AT&T announced Wednesday an expansion of its virtual private LAN service.

The carrier says its VPLS switched metro Ethernet service -- dubbed optical Ethernet metropolitan area network (OPT-E-MAN) -- is now available to customers throughout the 13 states of the former SBC territory.

VPLS is attractive to users because it lets them maintain control over routes, much as they do with frame relay. This Layer 2 technology, based on IETF draft specifications, is viewed as the logical migration path for legacy frame relay users.

Last year AT&T expanded its metro Ethernet service to 41 markets in the United States, many of which are in the 13-state region. But now the carrier says it will expand beyond the major cities and bring the service to anyone who may want it.

The 13 states in the former SBC territory are: California, Nevada, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Connecticut.

It’s a change in selling strategy, says an AT&T spokesman. Instead of a deploy first, then sell strategy, AT&T will first sell the service and then deploy it. The spokesman points out that bringing fiber to a remote location might not be the most economical solution for some, but AT&T will support any order.

Still, AT&T’s VPLS offering is not available nationally. Its main competitor for enterprise customers, Verizon Business, announced last month that it was finally rolling out its national VPLS offering after delays.

AT&T said earlier this year that its national VPLS offer will not be available until 2008.

Nationwide VPLS services are available from Masergy, Time Warner Telecom, Yipes and Level 3 through its Broadwing acquisition.