Yipes Lands Deal With CPI

Although best known for building citywide fiber networks that offer flexible-bandwidth metro-area network services, startup Yipes Communications Inc. has landed a two-year, $100,000 contract with Communications and Power Industries Inc. to provide a 4-Mbps optical connection to the Internet from its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. The Because Yipes charges low rates per megabit of capacity, CPI, which makes vacuum electron devices, is getting eight times the 512-Kbps-bandwidth frame link it had used for half the price.

The increasing volume of large file transfers to partners and customers drove CPI away from a higher-priced frame relay connection to the 4-Mbps Yipes fiber link, which can increase to 10 Mbps when needed, the provider says. Although price was a key consideration, Yipes' ability to turn on high-speed connections quickly was another factor in CPI's decision. CPI is planning to deploy Internet-based virtual private networks to communicate with branch offices.

"Yipes is more flexible than local providers, chiefly meaning it can move faster in turning up big bandwidth connections that enable customers to easily add bandwidth as their networking needs increase," says Daniel Briere, CEO of telecom consulting firm TeleChoice. "When you're doing business in Internet time, there's a huge difference between getting connections in days as opposed to months--and that's if there's fiber in the ground already."

Yipes says it offers its service over advanced optical networks that provide flexibility and scalable bandwidth. The service will be available in 16 cities initially, with four more added by year's end. The services, which also include Yipes WAN and Yipes MAN, are scalable from 1 Mbps to 1 Gbps in 1-Mbps increments.