August 14, 2000

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Startup Axient Bets On Private Fiber Network

With a 60-city network, Axient gets deal from NBC to deliver broadband Olympic coverage

By Bob Wallace

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tartup Axient Communications Inc. last week launched a 60-city private fiber and broadband-access content delivery network that it says will help companies that need faster delivery of bandwidth-intensive and time-sensitive content.

Today, most content delivery networks transmit time-sensitive audio, video, and data via satellite or multiple Internet connections of varying speeds and capabilities. Axient decided instead to buy a private fiber network and team with broadband Internet service providers. Axient joins Enron Broadband Services, which recently inked a deal with Blockbuster to deliver movies to the home, and Madge.web--an emerging group of service providers delivering content from private, high-speed backbone networks.

"With their own private backbone network they can control the quality and offer predictable perform-ance of content distribution, and take the Internet backbone out of the picture," says Audrey Apfel, VP and research director for network technologies at Gartner Group.

Axient's network caught the eye of NBC/Quokka Ventures, which owns the U.S. television rights for the Summer Olympics in Sydney. "We explored numerous existing options, but settled on Axient because with their network we believe our customers will receive the best quality experience," says Tom Newell, general manager of the San Francisco venture. The unit will provide its television feeds--much of it on tape-delay--to Axient, which will package event highlights and store the multimedia clips in its network. The content will be available to the roughly four million households with broadband access, if their ISP is teamed with Axient. Newell estimates that 10 million unique visitors will access the NBC.com site during the Olympics.

Axient installed Sun Microsystems servers, Interra caching systems, EMC storage products, and Alteon WebSystems Web content switches in each of the cities and plans to have 171 U.S. metro areas covered by early 2001. Williams Communications Inc. is providing the fiber for the network. Axient has already linked with 100 U.S. ISPs capable of providing at least 256-Kbps connections into homes.

Axient wouldn't divulge pricing but says its services will cost 10% to 25% less than competitors.

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