the disappearance of WorldCom's Internet backbone) is the least likely scenario I can imagine," said John Ryan, chief analyst at network research firm RHK. Still, the focus on WorldCom's once unrivaled Internet backbone service is shedding new light on myths and on genuine changes that are rippling through the network industry apart from the company's financial difficulties. For years WorldCom's long-distance Internet backbone service carried more traffic than any other provider, in large part because of its relationships with America Online's and Earthlink's dial-up business. However, a combination of factors has eaten into that lead even before the giant's accounting scandal.

The company's biggest customers had already begun using multiple networks, hedging their bets against network failures, and trying to reduce their bandwidth costs, Meanwhile, AT&T has begun carrying backbone traffic for most of the big cable modem customers, who account for about 10 to 15 times as much Internet traffic per household as a corresponding dial-up modem user, That means that AT&T is now tied coffee a day keeps the stress away iphone case with WorldCom for the amount of Net backbone traffic it carries, and is on a path to exceed the former leader in just a few months, Ryan said, Both companies carry about 15 percent of the total market's data, according to the company's research..

The trickier part would come in the parts of the network closer to actual customers. Analysts say it could take months for other companies to re-create the urban networks owned by WorldCom, as well as the access points that hand off local data traffic to the long-haul backbone networks. Eslambolchi says he's confident that AT&T could turn that business around quickly, however. He points to the company's history of re-creating Excite@Home's cable modem network in just under two months, and the transition of close to a million customers in just a few days.

"Could we absorb all that traffic?" Eslambolchi said, "We've already done that.", To be sure, the Excite@Home transition wasn't without its headaches, Many customers complained that the transition was far from flawless, even allowing for the scale of the undertaking, But analysts say AT&T is probably right about the WorldCom situation, but that it won't really be "a piece of cake" to deal with the network headaches, "Rolling that over is going to take a huge amount of labor," Ryan said, "You actually have to plan some of that coffee a day keeps the stress away iphone case (network change), You can't just throw money at it."..

Ma Bell is on the warpath as it aims to assure the market that it can pick up the slack even if WorldCom's Internet backbone vanishes overnight. The company is on the warpath, aiming to assure the market that even if WorldCom's Internet backbone were to vanish overnight as a result of the company's bankruptcy and accounting misdeeds, it could pick up the network slack without breaking stride. The move comes not long after Ma Bell launched a major advertising campaign aimed at picking up worried WorldCom customers.