AT&T, Internap Team for Multi-Carrier Management

The partnership, expected to launch by the end of April, is aimed at enabling channel partners of both carriers to increase redundancy, flexibility and security of their hosting services, even if they help customers adopt multiple ISP strategies to address business-continuity requirements.

In particular, the partnership is designed to support high-bandwidth applications such as e-commerce, VoIP, videoconferencing and streaming video, said Eric Shepcaro, vice president of emerging services at AT&T, Bedminster, N.J.

"For many customers, adopting a multi-ISP strategy can often pose supplier management and technology challenges," he said. "Working with Internap, we're able to provide a single point of contact to deliver the reliability they have come to expect."

Under the agreement, Atlanta-based Internap's managed IP network services will be available from AT&T's global network of 21 Internet Data Centers. Customers using the multi-carrier approach will access the joint network through Internap's Private Network Access Points (P-NAPs), which connect directly to Internet backbones in major cities across the United States.

Internap President and CEO Gregory Peters said the P-NAP infrastructure provides high-speed connectivity and the most direct routing of customer traffic, allowing clients to avoid congestions and bottlenecks associated with traditional Internet traffic management.

"This further demonstrates the rapidly growing demand for intelligent IP route control products and services," Peters said. "Integrating our leading intelligent route-optimization technology with the world's largest IP network responds to increasing customer demand for zero downtime."

Pricing for the new multi-carrier management services was not immediately available.