Cable & Wireless Outperforms Competition in ISP Backbone Test

HostReview.com
Thursday, December 19, 2002; 12:00 AM

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 19, 2002 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- Cable & Wireless (CWP) , the global telecommunications group, today announced that its global IP network has outperformed the industry competition in a recently published Network World ISP Backbone Test (http://nwfusion.com/research/2002/1216isptest.html ). The results from Network World further demonstrate Cable & Wireless' leadership position in providing the industry's best performing and most reliable network infrastructure to support the IP connectivity, managed hosting and content delivery requirements of multinational enterprises and service providers.

In one of the industry's most rigorous tests to date of backbone network performance, Network World tested seven IP networks over a 30-day period, using testing devices placed on locations in each participating companies' network to measure for network availability, jitter, and packet loss. During the 30-day testing period each location was measured more than 5,000 times. Cable & Wireless achieved the best overall results, outperforming the likes of Level 3, Qwest, Sprint, Verio and WilTel Communications (formerly Williams Communications). Cable & Wireless test results showed:

-- 0 outages during normal operations, scheduled maintenance and emergency
maintenance windows
-- 100% uptime
-- 0% packet loss
-- 44 microseconds average jitter and lowest maximum jitter

" Cable & Wireless has one of the most rigorously engineered IP networks in the industry, and the results of the Network World backbone test are a testament to high performance and reliability levels we deliver to our customers," said Simon Cunningham, chief executive officer for Cable & Wireless America. "Through our single AS network architecture and the deployment of new technologies like MPLS, we can consistently deliver a superior level of performance and reliability for our customers to support their mission-critical business requirements on a global scale."

Cable & Wireless IP Network

Cable & Wireless operates a single global IP network operating at OC-192 speeds based on a core traffic-engineering platform using intelligent MPLS routing and switching. This leading platform provides multinational enterprises and service providers with an Internet infrastructure to support all their applications, connectivity and content needs. Cable & Wireless' global IP network provides:

-- Large multinational enterprise customers with a single high performance IP infrastructure consistently around the globe to keep them ahead of the curve in terms of offering services to their customers and linking their own operations.
-- Global service providers and telecommunications companies with a high-quality IP backbone to deliver traffic-engineered services to
their own customers.
-- Hosting customers and large-scale content providers with the
high-quality network connections required to efficiently and securely link hosted and cached content with their target market users even when the geographical span is several continents.

Network Tools

A pioneer in real-time online network performance tools, Cable & Wireless provides customers real-time global IP network performance and reporting at www.cw.com/sla. Through its Packet Loss Calculator, Cable & Wireless also offers an online simulation tool where customers can see how the superior performance of Cable & Wireless IP transit services, compared to competitors' services, gives customers value for money. The Packet Loss Calculator is available at www.cw.com/packetloss.

About Cable & Wireless

Cable & Wireless is a major global telecommunications business with revenue of over 5.9 billion pounds Sterling (US$8.6 billion) in the year to 31 March 2002 and customers in 80 countries. It consists of two core and complementary divisions: Cable & Wireless Regional and Cable & Wireless Global. Cable & Wireless Regional offers a full range of telecommunications services in 33 countries around the world, with major businesses in the Caribbean, Panama, the Middle East and Macau. Cable & Wireless Global provides IP (Internet Protocol), voice and data services and managed solutions for business customers. It has developed advanced IP networks and value-added services in the US, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region in support of this strategy. Building on its strong national businesses in the UK and Japan, Cable & Wireless Global will focus on serving primarily multinational companies (both enterprises and service providers) in the US, UK, continental Europe and Japan/Asia. For more information about Cable & Wireless, go to www.cw.com.