ENRON COMMUNICATIONS ANNOUNCES FIRST COMMODITY BANDWIDTH TRADE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, December 2, 1999
HOUSTON – Enron Communications, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Enron Corp. and a leader in the delivery of high-bandwidth application services, announced today the first forward trade of bandwidth.
“This is ‘Day One’ of a potentially enormous market,” said Jeff Skilling, Enron president and chief operating officer. “Most companies that need bandwidth today are only able to secure inflexible multi-year deals for pre-set amounts of capacity – just like oil contracts in the 1970s, natural gas contracts prior to 1990 and electric power contracts prior to 1994. As was the case in those industries, the market structure for bandwidth is currently inefficient and expensive. We are demonstrating that bandwidth can be traded under flexible market-based contract structures with the assurance that quality standards are in place and monitored real-time by the buyer and seller.”
The trade will result in a monthly incremental contract for DS-3 bandwidth between New York and Los Angeles that can move data at about 45 megabits per second—a speed that allows the transmission of streaming video and other bandwidth-intensive applications.
The seller in the transaction will be Global Crossing, a worldwide leader in the construction and operation of high capacity telecommunications networks.
“We are excited to be a part of this new concept. As a large-scale builder of network infrastructure, we are always interested in developing new, creative ways to bring bandwidth to market. We congratulate Enron on their leadership, and look forward to working with them,” said Jon Tingley, president of Global Crossing Services.
Also today, Enron Communications announced that the “North American (New York – Los Angeles) Benchmark Segment”--the commodity benchmark for bandwidth crossing the US--will soon be connected to the “Atlantic (New York – London) Benchmark Segment” for trading bandwidth internationally. The Atlantic segment links the US and European locations beginning with the UK pooling point, located in Global Crossing’s London facility.
“The North American Benchmark Segment is now open for business. The Atlantic Benchmark Segment is expected by May 2000,” said Tom Gros, Enron vice president for global bandwidth trading.
About Enron Communications
Enron Communications delivers the Enron Intelligent Network™, a Pure IP™ broadband overlay to the Internet. Enron Communications also provides rich, multimedia ePowered™ application services and bandwidth management services that enhance online commerce and communications. In early 2000, the Enron Intelligent Network will extend its reach to Europe, Japan, Asia and South America with metropolitan POPs and local ePowered distribution partners. Enron Communications offers ISPs and networks providers a range of bandwidth transport solutions that enable businesses to handle high traffic and high bit rate needs. A wholly owned subsidiary of Enron Corp., Enron Communications can be found on the web at www.enron.net.
Enron is one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas and communications companies. The company, which owns approximately $34 billion in energy and communications assets, produces electricity and natural gas, develops, constructs and operates energy facilities worldwide, delivers physical commodities and financial and risk management services to customers around the world, and is developing an intelligent network platform to facilitate online business. The stock is traded under the ticker symbol, “ENE.”
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For additional information please contact:
Claudia Johnson
503-833-4435
claudia_johnson@enron.net
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