Concentric Expands Network, Signs AOL Peering Agreement

Concentric Network Corp. announced today it has completed upgrades to its IP-based ATM network that the Internet service provider said boosts outbound bandwidth capacity to more than one gigabit per second.

The company said it is now employing seven private peering lines leased from MCI, UUNET, and Spring at DS3 speeds, and over 65% of its traffic has been relocated from public meet points to the private connections.

Concentric said the move is aimed at increasing performance and decreasing packet loss for both corporate and consumer customers.

The network expansion is also designed to deliver geographically diverse connections to other large backbones in an effort to ensure that traffic remains in local regions. Concentric said packets traveling from its network to a destination backbone can now do so in the same geographic area.

The Cupertino, CA-based company added that the upgrades will be further enhanced by the addition of new network services in 30 international sites through the MondoNet IP network.

To further add to its network coverage, Concentric also entered into a peering agreement with America Online in which the network interconnection between the companies will be at DS3 speeds.

Concentric said AOL members will be able to log on to the Web and other content on Concentric’s network more quickly as a result. In addition, Concentric customers will be offered faster access to AOL as well the Web.