How so? Epic may just be creating their own online service like online games for the PS2 have had to do.
Unlikely. If they had to do that, they'd probably be releasing Unreal Championship 3 on the PS3. Instead, they're releasing UT2K7, which will likely allow PS3 players to play on the same servers as 360 and PC players. You can't really accommodate a player base that large with just a few company-run servers, especially for a company Epic's size.
It looks to me like Sony must have SOME online service going, otherwise Epic wouldn't bother releasing the game on the PS3.