BellSouth Leads Effort to Bring Advanced `Next-Generation Internet Exchange' to S. Florida.

Business Editors

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2000

`FloridaMIX' is First-Ever Optical Technology Internet Exchange;

Advancing `Internet of the Future;' Boosting Speeds

in Florida and to Latin America, Caribbean, Africa and Europe

BellSouth Corp. (NYSE: BLS) today announced its plans for bringing the nation's most advanced, high-speed Internet exchange, or Network Access Point (NAP), to South Florida. BellSouth's "Florida Multimedia Internet eXchange" (FloridaMIX) will use the latest optical switching technologies and fiber networks to bring unprecedented bandwidth, speed and performance to Internet service providers (ISPs), web hosting providers, and other Internet-service related businesses. The FloridaMIX, the first of its kind, provides a foundation for a next-generation Internet infrastructure to support both increasing numbers of Internet services companies, and emerging offerings like voice over Internet, video over Internet, and other digital media and broadband capabilities.

Participants in the FloridaMIX to date include FPL Fibernet; Intermedia; NETRAIL; Qwest; International Wireless Communications (IWC); Diveo; and UUNET, a WorldCom company. Other ISPs are expected to join in the coming weeks.

"BellSouth is paving the way for the next generation Internet," said Joe Lacher, President of BellSouth-Florida, in making the announcement at a press conference in Miami this morning. "Internet traffic is doubling every two to three months," he observed. "Internet exchanges, just like the Internet itself, must evolve to a new level to support the explosive growth in Internet traffic and the latest bandwidth intensive applications. That's what we're building in South Florida."

Complementing its optical switch design, BellSouth's strategy also involves multiple connection points throughout Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. This Wide Area Network infrastructure will maximize connectivity to major ISP points of presence (POPs) and major web hosting/application service provider locations throughout the three-county area. In addition to greatly enhanced speed, performance and flexibility, BellSouth's innovative network architecture will ensure the service is easily reached by all Internet-service related businesses, and has the redundancy to avoid service interruptions and survive severe weather.

"We are deploying the infrastructure to help take global Internet performance, reliability and dependability to the next level," added Janet Craft, Vice President and General Manager of BellSouth-Florida. "Today, you are seeing more and more broadband technologies in the home and office, and companies like Qwest and others who are building long-haul fiber networks with tremendous amounts of capacity. The FloridaMIX is the solution to connecting these networks and leveraging the full capabilities of these new technologies."

BellSouth FloridaMIX: Expanding Trade/Business Gateway to the World

Developing a major Internet exchange in South Florida leverages the region's multiple termination points for fiber optic cables linking the U.S. with Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Western Europe. Communications and business transactions among these regions continue to expand at a rapid pace, with companies like Telefonica and others installing very high-speed fiber links. The FloridaMIX will provide a secure and reliable capability for supporting new multimedia Internet services across these advanced global networks, allowing Florida to expand its leadership role as a major Internet trade and business gateway.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been a strong supporter of placing a Tier 1 Internet exchange in South Florida. Regarding today's announcement, Bush said, "Florida, in particular the South Florida area, has always been the nation's gateway to Latin America. BellSouth's announcement will have a far-reaching impact that will extend beyond the Internet Coast, throughout the state of Florida, and across the Western Hemisphere. The FloridaMIX will spur economic growth and cement South Florida as the Internet gateway to the world."

Earlier this year, the Florida legislature, led by state Sen. Ron Klein (D-Boca Raton) and state Rep. Louis Rojas (R-Hialeah), passed a bill lending its support towards the creation of a Network Access Point for South Florida.

"It is great to see government and private industry working together to help ensure that Florida has the Internet infrastructure it needs to continue its information technology sector growth," said Senator Klein. "The Florida Multimedia Internet eXchange is an important step in putting Florida on the map for future technology growth."

Representative Rojas added, "The new FloridaMIX will establish Florida as the hub for electronic business between the U.S. and our international partners. This development will prompt increased usage of technology with our Latin American neighbors."

South Florida's economic development organizations, The Beacon Council, The Broward Alliance, and the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, who have been instrumental in promoting the Internet exchange initiative as part of the InternetCoast movement, issued a joint statement regarding BellSouth's announcement:

"We are pleased that BellSouth recognizes the importance of South Florida as an emerging global Internet hub. Their investment and the investment of their partners in providing increased bandwidth throughout the region, and ultimately throughout the state, is outstanding. Through the commitment of BellSouth and the commitment of other telecommunications carriers and Internet service providers, all businesses and residents of South Florida's InternetCoast will be the ultimate winners."

About BellSouth

BellSouth is a $26 billion communications services company. It provides telecommunications services, Internet, data and e-commerce applications, wireless communications, cable and digital TV, and online and directory advertising to more than 40 million customers in 18 countries worldwide.

Florida Multimedia Internet Exchange (FloridaMIX)

Fact Sheet

What is an "Internet exchange"?

Internet exchanges, usually termed Network Access Points (NAP), are one of several major Internet interconnection points in the United States that serve to tie Internet access providers together; allowing, for example, an AT&T user in Portland, Oregon to reach the Web site of a BellSouth customer in Miami, Florida. At these exchange points, the Internet backbones (UUNET, Sprint, etc.), along with hundreds of local and regional Internet access providers and other Internet-related service businesses, meet to pass Internet transmissions from one network to another. At these public exchanges, enormous amounts of data are sent to and from each and every connected network.

