Excite@Home Teams With Content Delivery Companies

Excite@Home (http://www.home.com) said it will ramp up streaming media content delivery services on its network.

Excite@Home will begin deploying these services with iBEAM, Akamai and Microcast.

The delivery providers will be able to connect directly to and distribute through Excite@Home's dual OC-48 Internet backbone. The company says these new content distribution services improve the end-user streaming media experience.

"We will continue to expand the commercial uses of our broadband network to take advantage of the next phase of commercial growth today and post-2002 as it becomes an ever more significant piece of our business,'' said Mark O'Leary, executive vice president, EBS. "The content distribution networks such as iBEAM, Akamai and Microcast have recognized the need to deliver superior content to broadband subscribers.''

Akamai will gain direct access to the Excite@Home network in locations geographically distributed throughout the company's network. "Akamai became the largest content and streaming delivery company by solving the Internet backbone and peering problem for over 1,000 content provider customers, and Excite@Home has the most valuable broadband network based on its large subscriber base,'' said Avi Freedman, vice president of network architecture at Akamai. "This partnership supports our commitment to maintaining the world's largest distributed delivery network and gives Excite@Home users an enhanced end-to-end broadband experience for Akamai customers' world-class content and streaming media.''