Equant, an industry leader in global data and IP services for multinational businesses, has expanded its Managed DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) Access to five additional European countries, bringing its total country availability to 13.
Equant's DSL Access service, launched in February 2003, is the most widely available such service for major multinational corporations from any global managed service provider today. The five new countries are: Belgium, France, Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. The service has been available since the launch in Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, U.K. and the U.S. It will be expanded to additional countries in 2004.
"Equant's expansion of its DSL access service makes it an even more compelling solution," said Camille Mendler, research director with the Yankee Group. "DSL access is an important alternative for multinational corporations in helping them integrate small sites and home workers into their data and IP VPNs."
Managed DSL Access enables multinational customers using Equant IP VPN and Equant LAN Access to bring small offices and home offices into their corporate VPNs over always-on, high-speed, cost-effective broadband connections.
More specifically, Equant Managed DSL Access offers the following customer benefits:
- Provides direct and secure connections between remote offices and Equant's private network.
- Always-on connections run at speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps.
- Private network security eliminates the need for complex and expensive encryption technology.
- Extends managed services to small offices, such as retail outlets and service bureaus.
Equant Managed DSL Access is already in use by 16 customers at more than 1,000 locations. A major multinational car manufacturer is using the service in the U.K. as a solution for connecting dealerships into its IP VPN. With high-speed access to technical and product information for dealers, purchasers of new cars will be able to get an up-to-the-minute status on the building of their new vehicles, enabling last-minute pre-production changes to their order and improving customer choice, service and satisfaction. Similarly, several major companies in the retail sector are currently expanding their Equant IP VPN networks to offer their retail outlets fast, reliable and always-on access to the corporate IT infrastructure, enhancing their productivity and cost management.
"Many of our customers have a number of small sites that require intermittent but high-speed access to an intranet," said Gopi Gopinath, president of Products, Equant. "Equant's DSL Access was developed in direct response to customers' requests for a cost-effective, managed service with 'always-on' shared connections, through which they could increase business efficiency."
Built on industry-leading network technology from Cosine and managed Cisco customer premise routers, DSL Access provides the benefits of a managed network service environment. Equant's DSL Access customers receive near-real time statistics, as well as hourly, daily, weekly and monthly reports detailing utilization of aggregated DSL traffic. These reports enable customers to plan capacity for optimum performance and to effectively manage costs. The reports are accessed online through Equant's Web-based customer service portal, WebVision, along with comprehensive service quality and performance information on other Equant services.
