Akamai Signs Strategic Agreement With Cidera to Extend Its Global Delivery Network to the Edge of the Internet.

Business/Technology Editors

ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2000

ISPCON--

Cidera to deliver streaming media content to

minimum of 1,500 sites worldwide

Cidera, Inc., the Internet Broadcast Backbone, an international leader in the satellite delivery of broadband content to the edge of the Internet, today announced that Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), a global provider of high performance services for the delivery of Internet content, streaming media, and applications, has signed an agreement to use Cidera Streaming Media Service for dedicated streaming media content as well as live event-based content, to speed the delivery of broadband content to Akamai servers globally.

The agreement between Akamai and Cidera will enable Akamai to extend its network, and to provide more reliable, higher quality and efficient delivery of content, including streamed audio and video, to end users by pushing content to the edge of the Internet.

Cidera's broadband content delivery services offer Akamai's end users improved quality of viewing experience. By circumventing the congestion on the Internet, Cidera ensures higher reliability and reduced packet loss associated with delivery of Internet content, especially streaming media. Cidera's broadcast services also offer massive scalability that is possible only through satellite delivery to an unlimited number of POPs within Cidera's footprint.

Under the multi-year agreement, Cidera has agreed to transport Akamai content to a minimum of 1,500 ISP locations across the world. Akamai will use Cidera Streaming Media Service to deliver live audio and video streaming as well as archived content, with an option to use other Cidera services to move broadband-rich files on the Internet.

"This global agreement builds on the technical alliance we forged with Akamai last year, and takes it forward into the new realm of streaming media," said Cidera President and CEO Richard J. Hanna. "The high quality, reliability and scalability of our global broadcast network make Cidera the premiere choice for Internet streaming media services."

"Our selection of Cidera's satellite broadcast network illustrates Akamai's commitment to providing our customers globally with high performance service for delivering streaming media," said Avi Freedman, vice president of network architecture at Akamai. "Cidera is a leading broadband content delivery network, already deployed into hundreds of networks, and we're excited about using their platform to assist us in pushing static and streaming-media content to the edge of the Internet."

About Cidera, Inc.

Cidera, Inc., the Internet Broadcast Backbone, is an international leader in the satellite delivery of broadband content to the edge of the Internet. Cidera uses innovative high-speed satellite technology designed to transport high-bandwidth data faster, more reliably, and more efficiently to ISPs and DSL and Cable access providers. Cidera is expanding its international network infrastructure to improve the movement of Web site content, streaming audio and video, live webcasts, large databases and Usenet News over the Internet. Cidera serves more than 300 Points of Presence (POPs) in North America and Europe. Additional information can be found at www.cidera.com.

About Akamai

Akamai is the foremost provider of distributed content, streaming media, and applications delivery services and serves over 1,000 customers. Akamai has the broadest deployment of servers for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 3,000 servers in over 45 countries directly connected to more than 160 different telecommunications networks. Akamai (pronounced AH kuh my) is Hawaiian for intelligent, clever and cool.

The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the dependence on Akamai's Internet content delivery service, a failure of its network infrastructure, the failure of Cidera to obtain the necessary approvals to deploy satellite equipment at ISPs or to otherwise perform under its agreement with Akamai, the failure of Akamai to rapidly grow its footprint, the complexity of its service and the networks on which the service is deployed, the failure to obtain access to transmission capacity and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.