Group Telecom and Akamai Form Strategic Alliance
Under the agreements, Akamai will deploy its content delivery servers in Group Telecom's data centre facilities in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. As a result, Group Telecom can reduce the amount of transit bandwidth needed to deliver requested AkamaizedSM Web pages that include rich content, streaming media, and software downloads. In addition, Group Telecom will offer its Web hosting customers the advantages of Akamai's services, which allow e-businesses to enhance infrastructure investments through rapid, reliable content delivery, high-quality streaming media delivery, advanced global traffic management, Web usage reporting, and other value-added Web performance services.
"This is a win-win deal for Group Telecom, Akamai and our customers, as we offer compatible, best-in-class services to customers with demanding Web and IP outsourcing requirements," said Steven Koles, senior vice president, marketing, Group Telecom. "Our next-generation fibre-optic network, Gigabit Ethernet Internet access, and data centre hosting, combined with Akamai's content delivery services, enables Group Telecom to better meet the applications demands of our customers."
"Working with Group Telecom presents a unique opportunity for Akamai to extend both the benefits of our services and the reach of our content delivery network in Canada," said Chris Turner, vice president, channel distribution, Akamai. "We look forward to growing the mutually beneficial relationship and fulfilling the content delivery needs of Group Telecom's growing customer base."
About Akamai
Akamai is the leading Content Delivery Service Provider, serving more than 3,650 customers, including 1,337 recurring customers under contract worldwide. Akamai has the broadest deployment of servers for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 8,000 servers in 55 countries directly connected within 473 different telecommunications networks.
About Group Telecom
Group Telecom is Canada's largest independent, facilities-based Competitive Local Exchange Carrier, with a national fibre-optic network spanning eight provinces and linked by 190,583 strand kilometres of fibre-optic, as at September 30, 2000. Group Telecom's unique backbone architecture - built with Gigabit Ethernet, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Synchronous Optical Network (SONET), as well as Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology - supplies the highest level of network performance and reliability.
Group Telecom offers next-generation high-speed data, Internet applications and voice services, delivering advanced business communication tools to Canadian businesses. Group Telecom provides its customers the highest standards of innovative, reliable, one-to-one customer service in the telecommunications industry and one-stop shopping for all advanced telecommunication solutions.
Group Telecom is headquartered in Toronto, with local offices in 13 markets across eight provinces in Canada, as at September 30, 2000. For more information about Group Telecom, visit our website at www.gt.ca.
Certain statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Group Telecom to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the dependence on Akamai's Internet content delivery service, a failure of its network infrastructure, the complexity of its service and the networks on which the service is deployed, the failure to obtain access to transmission capacity and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.
| Contacts: |
||
| Nora Lacey Group Telecom 416-848-2412 nlacey@gt.ca |
--or-- | Felicia Spagnoli Media Relations Akamai Technologies 617-613-2525 spagnoli@akamai.com |
| Michael Minnes Group Telecom 416-848-2456 investor@gt.ca |
--or-- | Steven J. Wolfe Investor Relations Akamai Technologies 617-250-4724 swolfe@akamai.com |
Comprehensive Agreements to Include Deployment of Akamai Servers and Offer of Content Delivery Services
TORONTO, ON and CAMBRIDGE, MA - January 29, 2001 - GT Group Telecom Inc. (TSE: GTG.B, NASDAQ: GTTLB), Canada's largest independent, facilities-based Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC), and Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading Content Delivery Service Provider (CDSP), today announced that the companies have forged strategic agreements through which Akamai will deploy content delivery servers in select Group Telecom data centres and, separately, Group Telecom will offer certain of Akamai's Internet content delivery services as part of its Internet infrastructure service offerings. Group Telecom will become the first Canadian applications provider to offer Akamai's services for greater Web site speed, reliability, and performance.Under the agreements, Akamai will deploy its content delivery servers in Group Telecom's data centre facilities in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal. As a result, Group Telecom can reduce the amount of transit bandwidth needed to deliver requested AkamaizedSM Web pages that include rich content, streaming media, and software downloads. In addition, Group Telecom will offer its Web hosting customers the advantages of Akamai's services, which allow e-businesses to enhance infrastructure investments through rapid, reliable content delivery, high-quality streaming media delivery, advanced global traffic management, Web usage reporting, and other value-added Web performance services.
"This is a win-win deal for Group Telecom, Akamai and our customers, as we offer compatible, best-in-class services to customers with demanding Web and IP outsourcing requirements," said Steven Koles, senior vice president, marketing, Group Telecom. "Our next-generation fibre-optic network, Gigabit Ethernet Internet access, and data centre hosting, combined with Akamai's content delivery services, enables Group Telecom to better meet the applications demands of our customers."
"Working with Group Telecom presents a unique opportunity for Akamai to extend both the benefits of our services and the reach of our content delivery network in Canada," said Chris Turner, vice president, channel distribution, Akamai. "We look forward to growing the mutually beneficial relationship and fulfilling the content delivery needs of Group Telecom's growing customer base."
About Akamai
Akamai is the leading Content Delivery Service Provider, serving more than 3,650 customers, including 1,337 recurring customers under contract worldwide. Akamai has the broadest deployment of servers for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 8,000 servers in 55 countries directly connected within 473 different telecommunications networks.
About Group Telecom
Group Telecom is Canada's largest independent, facilities-based Competitive Local Exchange Carrier, with a national fibre-optic network spanning eight provinces and linked by 190,583 strand kilometres of fibre-optic, as at September 30, 2000. Group Telecom's unique backbone architecture - built with Gigabit Ethernet, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Synchronous Optical Network (SONET), as well as Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology - supplies the highest level of network performance and reliability.
Group Telecom offers next-generation high-speed data, Internet applications and voice services, delivering advanced business communication tools to Canadian businesses. Group Telecom provides its customers the highest standards of innovative, reliable, one-to-one customer service in the telecommunications industry and one-stop shopping for all advanced telecommunication solutions.
Group Telecom is headquartered in Toronto, with local offices in 13 markets across eight provinces in Canada, as at September 30, 2000. For more information about Group Telecom, visit our website at www.gt.ca.
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Certain statements in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of Group Telecom to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the dependence on Akamai's Internet content delivery service, a failure of its network infrastructure, the complexity of its service and the networks on which the service is deployed, the failure to obtain access to transmission capacity and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.
