AboveNet Forms Japanese Venture

AboveNet Communications Inc. Monday extended its network into Japan through a new joint venture with Marubeni Corp. and Trans Cosmos Inc.

Marubeni will own 50 percent of the venture, AboveNet will control 40 percent, while Trans Cosmos holds the remaining 10 percent. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

AboveNet Japan K.K. will serve to improve Internet traffic flow between Japan, Europe and the US by streamlining the routing paths, as well as offer co-located hosting to Japanese companies. As part of the new momentum in Japan, AboveNet Japan will build an Internet service exchange facility in Tokyo scheduled to open in the
second quarter of 2000.

“By extending our IP network to Japan, AboveNet is breaking new ground in the evolution of the Internet as a global medium,” said Sherman Tuan, AboveNet CEO. “AboveNet Japan will tie Japan and other Asia Pacific countries more closely to the US and Europe and it will create a seamless global optical IP infrastructure unsurpassed for speed and performance.”

The company also expects the venture to build on its strategy for the Asia Pacific and beyond, in which the company will build locally-operated facilities and a transcontinental network. AboveNet UK, AboveNet Deutschland, and AboveNet Communications Austria have already formed with this goal in mind.

AboveNet pointed to a long list of Asian clients that currently co-locate at the San Jose facility, including AT&T Asia Pacific of Hong Kong; Loral Orion Asia Pacific of Singapore; Singapore Telecom; HKNet of Hong Kong; and DACOM and Korea Telecom. These companies will have the option to choose either AboveNet facility location.

AboveNet is a subsidiary of Metromedia Fiber Network (MFNX), which purchased the company for $1.65 billion in June.