Light Reading Names Virtela Best New Service Finalist in Inaugural 'Leading Lights' Awards Program

Light Reading Names Virtela Best New Service Finalist in Inaugural 'Leading Lights' Awards Program

Newly-Launched Virtela MPLS Service Fabric Selected as Best New Service Candidate

DENVER, Dec. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Virtela, a global network solutions company, has been named a finalist in the "Best New Service, Private Company" category of Light Reading's (http://www.lightreading.com/) inaugural Leading Lights telecommunications industry awards program. The Leading Lights recognize top public and private companies and their executives for their outstanding achievements in the telecommunications industry.

Virtela's MPLS Service Fabric (MPLS-SF(SM)), the world's first multi- carrier MPLS network service, was selected as a finalist in the "Best New Service, Private Company" category. This category recognizes the service provider or carrier that has most successfully deployed a market-leading, revenue-generating service based on next-generation telecommunications technology. The MPLS-SF is the industry's first MPLS service with optimal path routing and automatic fail-over across multiple carrier networks, delivering unmatched worldwide reach and service levels for enterprise networks.

"We're honored to have been selected by Light Reading, one of the self- described toughest publications in the world," said Vab Goel, Virtela chairman and partner at Norwest Venture Partners. "This latest recognition is further proof of the extensive enterprise benefits Virtela can uniquely deliver through an innovative multi-carrier network model, now extended to the burgeoning MPLS networking realm."

Virtela's MPLS-SF is able to bring together the world's top MPLS networks in a "supernetwork" arrangement, an industry breakthrough that solves the lack of interoperability and limited reach of single provider MPLS networks. Until now, enterprises looking to truly exploit the benefits of MPLS were hamstringed by carriers' collective resistance to interconnect their MPLS networks, a lack of desire driven by business interests above any technological or standards hurdles.

Virtela's MPLS architecture has its heritage in Virtela's original IP Service Fabric network, which routes VPN traffic across the world's top IP networks for thousands of enterprise locations across six continents. Virtela's regional policy centers can also route MPLS traffic throughout the world across 200+ best-of-breed carrier networks, using proprietary routing algorithms to direct traffic over the best performing path at any given time. The MPLS-SF honors each class-of-service attribute for the originating carrier, and maps multiple classes-of-service across carriers to achieve the highest-quality, end-to-end MPLS service available today.

For a free white paper on Virtela's MPLS Service Fabric, go to http://www.virtela.net/mplssf.

Nearly 300 companies submitted entries for the Leading Lights awards, with finalists determined by the editors and analysts of Light Reading. The awards categories and judging criteria have been developed based on their five years of experience analyzing telecommunications, plus extensive feedback from both leading financial analysts and service providers.

The final winners of the Leading Lights awards will be announced on December 15, 2004 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City, following Light Reading's Telecom Investment Conference.

About Virtela

Virtela Communications Inc. delivers award-winning network and security solutions to many of the world's largest and fastest-growing multinational companies. Currently serving customers across six continents, Virtela's network reach spans more than 190 countries. Virtela's unique Internet Protocol Service Fabric (IPSF(SM)) and MPLS Service Fabric (MPLS-SF(SM)) offer the foundation for delivering critical applications via the company's acclaimed service methodology, with a services suite that includes IP-based virtual private networks (VPNs), security services, Voice over IP, Video over IP, and network consulting services.

Virtela is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, with a second Network Operations Center in Mumbai, India. Virtela is a privately held company funded by investors including Norwest Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Palomar Ventures, Symantec Corp., and Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR). For more information, please call +1 (720) 475-4000 or visit www.virtela.net.


Source: Virtela Communications Inc.

CONTACT: Jane Morrissey of Virtela Communications Inc., +1-720-475-4012,
jmorrissey@virtela.net

Web site: http://www.virtela.net/mplssf

Web site: http://www.lightreading.com/

Web site: http://www.virtela.net/


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