This is the Tagline, edited under "Misc Content"
Dec 1, 2008
The expansion of GPE to the U.S. market comes after the GSM Association (GSMA), the global trade association representing more than 750 GSM mobile phone operators, selected the Equinix Washington, D.C. area IBX as the first Global Roaming Exchange (GRX) peering hub in North America. It joins two other GRX peering hubs located at Equinix's Singapore IBX center and at AMS-IX in Amsterdam. The hubs serve as scalable platforms for the interconnection of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) roaming networks. Within these centralized locations, GRX operators can interconnect their networks within a neutral environment to ensure cell phone data applications work seamlessly across different networks around the globe.
Currently offered to GRX operators in the Asia-Pacific region from Equinix's Singapore IBX center, GPE features a resilient, fully-managed, Ethernet-based switching platform designed to ensure the seamless interconnectivity between mobile networks. The service is available for all GRX operators and qualified customers that are located within the Equinix Washington, D.C. area IBX campus that wish to exchange mobile Internet traffic with their peer of choice.
The GPE switching platform provides a redundant architecture designed for improved resiliency and greater port density. Specific features include:
Some of the current participants on the GPE platform in the Equinix Singapore IBX include Aicent, Belgacom ICS, Comfone AG, Neustar, Sybase 365, Telenor Global Services, Telekom Austria TA AG and TeliaSonera.
“After a successful introduction of a GRX peering point in Asia with Equinix, we are pleased that the North American peering point in the Washington, D.C. area is ready for service and a number of GRX service providers are concluding contractual agreements,” said Robindhra Mangtani, Director, Interworking and Roaming at the GSM Association. “The GRX is a success story with over 25 international GRX carriers providing data roaming services to mobile customers. Peering in three geographic regions (Europe, Asia and now U.S.) enables the provision of QoS and provides an improvement in latency and resilience of the data roaming networks. In addition the peering points lay down a solid framework for migration to IPX.”
“Most people that have traveled outside of the coverage area of their mobile data service provider have experienced delays and performance issues in the transfer of data to their PDAs or other mobile devices,” said Eric Troyer, director of peering services at Equinix. “The GRX Peering initiative has addressed this issue and significantly enhanced performance. With the expansion of GRX Peering to the Equinix Washington, D.C. area data center campus, mobile data transfer for users in the U.S. will be further enhanced, as it can now occur inside the U.S., as opposed to being routed through the other GRX Peering hubs in Amsterdam and Singapore.”
In 2001, the first GRX peering hub was established at AMS-IX in Amsterdam after a cross-industry working group implemented a multi-party peering agreement. This agreement was a breakthrough in laying the groundwork for developing an interconnectivity infrastructure supporting roaming mobile Internet and data services on a global basis.
For information about the GSMA and its activities, visit www.gsmworld.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix services; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenue from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; and other risks described from time to time in Equinix's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see Equinix's recent quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.
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About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) provides global data center services that ensure the vitality of the information-driven world. Global enterprises, content and financial companies, and network service providers rely upon Equinix's insight and expertise to protect and connect their most valued information assets. Equinix operates 41 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers across 18 markets in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
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