Interoute, owner operator of Europe’s largest next-generation network, today announced EBITDA of €25 million for 2008, a €31 million improvement over 2007. It finished 2008 with a fifth consecutive quarter of EBITDA positive growth, taking its accounting revenues for 2008 to €247 million up from €188 million in 2007. Interoute is in a strong position to build on its 32% growth rate recorded in 2008 by capitalising on the global demand for high-capacity connectivity. Since 2003 it has provided both the pan-European enterprise and wholeale carrier market with a portfolio of innovative services and next-generation connectivity from its pan-European fibre-optic network. In 2008 sales to pan-European enterprises accounted for well over half of interoute’s annual revenues. 

Unburdened by legacy technologies, Interoute’s network and operating costs increased only 9% in 2008. This operational gearing results from Interoute’s next generation business model, which allows the Company to rapidly expand services for its customers based on its fibre optic network without incurring additional costs. This strategy has reinforced its enviable position as a next-generation network services provider and allowed it to focus on developing its innovative product portfolio. This includes the creation of the largest privately-owned IP cloud in Europe; an IP network that lets companies store their applications and data securely in the Interoute network, meaning IT resources can be accessed from anywhere at anytime. Its enterprise VoIP service, Interoute One, and its content distribution and hosting services are tailored for today’s enterprises including the media, music and gaming industries.  

Commenting on the results Gareth Williams, Interoute CEO said “The recent flight towards fibre has been a strong impetus for our revenue growth. This demand for fibre connectivity and services that are optimised by a next-generation network is coming from companies who are adopting emerging technologies and expanding their global services Network scalability is crucial for companies wanting to provide ‘on-demand’ software-as-a-service solutions, or virtualisation technologies and our extensive data centre footprint is designed to deliver a scalable and resilient network that can be ‘turned up or down’ on demand as capacity dictates. We have the capacity reserves to roll-out 60Gbps of capacity to new customers in a matter of days.”

Williams concluded: “As other telecoms operators struggle with the financial burden of upgrading their legacy networks, we’ve focused on our fibre-optic heritage.  This, together with our business model and lean management structure, allows us to offer customers the most cost-efficient next-generation capacity and services. We’ve secured an edge in this market and what’s important moving forward is that we continue to deliver optimum customer service supported by our customer portal and ability to deliver fast and efficiently.”  

Interoute’s pan European network links to 93 cities in 24 countries. Combined with its 86,700 square meters of co-location space across 59 data centres, Interoute has Europe’s largest fibre and duct reserve that allows it to capitalise on existing and new revenue streams from emerging markets.  For example, East and South East Europe saw a 39.5 per cent increase in demand for broadband services over the twelve months to September 2008, with countires like Macedonia experiencing a 177% jump in demand¹.Given the growth, Interoute continues its commitment to building and operating a communications bridge across the European Continent, and back to North America and the Middle East.  The landing of a 300km submarine fibre cable at Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, linking Malta with Italy and the rest of Europe, was a testament to this effort.  

Sources1. Telegeography, Sept 2007-08, the aggregate rate of broadband subscriber growth in South and Eastern Europe was 39.5%, with some countries experiencing rapid growth: Serbia (138%), Macedonia (177%), Albania (120%). 

Tunisie Telecom has signed a contract with Interoute to establish a subsea cable linking North Africa to Interoute’s pan-European fibre optic network. The cable, due to land in Sicily in October, gives Tunisia ownership over the flow of its internet traffic and removes the reliance on consortium owned subsea cables such as SEAMEWE 4.  By connecting to Interoute’s advanced fibre optic network, Tunisie Telecom will have access to the independent operator’s innovative services and competitive pricing model. This is crucial to keeping the incumbent carriers competitive and places Tunisie Telecom at the forefront of the continued broadband boom - Tunisian IP traffic tripled in 2008. 

The venture will see a 170km unrepeated fibre optic cable run from Kelibia, Tunisia, to Interoute’s landing station in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily.  From Sicily the cable will connect to Interoute’s pan-European fibre optic network providing a speed of light route to Paris and access to 24 networked countries. The new cable will offer 3.2 Tera-Bits Per Second of capacity, capable of streaming approximately 4,000,000 simultaneous youtube videos^. On completion, this will be Interoute’s seventh European landing station connecting sub sea systems into its pan European network.  

Gareth Williams, CEO Interoute commented, “Interoute is proud to be part of the movement to support the growing North African market with high speed, high capacity connectivity. We have previously linked the UK and Scandinavia to our pan European network (via submarine cables in the North and Baltic seas) and the Balkan countries via a subsea cable to Greece for OTE Globe, and Malta with GO. This bold new project from Tunisia Telecom will ensure that nation’s rapid broadband growth and developing tech industry will be supported for many years to come. This project also secures Tunisia’s place as the leader in bridging North Africa’s digital divide, bringing the region on-net to the European Union.”   

“In the past year repeated submarine cables outages in the Mediterranean have demonstrated the value of having multiple cables that offer diversity,” said Alan Mauldin, Research Director, TeleGeography. “Tunisie Telecom’s new cable, supported by Interoute’s pan European fibre optic network, will provide the additional capacity and resiliency the country needs to meet the needs of Internet users and enterprises in the country.”

http://www.interoute.com/news_and_events/news/1269

VOIP

A Brief History

The use of Voip (voice over IP) is increasing rapidly year on year. It is predicted that by the end of 2009 there will be 256 million users of VOIP around the world. The advantages of VOIP in terms of scale, cost and easy of use are now commonly agreed upon. But where did VOIP begin? Who invented VOIP?

