Stock was weak on the close with this news out... Anyone game for a hostile takeover at $15??
WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- PSINet, (Nasdaq: PSIX), the first
commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP), announced today at ComNet that it
is delivering on its commitment to broaden free peering to other ISPs. ISPs
who take advantage of this offer will have free peering access to PSINet's
robust, switched architecture, which has been optimized for critical business
communications, and a migration path to the momentous leap in bandwidth
provided by the company's planned expansion an OC-48 Internet-optimized
backbone.
"We announced our plans for this program last summer at the same time that
many Telco/ISP carriers announced plans to begin charging fees for peering
services," said William L. Schrader, PSINet's chairman, president, CEO.
"Through free peering, we can remove the roadblocks to global connectivity
that other large ISPs and telecommunications companies have set in place,
contribute to the preservation of an open Internet, and enable smaller ISPs to
focus on growing their business," he added.
Industry analysts agree that over 5000 ISPs currently operate in the
United States. Familiarity with geographic or line-of-business Internet needs
makes these providers extremely competitive in the consumer and small-to-
midsize corporate Internet service markets. However, the vast majority of
these organizations are small operations that have established their local or
regional market-share because of direct customer interaction and competitive
pricing. Even though their customers are increasingly asking for more
advanced services, these ISPs often do not have the resources -- cash or staff
time/expertise -- to cultivate and maintain a state-of-the-art IP network.
Martin J. Levy, vice president of technology development at InterNex, is
leveraging three geographically diverse PSINet T3 peering circuits to move
traffic away from the public MAEs and NAPs. "PSINet's free peering provides
InterNex the flexibility to plan and manage our business for the future," Levy
explained. "Due to increasing congestion on the public peering access points,
we have started moving a large percentage of our traffic away from the MAEs
and NAPs. PSINet's offer is a better alternative. We are now prepared for
the aggressive growth we are expecting over the next 18 months." InterNex
service offerings include a full suite of connectivity options over its
private ATM backbone, national and international Web hosting facilities,
direct peering services, and PowerCommerce Solutions.
"While we thought that PSINet's commitment to an open, competitive
Internet would be popular among ISPs, even we are a bit amazed at the
response," commented John Kraft, vice president of PSINet's Carrier and ISP
Services. At the present time, over 60 ISPs are in the process of establishing
peering connections with PSINet under the new program. Since the peering
program was first publicly announced, over 700 inquiries have been received
about this and related services offered to ISPs. "We have increased our staff
by 25 percent and added technical specialists to help get new ISPs online
faster," he added.
Special Offer for ISPs
Free peering from PSINet allows smaller ISPs to exchange data at common
network access points along PSINet's IP-optimized backbone. ISPs who agree to
peer with PSINet between now and the end of March will be able to take
advantage of wholesale value-added services from PSINet through a special
offer of up to 100 days of free dial-up services ending April 30, 1998.
The Wholesale Network Services program is an aggressive value-added
program available to peering partners who are interested in services that will
help them optimize available network bandwidth to bolster performance and
reliability of their Internet services. The program maintains two levels,
Wholesale Silver and Wholesale Gold, to meet the needs of any size ISP.
Wholesale Silver provides a cost-effective way for small-to-medium sized
ISPs to get up and running quickly. It includes access to a user-friendly
account management system for customer support, simple private label service
-- allowing customers to create their own brand of network access service,
using the network to bring it to market -- and reliable performance via ISDN
connections and high-speed analog modems.
PSINet's flagship program Wholesale Gold is designed for companies that
need to provide Internet access regionally and nationally. Ideal for larger
consumer and special-interest ISPs, Internet-appliance networks, interactive
gaming, and other power-driven services, Wholesale Gold provides discounted
per-unit rates for each subscriber, extended second-level support for enhanced
customer service, assigned account manager to each Wholesale Gold customer, an
exclusive Account Management Interface (AMI), and high performance network
features for industrial-strength usage and applications.
Peering into the Future
In a separate announcement (see press release, January 23, 1998), PSINet
confirmed that its shareholders have overwhelmingly approved its deal with IXC
Internet Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: IIXC) to acquire indefeasible rights of use
(IRUs) for 10,000 equivalent route miles of OC-48 fiber-optic bandwidth. OC-
48 operates approximately 50 times faster than typical backbone speeds
currently in use on the Internet. With the delivery of OC-48 bandwidth,
PSINet will become the premier provider of an Internet-optimized business
communications network.
The peering program has benefited substantially from preparations for
broader offerings that will be enabled by PSINet's nationwide OC-48 fiber
backbone. "Engineering a peering infrastructure to meet the needs of so many
ISPs gives us a solid foundation for expanded ISP services such as transit
that will capitalize on our increased network capacity and the quality already
built into the architecture," said Chuck Davin, PSINet vice president and
chief technical officer. The flexibility of PSINet's unique switch-and-router
network design creates a scalable, regionalized approach to peering, according
to Davin. The challenge is to balance regionalized traffic engineering with
flexible placement of the Internet routers needed to handle the numerous
"peering sessions" -- conversations by which PSINet and other ISP networks
exchange routing information. "For this purpose, the PSINet design gives us
and our ISP peers the best of both worlds," he added.
About PSINet Inc.
PSINet is a leading provider of turn-key corporate Internet and intranet
access, managed security services, electronic commerce solutions and Web
hosting services throughout the United States and abroad. PSINet manages one
of the world's largest and most advanced fast-packet networks, which provides
state-of-the-art, high speed Internet access ranging from dedicated high-speed
circuits to ISDN to high-speed modem dial-up. PSINet backs up its state-of-
the-art network with the industry's original service guarantee, employing
automatic back-up systems and crediting for service outages.
Headquartered in Herndon, Va., PSINet has offices throughout the U.S. and
subsidiaries in Canada, Japan and Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany,
the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the U.K. For more information contact PSINet
by phone at 703-904-4100, by email at info@psi.com or by accessing their Web
site at psi.net.
SOURCE PSINet Inc.
/CONTACT: Michael Binko, Manager, Public Relations of PSINet,
703-904-4285 or binkom@psi.com; or Catherine Canterbury of RMR & Associates,
301-217-0009 or ccanterbury@rmr.com, for PSINet/
/Web site: psi.net |
