SAVVIS Expands Latin American Presence with BANTEL

August 15, 2002 -- Global managed IP services provider SAVVIS Communications Corp. (SAVVIS.com) announced on Tuesday that it has formed a new contract with Latin American telecom carrier BANTEL Telecomunicaciones.

According to the terms of the deal, BANTEL has made an investment in order to link SAVVIS’s Miami-based network hub with its own Venezuelan network. SAVVIS says it now has local connectivity to Venezuela through BANTEL’s fiber network and agreements with other providers there.

SAVVIS says it is now the only company in Venezuela to provide its Intelligent IP Networking services. The deal also improves SAVVIS’s customers’ ability to connect directly with that region.

BANTEL will also serve as an official reseller of SAVVIS’s IP VPN services, which offers points of presence in more than 45 countries, making BANTEL one of a small number of providers that can offer global coverage.

"The relationship between SAVVIS and BANTEL Telecomunicaciones is an example of how the Latin America telecommunications market is changing for the better," says Jim Mori, executive vice president and general manager of the Americas for SAVVIS. "Up until now, corporate users in Latin America have been limited to point-to-point, frame relay connections and the public Internet as a means of conducting business. However, via the SAVVIS-BANTEL deal, managed IP VPN services are now a viable part of the Latin American market."