The history of VOIP extends further back into the world of pre internet that most people would think. The first Voip calls where made as far back as 1973. The capability to send voice across a digital network was pioneered on the ARPANET network, the precursor to the modern Internet. It only carried data and voice between the private network of computers on the APRPANET grid but the seeds for the VOIP revolution where sown by these pioneers.

Voip continued to developed amongst a small cache of computer users who used the technology to communicate with each other in a sort of geeky version of CB radio. Any two computers connected on the same network could use voip technology but there was no widespread adoption of the technology. The first major step towards the VoIP services that many of use to today was the introduction of the software called “Internet Phone” from a US based company called Vocaltec. The first publicly available of f the shelve internet phone software from Vocaltec was the catalyst for the explosion in VOIP use. The Vocaltec software was able to run on a home PC and utilized much of the same hardware products that Voip services use today in terms of soundcards, speakers and headsets. The Internet Phone software differed from most modern VOIP services in that it used the H.323 protocol instead of the SIP protocol that is more ubiquitous today.

Although Internet Phone was an immediate commercial success it did suffer from a variety of problems. The lack of high speed internet access meant that the quality could be poor and the flow of voice slow. Early voip calls where like using walkie-talkies to communicate in terms of quality of signal. Another issue was the fact that the two computers that where talking to each other needed to have the same soundcards with the same drivers for the software to work. This obviously limited the use of the software and the effectiveness of the process. Much of the transmission was done via modems and was therefore utilizing traditional telephone lines and providing a service that was of a worse quality to that of a normal phone call.

Once Vocaltec had laid the foundations the increase in the use of VOIP was fairly rapid accounting for 1% of all US phone calls by 1998. Other companies began to develop software for the VOIP market and also hardware in the terms of hard phone and network switches. The expansion of broadband also aided the growth of VOIP by increasing the quality of calls and reducing the latency issues that effected VOIP at the beginning. By the year 2000 VOIP calls in the US where about 3% of the total.

The popularity of VOIP has increased since the turn of the millennium and with free VOIP provider Skype currently having registered a staggering 400 million user accounts at the end of 2008. With the growing availability of VOIP services for mobile phones it looks as if the adoption of VOIP will continue to expand rapidly.

Tony Heywood ©

Managed Hosting

what you need to know.

As a small business owner I have been looking into the different types of host packages and services available. I have decided to go for a managed hosting service. Managed Hosting refers to a hosting solution for a website where the site is housed and managed on a dedicated secure server. The customer leases a server for their own use and therefore they do not have to share the server with other clients. Having your server has a number of advantages in terms of security and management. Below I have listed the five main areas I feel you need to consider before deciding on your managed hosting provider.

Operating System

One of the major advantages of having a dedicated server is that you can chose which operating system is used to manage and run the server. The operating system depends on personal preference, its worth talking to you web development team and asking them which one is the best for your website. Linux operating systems are often bundled in free with the hosting plan, Microsoft SPLA or other Red Hat systems may require extra payment. You need to ask the hosting provider if the package includes updates to the OS, service packs, patches and software upgrades.

Management

Managed hosting as the name suggests will include a degree of management but there is no industry wide standard to clarify what the management element will contain. For some providers it is having a full team of service engineers waiting to sort out any issues that arise for other it is simply having a control panel that you can access yourself. Depending on your own experience and skills in website hosting you need to ensure that the service level won’t leave you in a blind panic if something goes wrong. Managed hosting is normally set at three different service levels:

Self Managed – This is the basic or bronze level package that would include some maintenance and updating but customers manage most of the services themselves.

Managed – The next level up, the silver level package would normally contain monitoring, updates and limited levels of support.

Fully Managed – The gold standard of management hosting. A fully managed service should be like having your own IT department. You should get monitoring, reboots, security, OS upgrades, customer support and software updates.

Security

Dealing with issues of security and keeping all the software and operating systems patched and updated is one of the great advantages of managed hosting. You shouldn’t have to worry about the security of your site as the security measures provided by your hosting provider should be the most current. You need to check that security updates are included in the service level you have signed up to.

Software

Much like the choice of Operating System you can also chose the software that will run on your managed server. You can pick and mix your database software and other applications that might be required to run video and audio on your website. The choice of control panel software is important as these can be as simple of complex as you require them to be. They can be configured to allow you to control all aspects of the server remotely via a web based interface.

Bandwidth

You will also need to set and pay for the amount of bandwidth you think you are going to use. Purchasing bandwidth via a managed server provider often works out cheaper than attempting to purchase the service in isolation. Economies of scale allow managed hosting providers to get discounts on the base cost of bandwidth. There is no industry benchmark or pricing structure for bandwidth. It can be sold as part of the package or as add on depending on projected usage. It is worth setting the bandwidth limit higher than you think you will use as most providers will pile on the cost if you go over your allotted usage.

Once you have addressed these issue you can then think about making a choice about which managed hosting service provider best fits your requirements. You need to make sure you have sorted out which OS and software is running, how secure the server is, the level of management involved and the provision of adequate bandwidth. Take you time and make sure you are completely comfortable with the service. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and get clarification on technical issues.

Tony Heywood