SAN JOSE, Calif. - November 18, 1997 - Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced that WestelTelecommunications Ltd., a leading telecommunications provider in British Columbia, hasimplemented an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) backbone consisting of Cisco BPX. ATMswitches and AXIS shelves throughout British Columbia.
"Customer demand for greater bandwidth and advanced multimedia services is simply booming,"says Wayne Sumarah, vice president of marketing for Westel. "The deployment of ATM technology,and the choice of Cisco's industry-leading solutions, will allow our customers to enjoy thebenefits of enhanced data networking."
Westel will now be able to bring new networking services to market quickly with the assistanceof Cisco's JumpStart consulting program. This program provides market research, strategydevelopment, training and delivery vehicles to help service providers successfully implementnew services. Westel currently provides Frame Relay services to its customers utilizing the newbackbone, and plans to offer a range of new services such as Frame Relay-to-ATM serviceinternetworking, T1 ATM services, broadband ATM services and high-speed/scalable Internetaccess.
The Cisco BPX is a standards-based ATM switch that allows broadband connectivity to deploymultimedia and voice/data applications across the network. The AXIS shelf, when attached to theBPX switch, allows narrowband multiservice connectivity across the ATM network. With theseservices, Westel will be able to provide customers with end-to-end networking solutions withguaranteed quality of service.
"Westel's use of Cisco's BPX and AXIS products provides an excellent example of howtelecommunications service providers can excel in the data communications market," said JosephGolden, vice president of marketing for Cisco's Wide Area Network (WAN) business unit. "The BPXand AXIS are proven industry performers in the areas of reliability and scalability, and we'reexcited that Westel selected these products to provide new and enhanced services to itscustomers."
About WesTel
Westel Telecommunications Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of the BCR Group of Companies, isthe only 100 percent B.C. owned and operated telecommunications company with its own network.Based in North Vancouver with connections around the world, Westel (formerly BC RailTelecommunications) has provided voice, data and video solutions to British Columbians for morethan 40 years.
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is theworldwide leader in networking for the Internet. athttp://www.cisco.com.
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