Global One Announces Major Enhancements to Its Global
ATM Backbone Network
11 new global transit switches in five countries and more transmission capacity put Global
One ahead of the competition in meeting the huge demand for high-capacity data, voice and
internet services
BRUSSELS, August 9, 1999 - Global One, the international joint venture of Deutsche Telekom,
France Telecom and Sprint, today announced the operational implementation of 11 new global transit
switches and over 6 Giga bits per second of transmission capacity on its end-to-end multi-service
ATM backbone network.
The switches, located at 11 different sites in Germany, France, Japan, UK and USA, provide Global
One with a new, very high performance global transit layer for its ATM backbone network
architecture. These switches greatly increase the capacity of the self-healing Global One global ATM
backbone network, positioning Global One ahead of the competition in supporting the huge growth in
global data, internet, and voice traffic. Data and Internet services accounted for over 48% of Global
One revenues in the first six months of 1999. The increase in demand among multinational customers
produced a 60% increase in Global Frame Relay revenues for Global One in 1998.
The high capacity, high redundancy ATM Global One backbone network in operation now has a
three-layer architecture consisting of access switches, regional transit switches and global transit
switches. All these switches are controlled through the two Global One global network management
centers in Frankfurt, Germany, and Reston, USA. The architecture is integrated seamlessly to carry all
Global One data, internet, and voice traffic over a single high performance, low cost, self-healing
worldwide network that is fully Year 2000 compliant.
In addition to the 11 global transit switches, Global One has also added a further 1Gbit per second of
bandwidth to the 5Gbps already announced on the Global One ATM backbone network. Operational
capacity will be extended by a further 5Gbits planned in the coming months.
Global Onee selected the Siemens/Newbridge MainStreetXpress(TM) ATM 36170 Multiservices
Switch as the leading technology for the global transit switches. Together with the Siemens/Newbridge
MainStreetXpress 46020 Network Manager, the solution provides Global One with the required
flexibility for network growth planning without increasing network complexity. The global backbone
network employs PNNI (Private Network to Network Interface) and S-PVCs (Switched Permanent
Virtual Circuits) internally which guarantees very fast re-routing in case of a network failure and very
high resilience.
The new global transit switches are interconnected with the networks of the Global One shareholders
as well as with the current Global One Nortel-based multi-service access and regional transit switches
to provide a state of the art global transmission network.
This major infrastructure investment by Global One has been taken to meet the huge growth in demand
for high capacity and high availability bandwidth by multinational customers worldwide. The global
backbone network, fully owned and managed by Global One, provides the high network capacity,
speed and resilience to meet these needs. Global One has already invested more than US$1bn in its
infrastructure over the last three years and this enhancement of capacity forms part of the more than
US$500m infrastructure investment for 1999 announced earlier this year.
The Global One ATM backbone network is now the world's most far-reaching ATM-based network,
deployed in more than 800 cities in over 46 countries. Building on its unmatched global reach, Global
One first rolled out its Global Frame Relay service on this network, followed by its worldwide,
seamless ATM service, Global ATM. Because ATM bandwidth can be dynamically assigned between
data, Internet and voice over one network, Global One customers enjoy lower costs and increased
service availability.
All Global One customers can rely on a secure network monitored 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Leading edge network automation systems provide around-the-clock automated fault protection. The
network carries out automated pro-active monitoring, automated testing and diagnosis and automated
corrective actions. These features are backed up by the support organizations of Deutsche Telekom,
France Telecom, Sprint and Global One, respectively. Their seamless back office capability includes
order entry, provisioning, billing and 24-by-7 customer support.
Global One offers a single source for the provision of seamless voice, data and IP services for
businesses, carriers and consumers around the world. Set up as a worldwide joint venture of Deutsche
Telekom, France Telecom and Sprint, Global One is a fully integrated company in its own right, with
over 1,400 network access centers in more than 65 countries. Global One offers the world's
farthest-reaching ATM-based network and in 1998 had revenues of more than US$ 1.1 billion. |
