RESTON, VA -- Teleglobe Communications Corporation has established an ATM-based service that connects Asian and European Research and Education (R&E) networks directly to more than 100 R&E institutions that are part of the U.S.-based STAR TAP, (Science, Technology and Research Transit Access Point), initiative. This direct connection -- called "Distributed STAR TAP ^SM " -- benefits the world's academic community by providing faster and more cost-effective access to Internet research capabilities over Teleglobe's global ATM backbone network.

STAR TAP, established as part of a National Science Foundation award to the University of Illinois at Chicago, provides a common interconnection point between U.S. R&E networks and their foreign counterparts for collaborative applications and for the development and testing of new Internet technologies. The advantage of a common interconnection point is that a participating network can connect with any other network without having to pass through a third party's network and without being subject in any way to a third party's networking policies.

Because STAR TAP's location (Chicago, U.S.) is far from most international cable landings and satellite teleports, the high-bandwidth international connections required to conduct advanced research have been relatively inconvenient.

Teleglobe's 'Distributed STAR TAP' access service, already deployed at the company's east and west coast GlobeSystem ^SM network access points in New York City and Los Angeles, greatly reduces the cost and effort to connect to STAR TAP. Teleglobe also plans on establishing access sites in Miami and at Teleglobe's three North American teleports in the near future.

"Teleglobe is grateful for the opportunity to collaborate more closely with the NSF and the University of Illinois at Chicago and to offer our base of PTT and carrier Internet Service Providers the means to better serve their national institutions of learning and higher education with access to America's leading edge research and education activities," said Bob Collet, vice president and general manager, Internet and Data Services, Teleglobe Communications Corporation. 

'Distributed STAR TAP' Access Service
Through its east and west coast access points, Teleglobe will provide its R&E network customers with an Internet routing and ATM network service for interconnection with STAR TAP-connected networks. STAR TAP networks include the NSF very High Speed Backbone Network Service (vBNS), the DoE Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and the NASA Research and Education Network (NREN). Teleglobe also provides access to Abilene, the high performance backbone service of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), at its east and west coast access points as well as at STAR TAP. The Distributed STAR TAP service also is available to the R&E networks supported by Teleglobe's wholesale carrier and ISP customers, as well as to other U.S. and Canadian research and education institutions, thus opening up significant new potentials of collaboration.

"STAR TAP management has been talking with a number of providers about extending the STAR TAP service connection points for the convenience of our international partner networks," said Steve Goldstein, program director for International Networking, National Science Foundation. "We are all delighted that Teleglobe is the first one to provide such a service to its customers. This continues Teleglobe's responsiveness to the needs of the advanced research community that was evidenced early on when they made a 155 Mbps link between North America and Europe available to Canadian researchers using CA*net and later extended its availability to U.S.researchers."

"The Distributed STAR TAP access service should provide for a significantly more effective means for U.S. networks to meet their international counterparts. This will be a catalyst for much more collaborative activity around the world," said Tom DeFanti, STAR TAP Principal Investigator.

Teleglobe already directly provides a variety of Internet access services extending the STAR TAPSTAR TAP service connection points for the convenience of our international partner networks," said Steve Goldstein, program director forInternational Networking, National Science Foundation. "We are all delighted that Teleglobe is the first one to provide such a service to its customers. This continues Teleglobe's responsiveness to the needs of the advanced research community that was evidenced early on when they made a 155 Mbps link between North America and Europe available to Canadian researchers using CA*net and later extended its availability to U.S. researchers."

"The Distributed STAR TAP access service should provide for a significantly more effective means for U.S. networks to meet their international counterparts. This will be a catalyst for much more collaborative activity around the world," said Tom DeFanti, STAR TAP Principal Investigator.

Teleglobe already directly provides a variety of Internet access services for non-U.S. R&E networks, including CERnet (China), DANTE (European Commission), MIMOS (Malaysia), MIRnet (Russia), NACSIS (Japan), the National University of Seoul (Korea), NORDUnet (Nordics), RosNIIROS (Russia), SingAREN (Singapore), SUPERJanet (UK), SURFnet (Netherlands), the University of Costa Rica and the University of Kuwait.

About Teleglobe
Teleglobe Inc. (NYSE, TSE, ME: TGO) is a recognized leader in global telecommunications. Through its subsidiary Teleglobe Communications Corporation, the company develops and supplies global connectivity services to carriers, Internet service providers, business customers and content providers worldwide. Through Excel Communication's proven marketing and distribution channels, Teleglobe also caters to an expanding international consumer customer base. According to TeleGeography, the company is the fourth-ranked long distance provider in the United States and, according to a recent KMI Corporation study, the third largest owner of undersea fiber optic cable systems. Teleglobe has a 50% interest in ORBCOMM, the world's first commercial low-earth-orbit, satellite-based, data communications system.

Additional information is available at: http://www.teleglobe.com.

STAR TAP and Distributed STAR TAP are service marks of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.