New Jersey-based AT@T Corp. and [email protected] this week detailed plans of a multi-year agreement to jointly market and maintain high-speed, dedicated Web access services via their respective industry-leading IP backbones.
The arrangement, the first of its kind to allow customers a single-point of contact between a pair of carrier-class networks, goes into effect the second quarter of this year. It will offer content providers delivery to nearly three million Excite@Home broadband subscribers.
“With the ability to simultaneously connect to both the AT@T and Excite@Home backbones, customers now have the added confidence that their online events will run without a hitch,” said Mike Jenner, vice president, general manager of AT@T Connectivity Services. “Working together, we've got it all — the industry's top performing IP backbone, the fastest connectivity service commercially available, more than a million square feet of web hosting space and millions of broadband end users.”
With the increased use of rich media — such as audio and video — over the Internet, more and more content providers are finding the need for more dedicated Web access service.
In a recent report, Jupiter Communications predicted that over the next two years more than 89 percent of all Web sites would have streaming media capabilities.
That's precisely the niche that Jenner is banking on AT@T/Excite to fulfill. “The new offerings that address this need will be available via AT@T's high-speed Web service,” he said.
Additionally customers will have access to critical network data via AT@T's wide array of online tools. These tools allow customers to monitor and manage their traffic flows.