The exchange BellSouth will host is the first and only NAP in the country to incorporate optical networking, with speeds from DS-3 and Gigabit Ethernet to OC-192 and DWDM. These technologies in the next-generation NAP represent a significant step toward next generation multimedia applications over the Internet. BellSouth has also developed an innovative wide-area network (linking four different buildings in three counties) to provide more reliability for new services like voice over Internet, video over Internet, and other digital media and broadband capabilities. In light of this fresh approach to delivering new services, the new NAP is being called the Florida Multimedia Internet eXchange (FloridaMIX).

History

Originally, four NAPs - in New York/Pensukin, New Jersey (Sprint), Washington, D.C.(MAE-East), Chicago (Ameritech NAP), and San Francisco (PacBell NAP)- were created and supported by the National Science Foundation as part of the transition from the original U.S. government-financed Internet to a commercially operated Internet. The NAPs provide major switching facilities that serve the public in general. Participating companies apply to use the NAP facilities and make their own inter-company peering arrangements. Much Internet traffic is also handled without involving NAPs, utilizing peering arrangements and interconnections within geographic regions.

Major U.S. NAPs:

    --  New York NAP, operated by Sprint
    --  San Francisco NAP, operated by PacBell
    --  Washington, D.C. NAP, operated by WorldCom (known as "MAE
        East")
    --  Chicago NAP, operated by Ameritech
    --  San Jose, California/Silicon Valley NAP, operated by WorldCom
        (known as "MAE West")
    --  Dallas NAP, operated by WorldCom
    --  Los Angeles NAP, operated by WorldCom

Peering:

Peering is an agreement between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to interconnect and exchange data traffic. There are two main types of peering.

Public Peering:

    --  Very large (Tier 1 and 2) ISPs typically engage in public
        peering with smaller ISPs only at the major established public
        NAPs

     Direct (Private) Peering:

    --  Tier 1 and 2 ISPs typically engage in direct peering
        relationships that benefit their customers and usually will
        not peer with smaller ISPs and customers

The Need for a Next Generation Internet Exchange:

As Internet traffic continues to double every two-three months, public NAPs are becoming more and more congested. With this congestion, data packet loss occurs, slowing downloads and decreasing the reliability of data transmissions. Ultimately, this congestion will hinder the performance of mission-critical and commercial quality applications over the public Internet. An additional high-speed, next generation Internet exchange, strategically located in South Florida, will help to relieve these concerns and facilitate optimized Internet performance at major Internet intersections located in this part of the world.

    Why Florida?

    --  Annually, the State of Florida does approximately $48 billion
        in trade with Latin America. This will increase dramatically
        based on the fact that Latin America continues to triple its
        technological growth every six months. While international
        e-commerce is still less advanced than in the U.S., it is a
        temporary situation.

    --  Currently, the lack of an adjacent Internet exchange point or
        available transport bandwidth makes it impossible to support
        the growing volume of Latin American Internet traffic.
        Internet transmissions must travel to as far away as
        Washington, D.C., or even the West Coast to be routed from one
        Internet backbone to another. This can cause extreme delays,
        or latency, for end users and "re-transmits" for
        hosting/content companies. The further data must travel, and
        the higher the congestion at the Internet exchanges, the
        higher the delay. Because of this delay, emerging "real-time"
        technologies such as video conferencing or Voice over IP
        (VoIP) don't perform well. The eastern half of the U.S. and
        Latin America need better routes through the Caribbean/Florida
        to minimize Internet delay.

    --  Transoceanic, high-speed fiber networks are under construction
        from Latin America, Africa and Europe, and South Florida is a
        key landing point for these facilities. This makes Florida an
        advantageous location for an Internet exchange.

    --  Fiber-based companies like Qwest are building immense fiber
        optic capacity across the U.S. and the world, and have
        facilities into South Florida.

    --  Broadband Internet access, ADSL and cable-modem for consumers,
        and higher speed commercial transport for businesses, are
        significantly increasing the amount and quality of web content
        being delivered to end-user customers.

    --  The combined effect of all of these points make South Florida
        an attractive location for new Internet-related businesses to
        locate to leverage these assets.

    Why BellSouth?

    --  BellSouth has more than 24 million local customers in the
        Southeast.

    --  BellSouth has approximately six million wireless customers in
        Latin America and has plans to expand services in Latin
        America, which include Internet-related services.

    --  The Internet backbone depends on both cooperation and
        competition among providers. BellSouth has worked as a
        catalyst in the industry to build a new Internet exchange that
        will benefit all ISPs and telecommunications companies.

    --  BellSouth is considered a neutral party because it is not an
        IP backbone provider.

    --  It's not uncommon for an RBOC to take the lead in a NAP
        initiative. Two of the other major NAPs are run by RBOCs.

    --  BellSouth is a world-class provider of optical networking,
        currently managing more than 2.8 million miles of optical
        fiber throughout its nine-state region.

    --  BellSouth is positioned to deliver service before the end of
        the year.

    --  BellSouth manages over 30 retail Internet networks in its
        region.

    Benefits of a NAP to ISPs:

    --  Cost effective way for ISPs to connect to other ISPs

    --  Presence of multiple ISPs for peering agreements

    --  Low entry level requirements for an ISP to connect

    --  Co-location space for housing ISP equipment

    --  Scaleable speeds from Gigabit Ethernet to OC-192 and DWDM

    --  Route servers proactively managed by BellSouth

    --  Access to exploding Latin American data traffic

    --  In addition to a switched optical, wide area network,
        BellSouth will support a router co-location facility

    Benefits of a NAP to Businesses/Consumers:

    --  Reduces data packet loss and download times

    --  Increases the speed and reliability of data transmissions

    --  Improves performance of mission-critical applications over the
        Internet

    --  Increases speed and reliability of international Internet
        transmissions with businesses partners

    --  American businesses gain greater access to e-commerce
        opportunities in Latin America and other international
        destinations