WorldPort Communications Selected by @Home as Backbone Bandwidth
Provider in the Netherlands
EnerTel Network to Provide Interconnectivity for New Broadband Internet Services Delivered Via Dutch Cable Television
Providers
ATLANTA, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- WorldPort Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: WRDP - news) today announced that @Home Netherlands, a subsidiary of
@Home Networks, Inc., has selected EnerTel, WorldPort's operating subsidiary in The Netherlands, to provide nationwide backbone services. @Home will
introduce new broadband Internet and content services provided to subscribers via cable television providers. The Netherlands is the most densely cabled nation in
Europe, with more than 90 percent of all households directly connected to cable.
@Home Netherlands is a joint venture of U.S. based @Home Network, two major Dutch cable companies CasTel and Palet, and Intel, the world's largest
manufacturer of computer processor components. @Home Netherlands is rapidly expanding in the Netherlands and anticipates that it will employ over 100 people
by the second quarter of 1999. By mid-1999, it will launch broadband Internet services to homes in The Netherlands via cable television, providing subscribers with
a complete multimedia information package including news, entertainment, full motion video, and CD-quality sound.
EnerTel will provide the broadband interconnectivity between @Home's network facilities in Amsterdam, @Home's regional data centers in The Netherlands, the
cable network facilities of Castel and Palet, and the Amsterdam Internet Exchange. To enable @Home to provide its customers with high speed access to the
Internet and to high bandwidth multimedia content, EnerTel will develop a customized backbone network for @Home utilizing Asynchronous Transfer Mode
(ATM) technology.
Mr. Jamie Howard, CEO of @Home Netherlands, stated, ''Based on quality of service, we have chosen EnerTel to deliver our backbone traffic and to build our
ATM-based network. EnerTel has proven to be far ahead of competitors in the field of broadband traffic for Internet services, for instance by developing and
building the largest European Intranet for the Dutch educational system -- KennisNet. EnerTel also showed us that it could offer megabits per second at a very
competitive rate.''
Mr. Stephen Courter, Chief Financial Officer for WorldPort Europe, added, ''This is a great example of how two innovative, rapidly growing telecommunications
companies can combine their respective strengths to create exciting new communications and information products. In this case, @Home Netherlands's customers
will have access to a whole new world of higher speed, higher quality Internet-based multimedia services, made faster and more cost effective by
WorldPort/EnerTel's advanced fiber optic network. This is technology partnering and convergence at its best.''
About @Home
@Home Network is based in Redwood City, California, @Home Network (Nasdaq: ATHM - news) distributes high-speed interactive services to residences and
businesses using its own network architecture and a variety of transport options including the cable industry's hybrid-fiber coaxial infrastructure. The cable
connection provides users significant increases in speed over conventional Internet services. Leveraging the ''always on'' attributes of cable, @Home allows for
unique multimedia applications that go beyond current Web experiences. Individuals seeking additional information about availability and subscription can refer to the
@Home Network Web site (www.home.net).
About WorldPort Communications, Inc.
WorldPort Communications, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) is ''The Next Generation Carrier's Carrier'' providing international long distance and
Internet services primarily to The Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The Company is deploying a seamless global network to provide least-cost interconnectivity
and high capacity bandwidth products for voice, data, video and Internet traffic to long distance carriers, multi-national corporate customers, distributors and
Internet service providers.
WorldPort is focused on providing customers a true end-to-end solution by routing traffic through a seamless system of undersea fiber-optic network cables,
advanced circuit and packet switches and high efficiency gateways in strategic markets worldwide. WorldPort is expanding its global network through internal
business development, acquisitions and international strategic alliances.
This press release includes statements that may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward looking statements.
Factors which would cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to factors detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission
filings.
SOURCE: WorldPort Communications, Inc. |
