SEOUL, South Korea -- November 23, 1998 -- Cisco Systems today announced a strategic alliance with Dacom, South Korea's premium telecom service provider, to jointly bring to market innovative, New World telecommunications solutions to business customers in South Korea and other Asian markets. The partners have already earmarked for development key solutions based on IP/VPN (Internet Protocol/Virtual Private Network) and ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode). In addition, Dacom has designated Cisco Systems as its preferred vendor for internetworking products and technologies.
Under the agreement, Dacom and Cisco will collaborate on product development, and Dacom engineers will participate in beta trials and provide feedback on upcoming Cisco products. Cisco will also provide consulting services to Dacom to design and build a high performance, IP-based multiservice network infrastructure. Other consulting services will include network optimization, traffic modeling and network management for Dacom's existing IP network.
"Since our founding 16 years ago, Dacom has always been committed to our goal of creating an information society in Korea," said Woohan Kim, senior managing director of Dacom's Engineering Planning Unit. "We believe that IP will lead the way to the New World of telecommunications, and our network will be the prime platform for delivering intelligent business solutions to our customers, both large and small. By working with a leader such as Cisco, we can bring advanced, differentiated networking solutions to market quickly."
In the area of training and professional development, Cisco will cooperate with Dacom to develop a training and educational plan for professionals focused on design, implementation and support of advanced telecommunications and data communications networks. Key Dacom technical professionals will also be eligible to participate in selected Cisco internal training courses.
Dacom will become the first company in Korea to join the Cisco Powered Network (CPN) program, and both companies will jointly develop marketing campaigns for BORA-Net, Dacom's Internet service, and other business services based on Frame Relay.
"Dacom is making a major investment to bring advanced network services to their business customers," said Dr. Hong Sung-Won, president of Cisco Systems Korea. "We are confident that our partnership will be fruitful and productive, as we jointly shorten time-to-market for Dacom's new services by engaging in training, consultation and technology exchange. Dacom's sophisticated service products will enable a new generation of IP-based applications and services, which will bring their vision of an information society one step closer to reality."
"Cisco is very pleased with this announcement today. Dacom is clearly a world leader in the New World of telecommunications and multiservice networking," said Bill Nuti, president, Cisco Systems Greater Asia. "Korea is forward-looking, innovative and flexible - the quintessential New World society. Cisco is very proud to be a part of Dacom's effort to build an information society in Korea and we are confident that this alliance will lead to tremendous future development."
Dacom Corp. is one of the major telecommunication companies in Korea, offering services that include international/local call services and enterprise network communication service (BORA-Net).
