GLOBAL LIGHT TELECOMMUNICATIONS INC.
530 ? 999 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C.
V6C 2W2
HIGHPOINT
TELECOMMUNICATIONS INC
530 ? 999 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C.
V6C 2W2
May 16, 2000
(GBT: AMEX)
(HGP: CDNX)
GLOBAL LIGHT AND HIGHPOINT ANNOUNCE THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF AFFILIATE, ADURONET LIMITED, TODAY IN LONDON
(London, U.K. and Vancouver, B.C., May 16, 2000) Highpoint Telecommunications Inc. is pleased to announce that its affiliate, AduroNet Limited, was officially launched today in London. Highpoint, as AduroNet?s single largest shareholder, owns an approximate 36% interest in AduroNet through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Thyme Ltd. Global Light Telecommunications Inc. owns a controlling interest in Highpoint.
NEW EUROPEAN 'SMART' NETWORK LEAPFROGS U.S. TO DRIVE e- AND m- BUSINESS GROWTH
Seasoned team launches AduroNet - the intelligent IP services network - to accelerate e-Europe
London, May 16, 2000- The growth of e-business in Europe was boosted today by the launch of AduroNet, a revolutionary pan-European 'intelligent' IP services network for business being developed by a highly respected international team of IT professionals.
AduroNet's start-up is set to deliver fully-converged, high speed IP (Internet Protocol) networking for business, taking Europe ahead of the US as world leader in the race for the next generation of growth in the new digital economy. AduroNet will enable the growth of businesses through e- and m-commerce, regardless of an organisation's technology platform.
The London-based company has worked with the best talent in America's Silicon Valley to develop a radically different approach to network design, rejecting the current 'evolutionary' network architecture and building an 'intelligent' layer to get maximum performance from Europe?s fibre optic capacity.
At the heart of the design is 'one hop' access to and from the Internet from anywhere in Europe, delivered through regional nodes in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Milan, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Munich, Vienna, Madrid and New York, linking the network to the US.
By segregating Virtual Private Network (VPN), Internet transit traffic and content data traffic, and distributing them through three separate fibre optic networks, AduroNet will provide a broad range of secure, resilient and high performance data and communications services for Euro businesses to match their size, market reach, business type and growth ambitions.
AduroNet will provide significant improvements in control, performance and cost to all e- business and e-commerce functions, ranging from highly secure commercial b2b and b2c transactions such as pan-European share trading and banking, to multi-site intranet and extranet applications. The network will also operate as a platform for 3G mobile telephone access, and is being configured for voice-over-IP use.
Reynie Ortiz, chairman and CEO of AduroNet, said: "Our network has been designed solely for the needs of businesses as they develop and expand in Europe. We know they want higher levels of security, reliability and flexibility than are available over the public Internet, but they also want the reach of the Internet to link up markets across Europe and globally, independent of the end user device.
"Our aim is to eliminate the hassle of creating pan-European e-and m-business by simplifying what was once difficult. We have broken the mould with the design of AduroNet. The network is smart, secure and flexible, with total European coverage. Managing the technology is our business, leaving our customers to concentrate on growing theirs."
AduroNet's network and IP-based business services will be uniquely supplied through a range of network and service partners, including Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Application Service Providers (ASPs).
Ortiz has put together a management team with over 100 years of combined telecoms and networking experience with pioneering technology businesses including Qwest, Carrier One, Lucent, EUnet, AT&T UK, Compuserve, Worldcom, IBM, MediaOne and GTS Europe.
"We have created AduroNet because the limitations of traditional networks are holding back the growth of e-business in Europe," said Ortiz. "The recent Lisbon dot.com summit of European leaders set a challenging agenda for e-business in Europe, and AduroNet will help meet its key challenges: taking Europe ahead of America in connectivity and e-business; reducing the cost of doing business on-line; helping speed up market liberalisation; and contributing to job creation across Europe.
"We have brought together some of the greatest creative and innovative business minds in global data communications to build a unique open architecture IP platform that is 3G mobile ready. And that, for the first time, frees the e-economy from the limitations of legacy technology," said Ortiz.
AduroNet's start-up funding has been provided by investors including its Silicon Valley technology partners CoSine, and Extreme Networks together with E*Trade and finance partners ComVentures, UBS Capital and Thyme Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Highpoint Telecommunications Inc.
IP services will be available fourth quarter of 2000, across Europe and the US, with dynamic content service delivery available in the first quarter of 2001.
Technical summary: AduroNet -enabling e-business
The AduroNet network addresses the five key problems currently experienced by businesses working with the Internet:
Security
Security is the issue preventing major businesses throughout the world from embracing Internet technology and realising the potential of e-business.
