National broadband company Internode is substantially extending its international broadband network by creating a "ring route" into Asia and establishing a peering presence with major companies in Europe.

Internode already maintains multiple fibre paths to the US via Southern Cross Cable and Australia-Japan Cable, which also provides it with a Point of Presence into Asia via Japan.

During the first quarter of 2009, Internode will commission an alternative path into Asia, through Singapore and Hong Kong, via the Sea-Me-We-3 cable out of Perth. Internode also intends to extend its network into Europe by establishing peering arrangements in London and Amsterdam to provide direct connectivity to European ISPs and content providers.

In a separate project, Internode is quadrupling the capacity of its bandwidth linking Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide, from multiple 2.5 gigabits (Gb) per second links, up to multiple 10Gb/s links.

Internode managing director Simon Hackett said the network extension and expansion was to meet the needs of Internode's rapidly growing customer base. "We always build before demand so there is plenty of capacity in our network," he said.

"We expect our Asian ring route to improve performance into Asia for our customers and also to reduce the amount of Asian traffic that is transiting our US links. It will also provide our network with a truly diverse connection to the Internet by not going solely through Sydney."

Mr. Hackett said the quadrupling of capacity on Internode's network backbone was to meet the growing demand from customers. "Our customer acquisition rate is growing rapidly as is their utilisation of our bandwidth," he said. "Our network expansion is to maintain the Internode network at the forefront of performance in the Australian broadband industry." 

About Internode www.internode.on.net

Internode is a first tier IP carrier committed to using broadband technology to redefine the national telecommunications environment. The Australian-owned company is a trailblazer that delivers broadband services to individuals and businesses throughout Australia.

Internode PR for media assistance: Impress Media Australia www.impress.com.au

Call John Harris on (08) 8431 4000 or email jharris@impress.com.au