World's First Global Full-scale GRX Peering Exchange Now in Service

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World's first full-service, scalable GRX Peering Exchange for the interconnection of GPRS roaming networks now online

Signature of 80% of current GPRS roaming exchange providers

Exchange now ready for first interconnections.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 18 July 2001

A cross-industry working group today announced the completion and first stage implementation of a multi-party peering agreement which constitutes a major milestone in the development of a cost-effective, high-speed, international infrastructure for the mobile Internet. The agreement establishes a dedicated platform hosted and managed by the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) as the first full-service, scalable GRX Peering Exchange for the interconnection of GPRS roaming networks.   GRX Peering will facilitate global roaming for mobile end user customers and is a core component in enabling a truly global mobile internet.

The AMS-IX GRX Peering Exchange will speed the time-to-market of GPRS roaming and create considerable efficiencies in the provision of GRX services by utilizing common shared GRX peering infrastructure. By gaining early cross-industry agreement the members of the GRX Peering group have avoided multiple, costly bi-lateral physical peering connections, with resultant time and cost benefits in delivering their services to mobile network operators. The realization of the GRX Peering Exchange is a key milestone in delivering the global connectivity required by the mobile operators community for GPRS roaming.

The agreement defines a technology-independent dedicated mobile data backbone, effective not only for GPRS but also for UMTS. The Peering Exchange, which is managed by AMS-IX as an independent third party, will offer a secure and high-capacity environment, which is fully scalable for the expected steep growth in GPRS – and later UMTS - traffic.

The founding membership of the Amsterdam GRX Peering Exchange represents 80% of all current providers of international GPRS roaming data backbones for mobile operators, with signatures from 17 of the 22 currently listed GRX providers. It is anticipated that the proposal will receive unanimous cross-industry support due to the significant benefits it offers. The Peering Exchange is now ready to accept GRX providers, and first interconnections are expected before the end of this month.

This peering initiative pulls the peering of GRX providers 6 months ahead of schedule at a stroke," said Project Co-ordinator Remco Pasman, chairman of the public peering point initiative--. "For the mobile operators - our customers – this will mean that achieving GPRS roaming with their partner networks can be achieved simply and quickly by connecting to the GRX operator of their choice.   This will really assist in speeding up the launch date of GPRS roaming services to end-users."

The Amsterdam PX was initiated in February. In the future it is expected that more peering exchanges like the Amsterdam GRX PX will open up in the hotspots of the global mobile Internet as demand rises.

Market Size Forecasts

40-70% of mobile subscribers are forecast to use mobile data services by the end of 2005. Furthermore, mobile data traffic is expected to account for 45% of total mobile traffic by 2004. Mobile data usage per subscriber is expected to more than double between 2001-2004, while data roaming usage will increase from 2-3% to 10% of total mobile data traffic (sources: The Arc Group, Ovum, IDC).

Current Members of the Peering Initiative

The 17 companies who have signed the agreement to date are:

• Aicent
• Belgacom
• Cable & Wireless
• Carrier1
• Comfone/Infonet
• Deutsche Telekom
• Ebone
• Energis
• France Telecom
• Global Crossing
• KPNQwest
• Sonera/Equant
• Telecom Italia
• Telenor
• Telia
• Telecommunications Services Inc
• WorldCom

About GPRS/GRX

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) is the data service for GSM, a packet-switched mobile network technology which is widely expected to constitute the next stage in the evolution of GSM networks.  It offers end-users an always-online experience with higher bandwidths than are possible on current mobile networks. These features will allow end-users to be online much more intensively than is currently possible and will enable mobile services such as m-commerce, messaging, location-based services and corporate services.

A GRX is a dedicated data network interconnecting GPRS mobile operators networks. GRX services enable travelers and business people to use their GPRS services while they are abroad or beyond the reach of their home network. Peering refers to the interconnection of separate GRXs.

About AMS-IX

The Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX), a member-owned association, is the largest neutral and independent Internet Exchange on mainland Europe and one of the largest Internet Exchanges worldwide. Currently 120 members exchange IP traffic with each other at one or more of the 4 current AMS-IX locations. By making use of the AMS-IX, connected parties improve performance and redundancy while saving on bandwidth usage.

For further information, please contact:

Tel: 0031 (0)20 305 89 95
E-mail: cara.mascini@ams-ix.net
http://www.ams-ix.net