Sprint providing Euro academic and research institutions with high-speed Internet connectivity
1 October 2002 -- Sprint has contracts with two European academic and research organisations for high-speed global Internet connectivity to the public Internet.
Under a two-year multimillion-dollar agreement, Sprint is providing the UK's UKERNA with two 2.5Gbit/s, fully redundant Internet connections via its London nodes to the SprintLink Global IP (Internet Protocol) Network, the Tier 1 seamless network from Sprint.
UKERNA manages JANET, the UK's education and research network, which is funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee of the UK Higher and Further Education Funding Councils and connects over 700 UK further and higher education organisations as well as its publicly funded research organisations.
"Since UK education and research is receiving growing interest around the world, we had to be sure that the information could be delivered on a global basis," said Robin Arak, chief executive, UKERNA.
Sprint is also providing ACOnet, the Austrian National Research and Education Network (funded by the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Culture and operated by the computer center of the University of Vienna), with Internet connectivity to SprintLink via its Frankfurt node.
ACOnet is based on DWDM-technology with Gigabit Ethernet for data communication between the 19 universities and many other education and research institutions in Austria. It provides general Internet connectivity to its customers using 622Mbit/s connections to the GEANT pan-European Gigabit Research and Education Network to Sprint's Tier 1 Internet backbone and a Gigabit connection to the Vienna Internet Exchange (VIX).
Sprint claims to be one of the world's largest carriers of Internet traffic. "These agreements come in the wake of a summer of turbulence in the global telecoms market and build on our success at NORDUnet, the Nordic academic and research network, which we announced earlier this summer," said Christian Moeller, regional president, Europe, Sprint. "Signing a two-year agreement is a rarity in today's volatile market, but Sprint has a 100-year heritage of providing quality services and solutions."
Across Europe, Sprint provides local enterprises, multinational companies, ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and carriers with a broad portfolio of voice, data and high-speed connectivity services that provide reach into most countries around the world.
Value-added services include global IP VPNs (Internet Protocol Virtual Private Networks), security solutions, multicasting and managed services. Sprint also provides Frame Relay and ATM services and International Private Lines (IPLs) to its customers.
The SprintLink Global IP Network was the first trans-Atlantic 10Gbit/s IP network connection available. This high-capacity, high-speed network is being extended to key global markets to provide a broad portfolio of scalable IP products, giving fast, dependable, direct access to the Internet.