NTL Picks FT for IP Transit

PARIS -- France Telecom has just won a contract to provide international IP transit to NTL, the UK's largest cable operator and broadband provider. The agreement makes France Telecom one of NTL's leading suppliers along with three other premium IP transit providers to ensure that NTL's internet product range maintains its dominant position for high quality performance.

NTL requested a highly resilient, scalable service, and France Telecom responded with a solution offering physically diverse and redundant high-capacity links to Europe and the US, with stringent SLAs. Through the deal, France Telecom will connect NTL to its global backbone network via two points of presence (PoPs), one in London and a new one in Bristol, built specifically to match NTL's needs.

As the leading provider of broadband in the UK with around 3 million residential customers, NTL also wanted a provider with sufficient scale and capabilities to enable it to capitalize on the growth of broadband in the UK. According to a recent Oftel report, broadband use and awareness in the UK is growing significantly, with over 2 million current broadband users and new subscribers signing up at a rate of around 30,000 per week.

Eric Le Bihan, Vice President, Sales and Support (Europe), at France Telecom's Networks and Carriers division said: "Our agreement with NTL is a further step in France Telecom's strategy of winning business with key broadband players. The growth potential in European DSL and cable markets remains considerable, as we see already through our current connections throughout Europe. To get the largest slice of that business, broadband retail providers are asking us for competitive pricing but above all for reliability, security and flexible service features. France Telecom is tailoring its Open Transit® Internet range to meet that demand."

France Telecom's Open Transit® Internet and Bandwidth solutions currently provides carriers, ISPs and content providers with services, ranging from premium global low-latency connectivity to customized features such as blackholing, asymmetric IP transit. To ensure quality and cost-effectiveness, France Telecom operates its own worldwide network, which incorporates a global backbone, IP connections, satellites and more than 200 direct switched routes.

NTL Inc.

France Telecom SA