London, UK – September 19, 2005 -- UK-based ICU GLOBAL, the company behind the patented Global IP index™, is pleased to announce the addition of Masergy and Internap connectivity to the company’s IP platform. As a part of the bi-lateral agreements with each of these companies, ICU Global will purchase bandwidth from each of these providers, thereby providing Global IP index™ users access to each of these networks. Furthermore, Masergy and Internap will market the Global IP index™ to their existing customer base.
The Global IP Index™ provides Benefits to End Users
The universal IP platform provides the following real benefits to end users:
• Provides turnkey access to multiple networks from a single connection
• Allows end users to expand their WANs beyond the limits of a single NSP
• Simplifies network contracts by allowing end users to deal with only one NSP and one SLA for their entire WAN footprint (regardless of the number of NSPs actually involved)
• Routes traffic through multiple NSPs (without the need to arrange for peering or direct connections)
• Maintains QoS and bypasses the public internet when inter-connecting to sites and enterprises served by other NSPs
• Provides a simple, fixed-rate pricing model for access to all carriers through a single platform
• Enables secure (via generic routing encapsulation / GRE tunneling), reliable IP connections between endpoints without having to establish a point-to-point VPN
• Allows end-users to run all video traffic over IP networks, thereby decreasing (or ideally eliminating) the need for ISDN lines or gateway services.
The Global IP index™ also provides benefits to Service Providers
For service providers, the universal IP platform offers a variety of benefits:
• Greatly simplifies and decreases the costs associated with peering arrangements between NSPs
• Allows NSPs to peer with multiple other NSPs via a single connection and a single contract
• Enables QoS markings to traverse multiple NSPs without divulging proprietary information
• Provides a simple business model, with fixed monthly costs and recurring revenue for NSPs
• Enables NSPs to effectively increase their global footprint and service offering by leveraging and selling the resources of other NSPs (without giving up their primary role on that account)
• Provides NSPs with access to the ancillary services (audio and video bridging, monitoring, etc.) offered by other NSPs, resulting in another potential source of recurring revenue
“ICUGlobal™ is pleased to welcome both Internap and Masergy to the Global IP index™ family,” reports Stephen McKenzie, Founder and CEO of ICU (Global) Ltd. “The addition of these two major service providers to the Global IP index™ enables users on the IP platform to conduct high quality IP videoconferencing between these networks without having to sacrifice end to end performance and network quality of service.”
“This is a great step forward for ICUGlobal™ as it expands the global reach of their IP platform.”
About ICU GLOBAL
ICU (GLOBAL) LTD. was founded in 2002 on three guiding principles:
•To understand, before being understood
•To be recognized as a company with four Cs – clear, concise, continuous communication
•To overcome problems that customers do not even know they have
The above three principles have helped ICU Global to become, in just over two and a half years, one of the most positively-aggressive companies in the videoconferencing business. The launch of their patented video over IP product is just the next step towards meeting customer needs by addressing communications issues that ensure those customers can concentrate on achieving their own business objectives.
As Cisco Systems, one of ICU Global’s partners, explains, “With Telecom Service Providers supporting rich media conferencing (video, voice, web) over their IP-VPNs, ICU Global's Cisco-based IP platform is firmly positioned to provide end-to-end IP interconnectivity between multiple Service Providers. This combination of the Global IP Index with Service Provider IP-VPNs has the potential to offer enterprises a global, 'carrier independent,' rich media conferencing service with greater reliability, and at a predictable cost, when compared to legacy ISDN based Video Conferencing. Ultimately, this could provide rich media IP conferencing connectivity, not just within an enterprise, but out to that enterprise's customers and suppliers, securely over IP end-to-end.”
Additional information about ICU (Global) Ltd and the Global IP Index™ can be found on the website:http://www.icuglobal.co.uk
About Internap
Internap is the market leader of intelligent route-control solutions that bring reliability, performance and security to the Internet. The company's patented and patent-pending technology address the inherent weaknesses of the Internet, enabling enterprises to take full advantage of the benefits of deploying business-critical applications such as e-commerce, Voice over IP (VoIP), video-conferencing, and streaming audio/video across the Internet. Through a portfolio of high-performance IP solutions, customers can bypass congestion points, overcome routing inefficiencies and optimize performance of their applications. Internap solutions are backed by an industry-leading performance guarantee that covers the entire Internet as opposed to just one network. These offerings include: network- and premise-based route optimization solutions, colocation, VPN, content distribution and managed security services.
About Masergy
MASERGY is a leading provider of customer-controlled enterprise networks specializing in quality of service (QoS) assurance for high-quality VoIP and IP video across converged business networks. The company helps customers lower their network costs while improving the predictability of business applications. MASERGY has the most mature, proven native IP MPLS network in the industry. This is not an overlay network--there is no underlying ATM or Frame Relay infrastructure. MASERGY is the first service provider to offer global Ethernet WANs, combining the simplicity and convenience of Ethernet with the advantages of an international IP/MPLS network to deliver converged network services and reliable application performance. Using award-winning, web-based network management tools, customers can change their bandwidth on demand, add or drop services, or check on the status of their billing and service changes at any time, day or night.