Verio Introduces Industry-Leading Jitter Service Level Agreement As Cornerstone of Enhanced NTT/VERIO Network Performance Metrics [2nd July 2003]

ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Jul 2, 2003 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Verio, a subsidiary of NTT Communications and a leader in global IP solutions, today introduced an industry-leading jitter service level agreement (SLA) for North American dedicated access customers on the NTT/VERIO Global IP Network.

Verio customers will benefit from a jitter performance guarantee of both average jitter of 0.5 milliseconds and maximum jitter of 10 milliseconds. Network jitter is the variation of latency over time - a measure of the consistency and stability of a network. Assurances on jitter performance are especially important to customers who utilize real-time delivery in their enterprises, including content delivery networks, IP videoconferencing and Voice over IP applications. Measuring jitter is a critical element to determining the performance of networks, particularly in relation to these types of time-sensitive applications.

Many enterprises are considering real-time IP-based applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP), which can leverage the Internet by creating a voice network between various office locations, replacing the high variable costs of long-distance charges with the lower fixed costs of Internet connectivity. A successful VoIP deployment requires a quality underlying network that can provide users the same voice quality found on traditional phone connections. Excessive network jitter degrades call quality and can render VoIP communication useless, making it critical for the underlying network performance to meet these requirements.

The jitter SLA component is another example of the unique engineering of the NTT/VERIO Global IP Network for mission-critical applications. Customers are compensated with service credits if Verio fails to fulfill the terms of the service level agreement.

In addition to the industry-first jitter SLA offered by a Tier One network provider, Verio is reinforcing its performance guarantees on packet loss, improving its service level agreements on intra-US, trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic traffic to 0.1 percent.

Verio has also lowered its latency guarantees, ensuring that customers' North American roundtrip transport will not exceed 55 milliseconds. For trans-Atlantic traffic, Verio guarantees that transport times will not exceed 90 milliseconds, and trans-Pacific will not exceed 130 milliseconds, thus ensuring the fastest data transmission for business' IP traffic.

Verio offers a goal of 100 percent availability on all of the NTT/VERIO Global IP Network for North American, trans-Atlantic, and trans-Pacific traffic.

"We consistently hear from customers that SLAs are critically important to them, and we believe that network SLAs should evolve to be meaningful to the business applications that our customers are deploying," said Greg Falconer, senior director of product management for Verio's Broadband Services unit. "By extending our SLA to include jitter, as well as offering aggressive performance levels across the board, our customers can feel confident that our network will support new applications such as Voice over IP and IP videoconferencing while delivering aggressive performance levels overall."

More information can be found at www.verio.com/sla.

About Verio

Verio Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Communications (NTT Com), which provides long distance and international telecommunications reaching over 200 countries worldwide. Verio is the world's largest operator of Web sites for businesses and a leading provider of global IP solutions. NTT Com and Verio market their global IP solutions under the NTT/VERIO brand. The company offers businesses a broad range of Internet services, including Web hosting, dedicated access, virtual private networks, and managed service offerings, among other enhanced services. Verio supports its operations with highly reliable and scalable global infrastructure and systems including the NTT/VERIO Global IP Network, and provides Web hosting services to customers in more than 146 countries. The combination of Verio and NTT Com offers services to meet the growing and diverse needs of all businesses, including small to medium businesses, large global enterprises and multi-national corporations. More information can be found at www.verio.com and www.ntt.com/index-e.html

SOURCE: NTT/VERIO

Verio Inc.
Mona Peloquin, 703/333-6518
mpeloquin@verio.net
or
Text 100 for Verio
Nina Velasquez, 212/871-5173
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