COPENHAGEN, Denmark, April 27, 2005 - Cisco Systems® today announced that Danish Ethernet service provider WEBPARTNER is deploying Cisco IOS MPLS Virtual Private LAN (VPLS)-based Ethernet broadband services using the Cisco Catalyst® 6500 series switch. In a related announcement, WEBPARTNER also today announced that SBS Radio A/S, which is behind the radio stations The Voice and Radio2, is consolidating the networking for its Danish operations onto this multipoint Ethernet service.

VPLS provides a way for service providers to deliver scalable Ethernet services to support multiple branch locations over a common central infrastructure. "In contrast to traditional Layer2 VPN Services like Frame-relay & ATM, WEBPARTNER is now able to offer Layer2 VPN services to its customer base without needing to establish multiple site to site VPN mesh connections for each customer location." This will help WEBPARTNER to simplify the management of its Ethernet services as well as reduce operational costs, in order to help deliver services to a broader range of customers.

"We evaluated a number of technologies to support our service rollout, but decided that Cisco's approach to VPLS offered us a very scalable way to take advantage of our existing understanding of Cisco equipment and software to deliver new Layer 2 Ethernet-based VPN services to our customers," commented Nicolaj Ottsen, Chief Technical Officer of WEBPARTNER. "As our customers converge more services onto their internal networks, they need a broadband solution that can scale to support growing bandwidth requirements, as well as greater simplicity in their WAN connectivity."

SBS Radio A/S also recognized the value of being able to link its headquarter and branch office locations throughout Denmark using a simple Ethernet-based presentation with up to Gigabit WAN speeds. As SBS Radio A/S also looks to enhance its business continuity strategy, being able to link its data centres with a standard Ethernet interface is helping the company to reduce operating costs and improve reliability of backup infrastructure.

"As many service providers look to open up new market segments, such as Small & Medium Businesses and the midmarket segment, being able to acquire new customers quickly can be a significant factor in business development," commented Andy Lockhart, VP Northern Europe for Cisco Systems EMEA. "Cisco IOS MPLS Virtual Private LAN services help to greatly simplify the deployment of business class VPN services and as a result can help reduce overall implementation time and deployments costs significantly. Taking advantage of the scaleability of VPLS is helping operators such as WEBPARTNER to support network growth effectively."

WEBPARTNER is deploying Cisco Catalyst 6500 series switches as the foundation of its broadband Ethernet network to support a full range of business services.