Yipes Launches Next Generation Managed Optical IP Networks - Company Business and Marketing

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Feb 21, 2000

Ushering in a new era of bandwidth availability, managed optical IP network provider, Yipes, Tuesday launched its all IP (Internet Protocol)-over-fiber networks for linking businesses at speeds up to 1 gigabit per second.

Yipes is building out the first end-to-end Ethernet-based regional networks across the United States. These networks will solve the bandwidth crunch between corporate LANs and cross-country fiber networks and drive a new generation of bandwidth-intensive applications.

"Yipes is redefining business connectivity by taking a completely customer-oriented view of the bandwidth challenge," said Jerry Parrick, Yipes CEO. "In addition to having a gigabit of bandwidth brought to their doorstep, customers can get bandwidth in one megabit increments and can increase speeds overnight. This is truly a new way of empowering companies to tailor their data communications to match their applications in business-to-business and business-to-Internet environments. We connect a company's high-speed LAN directly to the fiber network without using traditional central office-based services. Yipes uses an end-to-end IP network to eliminate points of failure due to protocol conversions built into legacy networks. Simply put, Yipes networking service is faster, simpler, and more scalable," Parrick continued.

"Enterprise users are increasingly frustrated with old-world telco lead-times in an Internet economy," commented Jennifer Pigg, Executive Vice President at the Yankee Group, a Boston-based research and consulting firm. "Yipes promises the flexibility and speed of provisioning enterprises are demanding, without sacrificing the service, support and reliability that users demand."

IP-over-Fiber Products and Services

Yipes' innovative IP-over-fiber architecture enables customers to buy the speeds and services desired, rather than fitting into the traditional telco transmission hierarchy. Instead of limiting selections to ISDN (128k), T1 (1.54 Mbps), DS3 (45 Mbps) or OC-3 (155 Mbps), Yipes provides bandwidth in 1 megabit increments from 1 Mbps all the way up to 1 Gbps.

Equally important, additional bandwidth can be added quickly to meet changing business needs, eliminating the wait for new facilities.

By building out the first all Ethernet-based IP regional networks, Yipes is providing more efficient and reliable transmission. The Yipes network uses native IP and Ethernet protocols, eliminating the need to interface with ISDN, frame relay, ATM, SONET or other legacy protocols. Customer data moves more efficiently via native data protocols without having to be converted back and forth. Fewer protocol conversions and less equipment result in fewer potential points of failure on the Yipes network.

Two specific services were introduced Tuesday as part of Yipes' all IP-over-fiber networks: Yipes NET links company LANs seamlessly to the Internet at customer-specified speeds up to 1 Gbps; and Yipes MAN Regional Area IP service for connecting LANs at speeds up to 1 Gbps. With Yipes MAN, company LANs can be extended to other business locations, providing the speed and bandwidth required for optimizing network performance. Both services offer aggressive SLAs including less than 10 milliseconds (ms) of latency within Yipes regional networks and less than 80 ms of latency nationally.

Yipes knows that business customers require quality of service and assurances that their applications have the appropriate bandwidth available. Yipes services, backed by aggressive SLAs, offer business customers that level of comfort.

Yipes is also setting a new standard for customer-centric service. Customers can monitor usage data and billing with real-time, web-based tools. Customers can also specify notification options and escalation procedures for SLA management. Yipes networks are built to mirror existing IP and Ethernet communications environments.

Services are available today in suburban San Francisco (Palo Alto), southern California (Riverside) and suburban Denver (Fort Collins and Longmont), Colorado. Plans call for Yipes to have a nationwide footprint by the end of this year, with services available in 18 cities coast-to-coast.

Yipes is the defining provider of a new class of managed optical IP networks. Yipes leverages the simplicity of its native Ethernet Smart Edge technology to provide service which is smoothly scalable (in 1Mbps increments) from 1 Mbps to 1 Gbps, enabling the next generation of Internet services. Yipes networks provide roughly twice the bandwidth at 80% of the price of traditional data communications services. Yipes' initial funding is from Norwest Venture Partners and New Enterprise Associates.

Norwest Venture Partners is the premier venture capital business partner for emerging growth IT companies. The firm has a broad information technology investment focus, including software and the Internet, data communications, telecommunications, semiconductors and subscriber-based services. Norwest Venture Partners prides itself on supporting companies beyond the call of duty with the reputation, financial resources, seasoned business experience and a network of relationships required for success.