[8379] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
SprintLink 45 Mbps Announcement
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert D. Collet Sprint GSD)
Tue Nov 16 14:48:14 1993
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 1993 15:10:56 +0000
From: "Robert D. Collet Sprint GSD" <rcollet@icm1.icp.net>
To: com-priv@psi.com
Cc: rcollet@icm1.icp.net, pkendall@icm1.icp.net
Forwarded message:
Contacts: Janis Langley, (O) 202-828-7427; (H) 703-533-3322
Evette Fulton, (O) 202-828-7411; (H) 301-230-0978
For Immediate Release
SPRINT UPGRADES SPEED, CAPACITY OF INTERNET BACKBONE SERVICE
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 1993 -- Sprint today became the
first carrier-based Internet service provider to announce plans to
upgrade its transmission network -- SprintLink(SM) -- to
accommodate transit speeds of 45 megabits per second by the first
quarter of next year. The upgrade includes cutting-edge routing
and network management technologies that significantly improve the
network's performance.
The SprintLink network upgrade anticipates the transition of
Internet traffic from the National Science Foundation network,
NSFNet, to commercial service providers, which is expected to
begin in spring of 1994. The NSFNet is the U.S. backbone for the
Internet, the global "network of networks" that interconnects more
than 18,000 networks and over 2,000,000 host computers worldwide.
One of the first phases in the network upgrade is a
cooperative test with the NSF to transfer some of its global
transit services across the new Sprint backbone. The test builds
on Sprint's existing role as the international connections manager
for the NSFNet, through which it already carries most of NSFNet's
international traffic.
As the international connections manager for the NSFNet,
Sprint has the most comprehensive global routing tables of any
service provider -- the "road maps" of the information highway.
To further enhance the network's ability to route information,
Sprint will replace existing routers with Cisco 7000 routers, one
of the industry's highest performing models.
Sprint also is embedding Silicon Graphics' Indigo(R)
workstations within its network hubs to manage "domain name"
service. These powerful systems maintain the extensive and
ever-changing list of "domains" -- user groups or networks -- on
the Internet and their corresponding addresses, from regional
research networks to public electronic messaging service
providers.
Sprint has developed a "flat" network architecture -- a
streamlined design that sends information through fewer levels of
equipment, permitting higher speeds, less chance of failure and
the smooth transition to future services, including Asynchronous
Transfer Mode. In 1994, high-bandwidth customers will be able to
connect to SprintLink using Sprint's ATM service through any of
Sprint's more than 300 network points of presence in the United
States.
ATM currently allows data transmission at 45 megabits per
second -- fast enough to send a 400-page book across the country
in one second.
"The tremendous growth of users on the Internet is fueling
the demand for higher-speed, easily upgradable commercial
services," said Don Teague, general manager for Sprint's
Government Systems Division, which manages the company's business
with the federal government. "This upgrade takes our network
service to the next technological plane -- those high-bandwidth
services required to support the research and scientific
community, as well as a growing number of commercial users engaged
in electronic commerce and other leading-edge information
technologies."
Sprint is a diversified international telecommunications
company with more than $10 billion in annual revenues and the
United States' only nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network.
Its divisions provide global long distance voice, data and video
products and services, local telephone services to more than 6
million subscriber lines in 19 states, and cellular operations
that serve 42 metropolitan markets and more than 50 rural service
areas.
- 30 -
Silicon Graphics and Indigo are registered trademarks of
Silicon Graphics Inc.
JL/KH
111693
