Akamai and Loral Cyberstar Enter Into Multi-Year Strategic Alliance for Delivery of Broadband Streaming Media.

Business/Technology Editors

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

ISPCON 

Agreement will expand each others' worldwide network footprints

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), a global provider of high performance services for the delivery of Internet content, streaming media, and applications, and Loral CyberStar, a leading provider of satellite and broadband data services, today announced that the companies have entered into a two-pronged strategic agreement.

Under the terms of the agreement, Loral CyberStar will offer free Usenet newsfeeds to all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) within the Akamai Accelerated Network program. In addition, Loral CyberStar will provide transport on its global satellite network for broadband-rich content, including live audio and video streaming.

As a result of the agreement, ISPs can now off-load the high volumes of Usenet Web traffic to Akamai's global, fault-tolerant network, maximizing existing bandwidth and delivering popular Usenet content to customers with enhanced speed and reliability. In addition, both companies have agreed to grow the footprint of each other's networks by co-locating Web servers and satellite dishes in mutual ISP points-of-presence. Loral CyberStar has agreed to satellite-enable and deliver Akamai content to a minimum of 5,000 ISPs and educational networks around the world.

The two companies will facilitate the placement of Loral CyberStar's broadcast satellite dishes at ISP locations that have deployed Akamai's Web servers. The agreement between the two companies will allow Internet end users to experience a higher performance of Web site content delivery including streamed audio and video, as well as allow ISPs to save on bandwidth costs for delivering popular and engaging content. Loral CyberStar will place its satellite broadcast dishes across Akamai's distributed network of over 3,000 servers. Both companies will work together to include as part of their deployment plan the location of each others' equipment at each new location.

ISPs will benefit from this new arrangement by combining Akamai's server technology with Loral CyberStar's WorldCast high-speed Internet access service which improves data speeds and efficiencies through an optimized combination of satellite and terrestrial transmission, tailored for each customer.

The two companies had previously announced the industry's first-of-its-kind broadcast using a hybrid delivery network demonstrating the superior technologies of Akamai and Loral CyberStar at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Conference in April. Today's announcement builds on last year's joint marketing agreement between Loral Cyberstar and Akamai.

"Loral CyberStar is the pioneer of IP over satellite and has developed a robust solution for global quality of service," said Avi Freedman, vice president of network architecture at Akamai. "We're continually adding value to our Akamai Accelerated Network partners, working together to provide Internet users with the top-notch online experience they expect."

According to Neil Bauer, president of Loral CyberStar, "The agreement between Loral CyberStar and Akamai brings an exciting new level of performance and value to Internet users everywhere by providing faster delivery of frequently requested web content as well as enabling high-quality delivery of streaming media."

Free Usenet Access/Delivery

Doubling in size every year, Usenet is the world's largest network of electronic bulletin boards and discussion forums. There are currently more than 80,000 discussion categories available on the Usenet network, which enables users to post and receive information on virtually any subject. The huge demand for this service has forced ISPs to continually acquire more bandwidth to support Usenet usage. The new offering from Akamai, in conjunction with Loral CyberStar, will enable the delivery of all Usenet newsgroups at 12 Megabits per second in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia, resulting in faster and more reliable delivery of popular content at no extra charge to ISPs.

Key Benefits to ISPs

The Akamai Accelerated Network program consists of the deployment of Akamai servers within member ISPs' networks at no charge. This greatly reduces ISPs' bandwidth expenses while ensuring their customers receive the fast and reliable delivery of "Akamaized" content from today's popular Web properties.

Together with Loral Cyberstar, the free satellite Usenet newsfeeds will enable ISPs to:

--Receive Usenet data at far less cost than that of traditional terrestrial delivery;

--Offer value-added content that's available faster and more efficiently to subscribers;

--Experience more efficient use of bandwidth;

--Provide cost savings;

--Benefit from the Akamai infrastructure which is both easy and economical to integrate;

--Differentiate themselves from competitors.

About Loral CyberStar

Loral CyberStar, a Loral company, is based in Rockville, Maryland. Loral CyberStar is a leading global Internet and infomedia business providing Internet Protocol (IP) broadband data, Internet and multimedia services, business television and private managed networks to businesses and Internet Service Providers throughout the world. Applications include virtual multicast networks, data networking, high-speed file transfer, distance learning, and audio and video streaming services. Loral CyberStar delivers service to Internet Service Providers serving over seven million people worldwide and recently announced its plan to introduce broadband-by-satellite Internet and streaming media services direct to the desktop starting in late 2000. For more information, visit Loral CyberStar's web site at http://www.LoralCyberStar.com.

About Loral Space & Communications

Loral Space & Communications is a high technology company that concentrates primarily on satellite manufacturing and satellite-based services, including broadcast transponder leasing and value-added services, domestic and international corporate data networks, global wireless telephony, Internet services, international direct-to-home satellite services, and broadband data services including business television, distance learning and video to the desktop. For more information, visit Loral's web site at http://www.loral.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, the failure of Cyberstar to obtain the necessary approvals to deploy satellite equipment at ISPs or to otherwise perform under its agreement with Akamai, a failure of Akamai's network infrastructure, 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.