AMPATH PoP Operational

18-June-2001, Miami

The activation of the AMPATH PoP, currently located in the Miami Telehouse, 36 NE 2nd Street, marks a milestone in the AMPATH project that has been planned for one year. A great deal of planning and mutual cooperation between Global Crossing, Bellsouth, Qwest and our expert network engineering staff made the cut-over possible today.

Julio Ibarra, the Director of the AMPATH project for Florida International University said, "I'm very pleased to announce that this morning's scheduled work to activate the move of the Bellsouth fiber and fully connect the AMPATH PoP to Abilene was a success.

The move of the Bellsouth fiber segment connecting Florida International University, the University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University to the GigaPOP was successful. The connection from Global Crossing through LayerOne to Qwest worked with no problems. The connection from Qwest to Abilene connecting the AMPATH router and its connectors to Abilene worked properly too. All components to fully activate the AMPATH PoP are now in operation."

The AMPATH PoP will move to its home in three racks of neutral space donated by Terremark in the NAP of the Americas later this year. Terremark is the owner and operator of the NAP of the Americas, the 5th tier-one NAP in the United States, located in downtown Miami. The move will be done in coordination with Global Crossing, the carrier that donated 10 DS3s (45 Mbps) of bandwidth on their submarine and terrestrial network to enable the AMPATH project.

The AMPATH PoP currently consists of a GSR 12012 router donated by Cisco Systems and a CBX-500 ATM switch donated by Lucent Technologies. Soon a donated Juniper Networks M10 router will also be activated.

ABOUT FIU

FIU, Miami's public research university, educates more than 32,000 students on campuses throughout South Florida and Latin America. It is the only public university in Florida with both a Phi Beta Kappa chapter and the Carnegie Foundation's top rating for research universities. Over the past three years, its sponsored research program is the fastest-growing of any research university in the state. FIU delivers high-quality education and training, conducts and promotes research to enhance Florida's role as a leader in telecommunications and information technology, offers training necessary to fostering business development and workforce preparedness and promotes technology transfer to enhance enabling technologies for the telecommunications and information technology industries. More information about FIU can be found at www.fiu.edu and www.ampath.fiu.edu.

Press Contacts:

Heidi Alvarez
FIU/AMPATH
Phone: 305-348-2400
heidi@fiu.edu

Terremark