Using virtual firewall technology built-in to the node design of the network, AduroNet has created a 'maximum security' network by designing out the weak links and designing in security at the foundations.
Control
The lack of scalability of bandwidth and the inability to increase and decrease bandwidth use has caused internet outages on many, well documented occasions.
AduroNet offers its customers total control of their network environment, through a direct management interface, allowing users to reconfigure their bandwidth, user profiles, capacity and priorities as and when the need arises.
Complexity
Costs of managing a European e-business will be cut significantly by the use of a single network supplier.
AduroNet offers its users a single, pan-European network that allows point-to-point connections in total security to any location in Europe, with the same guaranteed SLA, enabling expansion of successful e-businesses across European borders, boosting both VPN and content services.
Performance
The ability to predict and control bandwidth availability is a precondition of use of Internet technology in mission-critical applications.
AduroNet brings order to the chaos by laying a managed layer over the existing European network, connected to the Internet at Internet Exchanges but with only a single hop between nodes.
Resilience
The AduroNet network offers users 99.999% resilience, giving businesses the assurance they need to move their business processes on-line and realise the full potential of the e- economy.
By addressing these issues directly, the AduroNet network offers business users and content providers the first truly viable IP platform for mission-critical applications.
Partner summary
The following list summarises AduroNet's key partners at the time of launch; it is AduroNet's development strategy to work with additional partners as relevant services become available.
altohiway (formerly Hiway) Jazztel
CoSine Juniper Networks
Cybernet Internet Services International Inc. Lucent Technologies
dynamicsoft NetRail
Extreme Networks NTL
E*Trade Service Direct
HOSTeu Williams Communications
Internext S.A
About Cosine Communications
Founded in 1998 and based in Redwood City, Calif., CoSine Communications develops; markets and sells managed IP service delivery platforms designed for Business IP Service Providers who risk losing profitability with today's low-value Internet access services. The CoSine solution enables Next Gen Telcos, Competitive IXCs, International Service Providers and PTTs to quickly and reliably turn up value-added services to their wholesale and retail subscribers.
Web site at www.cosinecom.com
About Extreme Networks
Extreme Networks is a leading provider of high-performance, multiplayer network solutions designed for the Internet economy. The Company's family of SummitTM and Black Diamond switching solutions are built on a unique combination of ExtremeWare TM software and an ASIC-based common architecture that enables service providers, e-businesses and enterprises to expand their businesses and be more competitive by speeding traffic through a simplified, super scalable network infrastructure. Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., Extreme Networks distributes its solutions in more than 40 countries through authorised resellers Web site at www.extremenetworks.com
About Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of purpose-built systems that meet the scaleability, performance, density, and compatibility requirements of rapidly evolving, optically enabled IP networks. The company's purpose-built systems provide new IP infrastructure solutions for the world's leading service providers. Juniper Networks service, manufacturing teams, and IP engineers work closely with customers to build and support customer networks. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California. Web site at www.iuniper.net
Highpoint Telecommunications Inc. is a European focused international telecommunications company with interests in Vine Telecom Networks Ltd., which is developing a pan-European high-bandwidth fiber optic network, The North American Gateway Inc., a facilities-based voice and data telecommunications carrier based in Toronto, Ontario, Axxon Telecom Holding Company B.V., a European long distance and value-added telecommunications services company, which is completing a joint venture with Kast Telecom S.A. to form a pan-European facilities-based integrated data local exchange carrier , and AduroNet Limited, an IP network and services company, which is deploying in Europe the latest software configured IP technology from the Silicon Valley.
Global Light Telecommunications Inc. holds various telecommunications interests in Latin America, North America, Europe, and Asia. These activities are conducted principally through Global Light?s interests in Bestel, S.A de C.V., a Mexican facilities-based provider of telecommunications and data services, Highpoint Telecommunications Inc., NeTrue Communications Inc. (NTU.U: CDNX) which develops, manufactures and sells Internet Protocol telephony technology solutions to worldwide communications providers, and New World Network Holdings, Ltd. which holds an approximate 85% interest in ARCOS-1 (Americas Region Caribbean Ring System) which is developing a state-of-the-art submarine broadband fiber optic network through the Caribbean.
For further information please contact:
AduroNet Limited
Heidi Laws
44 207 292 3840
Highpoint Telecommunications Inc.
Ken Berry
604-609-0100
Global Light Telecommunications Inc.
Robert Blankstein
1-888-234-4423
Certain statements contained in this press release are ?forward looking statements? within the meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such forward looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the forward looking statements made here. Factors which may affect actual results include the success of the Company?s strategic focus, competition, and the ability to secure financial resources as required.
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