27 August 2002 -- Telia International Carrier has received a three-year multi-million order for IP transit - one of its largest ever - from DANTE on behalf of 18 European National Research and Education Networks. These include Germany (DFN), Switzwerland (Switch), Italy (Garr) and Italy (Red Iris). The deal concerns six IP nodes in London, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Zurich, Madrid and Milan. The speed ranges from 2.5Gbit/s to STM-4.
Telia IC becomes one of the two suppliers providing IP services. It already supplies IP to the university networks Sunet, Nordunet and Belnet, so the order makes it the largest supplier of IP transit to university networks in Europe. Indirectly, Telia IC now supplies 75% of Europe's university students with IP transit, says president Erik Heilborn. There are now about 8 million students in Europe surfing the Internet via its Viking Network.
"After the demise of KPNQwest we quickly had to find a replacement to maintain our strategy of dual suppliers for IP service," says DANTE general manager Dai Davies.