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World's Largest ISP Harnesses Power of Internet to Address
Multibillion Dollar Market
NEW YORK, NY, (July 08, 1997), UUNET Technologies,
Inc.,
the world's largest Internet service provider (ISP) and a
subsidiary of WorldCom, Inc., today announced that it will be the first
ISP to offer a serious alternative to using traditional voice telephone
networks for business faxing. Capitalizing on UUNET's extensive
global Internet infrastructure, and featuring new technology jointly
developed by UUNET, Open Port Technology, and Ascend Communications,
the new UUFAX service will employ over 100 specialized fax processors
in business centers throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. The
announcement, made at a World Trade Center news conference, marks a new
era in business faxing, one which marries the economies of the Internet
with the advanced features of store-and-forward faxing services.
Sending faxes over an Internet network, rather than via traditional
voice telephone networks, offers numerous benefits for businesses,
including lower cost, the ability to track and manage fax activity, and
features such as delivery notification and broadcast capability.
According to IDC, the global fax transmission market is estimated to
be $38 billion per year. "Until now, no company has made the
investment to deploy a worldwide fax infrastructure which takes
advantage of Internet technology," said John Sidgmore, UUNET's
CEO and WorldCom vice-chairman. "UUNET is making that investment
and we intend to be a leader in the business fax marketplace, which we
believe is the next killer application for the Internet."
Fax technology from Open Port and Ascend UUNET, Open Port, and
Ascend jointly architected UUFAX for optimum performance within the
UUNET infrastructure. Ascend modified their dial-up access
concentrators to support outbound calls, and to recognize incoming
faxes for hand-off to the fax processors. The processors utilize Open
Port software. Open Port has successfully deployed several of the
world's largest fax solutions. The company's software features
a modular architecture with the scalability required to support the
extensive UUNET backbone. Included within UUFAX is Open Port's
Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) software which enables a business to
combine its desktop, e-mail and standalone fax traffic through one
common Internet connection. Customers also can integrate their fax and
Internet traffic over a single Internet connection. For smaller
businesses, UUFAX will support standalone fax machines without any
changes in operator procedures.
"This announcement represents the convergence of enterprise and
Internet fax," said Randy Storch, chairman and CEO at Open Port.
"UUNET is ushering in a new era of fax messaging that will save
millions of corporate dollars and streamline global communications. We
applaud UUNET's vision, we support its leadership goals and we are
pleased to be so closely involved."
About UUFAX UUFAX supports a complete range of fax transmission
capabilities, including: sending faxes from standalone fax machines to
other fax machines or to desktop PC's, sending faxes from
desktop-to-desktop and desktop-to-standalone fax equipment; as well as
sending e-mail and e-mail attachments as faxes. The service also
supports broadcast faxing.
By consolidating communications through a single UUNET-installed CPE
device, customers have a mechanism for monitoring and controlling their
fax traffic. In addition, end-users can access the UUFAX Web site to
track the status of their faxes at anytime. Through the UUFAX CPE,
corporate administrators also have access to reports and analysis of
fax usage across the enterprise and at the departmental level.
To date, other ISPs have offered fax services either on a limited
geographic basis or by reselling fax service bureau offerings. In
contrast, UUNET is deploying UUFAX over its own global private Internet
backbone. Since faxes never touch another ISP's network and do not
go through the general Internet, UUFAX customers will realize greater
security, reliability, and a high quality of service.
Customer Trials Bear, Stearns & Co., Chevron and SourceFinder
have agreed to use the UUFAX service during the service's beta test
period, scheduled to begin this month.
Pricing & Availability With no volume commitment, UUFAX is
priced between 35-55% less than telephony-based faxing. With volume
commitments, significantly greater savings are available. Savings over
fax service bureaus, which offer a more comparable feature set are even
more dramatic. For example, UUFAXes sent within the U.S. are priced at
10 cents per minute (7.5 cents per page). Typical long distance
business rates within the U.S. are 15 cents per minute, while fax
service bureaus typically charge 65 cents per page. UUFAXes from the
U.S. to the UK will cost 19 cents per minute (14 cents per page). This
compares with typical international long distance rates of 45 cents per
minute, and service bureau pricing of over $1.00 per page. UUFAX
requires a UUNET connection, which can range from an analog dial line
to a leased line connection. UUNET Internet connection charges start at
$30 per month. All prices quoted are for "quantity one"
service with no volume commitments. Significant discounts are available
for volume use.
The service will be available commercially later this year.
About UUNET Technologies Headquartered in Fairfax, Va., UUNET
Technologies, Inc. is the world's largest Internet service
provider, offering a comprehensive range of access options, World Wide
Web hosting services, security products and consulting services to
businesses, professionals, and on-line service providers. The
company's network is comprised of nearly 1,000 Points of Presence
(POPs) throughout the United States and in Canada, Europe and the
Asia-Pacific region, as well as connections to Internet service
providers around the world. Founded in 1987, UUNET is recognized as the
first commercial Internet service provider and is a subsidiary of
WorldCom, Inc. UUNET's World Wide Web address is
http://www.uu.net
.
WorldCom is a global business telecommunications company. Operating
in more than 50 countries, the company is a premier provider of
facilities-based and fully integrated local, long distance,
international and Internet services. WorldCom's subsidiary, UUNET
Technologies, Inc., is the world's largest provider of Internet
services. WorldCom's World Wide Web address is
http://www.wcom.com
. The common and depositary shares of WorldCom trade on the Nasdaq
National Market (U.S.) under the symbol WCOM and WCOMP,
respectively.
