We are a facilities-based provider of low-cost, high-speed Internet access,
private network services, and data center colocation space. Our network is specifically
designed and optimized to transmit packet switched data. We deliver our services
primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, communications service providers
and other bandwidth-intensive organizations in North America, Europe and Asia.
We are a Delaware corporation and we are headquartered in Washington, DC.
We offer on-net Internet access services exclusively through our own facilities,
which run from our network to our customers premises. We are not dependent
on local telephone companies or cable TV companies to serve our customers for
our on-net Internet access and private network services because of our integrated
network architecture. We offer our on-net services to customers located in buildings
that are physically connected to our network. Our on-net service consists of
high-speed Internet access and private network services offered at speeds ranging
from 100 Megabits per second to 100 Gigabits per second. We provide our on-net
Internet access and private network services to our corporate and net-centric
customers. Our corporate customers are located in multi-tenant office buildings
and typically include law firms, financial services firms, advertising and marketing
firms and other professional services businesses. Our net-centric customers
include bandwidth-intensive users such as other Internet access providers, telephone
companies, cable television companies, web hosting companies, content delivery
network companies and commercial content and application service providers.
These net-centric customers obtain our services in carrier neutral data centers
and in our data centers. We operate data centers throughout North America and
Europe that allow our customers to collocate their equipment and access our
network.
In addition to providing our on-net services, we provide Internet access and
private network services to customers that are not located in buildings directly
connected to our network. We provide this off-net service primarily to corporate
customers using other carriers circuits to provide the "last mile"
portion of the link from the customers premises to our network. We also provide
certain non-core services that resulted from acquisitions. We continue to support
but do not actively sell these non-core services.
We believe we address many of the data communications needs of small and medium-sized
businesses, communications service providers and other bandwidth-intensive organizations
by offering them high-quality, high-speed Internet access and private network
services at attractive prices.
Low Cost of Operation. We offer a streamlined set of products on an integrated
network. Our network design allows us to avoid many of the costs that our competitors
incur associated with circuit-switched, TDM and hybrid fiber coaxial networks
related to provisioning, monitoring and maintaining multiple transport protocols.
We believe that our low cost of operation also gives us greater pricing flexibility
and a significant advantage in a competitive environment characterized by falling
Internet access prices. We believe our value proposition is equal or superior
to our competitors in all of the on-net multi-tenant office buildings and carrier
neutral data centers in which we operate.
Network. Our on-net service does not rely on circuits that must be provisioned
by a third party carrier. In on-net multi-tenant office buildings we provide
our customers the entire network, including the "last mile" and the
in-building wiring connecting to our customers suite. In carrier neutral data
centers we are collocated with our customers so only a connection, known as
a cross connect, within the data center is required to provide our services.
This gives us more control over our service, quality and pricing. It also allows
us to provision services more quickly and efficiently than provisioning services
on a third-party carrier network. We are typically able to activate service
to our customers in one of our on-net buildings in approximately thirteen business
days.
We offer our high-speed Internet access and IP connectivity services primarily
to small and medium-sized businesses, communications providers and other bandwidth-intensive
organizations located in North America, Europe and Asia.
We offer on-net services in over 190 metropolitan markets. We serve over 2,500
on-net buildings. Our most popular on-net service in North America is Internet
access at 100 megabits per second. We typically offer this service to small
and medium-sized business customers. We also offer Internet access at higher
speeds of up to 100 Gigabits per second. These services are generally used by
customers that have businesses, such as web hosting, Internet access, and video
delivery. These services are generally delivered at our data centers and carrier
neutral data centers. We believe that, on a per-Megabit basis, this service
offering is one of the lowest priced in the marketplace. We also offer colocation
services in our data centers located in North America and Europe. This service
offers Internet access combined with rack space and power in our facility, allowing
the customer to locate a server or other equipment at that location and connect
to our Internet access service. Our final on-net service offering is our private
network service. This service provides point-to-point and point to multi-point
connectivity. This service allows customers to connect geographically dispersed
local area networks in a seamless manner. We offer lower prices for longer term
and volume commitments. We emphasize the sale of our on-net services because
we believe that we have a competitive advantage in providing these services
and these services generate gross profit margins that are greater than our off-net
services.
We offer our off-net services to customers that are not located in our on-net
buildings. These services are primarily provided in the metropolitan markets
in North America and Europe in which we offer on-net services. These services
are generally provided to small and medium-sized corporate customers in over
6,300 off-net buildings.
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