BY MAX SMETANNIKOV  InterActive Week 11.1.99


Idea is to build on streaming content delivery 

While Akamai Technologies and recently acquired Sandpiper Net-works have 
captured the majority of mind share as leaders in the emerging content 
distribution market, Enron Communications is making a bid to blend together 
its assets as a national carrier to beat back the start-ups and make some 
major waves in the content delivery business.
Last week, Portland, Ore.-based carrier Enron (www.enron.net) announced it 
has broadened its content distribution network to focus on streaming media. 
The intensified pursuit of the content distri-bution space is likely to come 
as a surprise to com-petitors that perceive the carrier as more of a 
band-width wholesaler.
However, company executives say content distri-bution ofvarious kinds is what 
Enron is all about.
"What we do is exactly what they [Aka-mai]  do," says Joe Hirko, Enron 
president and chief executive. "The difference is that their   services   are 
acceptable for some    content, that isn't mis-sion-cntical, and we have that 
same model and we do that for mis-sion-crincal content."
Just like Akamai and Sandpiper,  Enron  is colocating its media dis-tribution 
servers with other Internet service providers (ISPs), mem-bers of the 
so-called e-Powered  Distribution Program, making it possible for Enron to 
reserve bandwidth on partners' networks. The differentiator that Enron brings 
to the table is its quality-of-service guarantee, backed by an elaborate 
network architecture and business model that Enron is building, which relies 
on a combination of alliances and a bandwidth broker exchange.
First, Enron has built its own content distribution network with servers 
colocated with other ISPs. These carriers include Epoch Internet, Electric 
Lightwave, FlashNet Communications, GTE Inte-networking, InterNap, NetRail, 
NorthPoint Communications, RCN and Veno. Enron is also pursuing satellite 
providers as another group of carriers capa-ble of distributing content in 
geographically remote places where fiber networks are not present yet.
While traditional content distributors measure their footprint in servers 
distributed with other hackhones, Enron uses its points of presence and the 
number ofdesktops reached as its basic metrics. Enron says it can shoot audio 
and video streams to 25 million desktops via 500 POPs.
Second, Enron is in the final stages of establishing its own bandwidth 
exchange, a division that would trade space on other carriers networks as a 
way to provision bandwidth on demand. Hirko says six interconnection points 
for carriers that want to trade on this exchange have been built, and the 
first trades will start before the end of the year.
This would be the first time a bandwidth exchange business model, in itself a 
nascent idea, would be married to content distribution as the means to bring 
down the cost of streaming media distribution.
"This is something completely new. I have not seen anything like this," says 
Tim Strong, an analyst at consultancy TeleGeography in Washington, D.C.
The result is essentially complete control over the pipe delivering voice and 
video, a position of power that Hirko says will lead to unmatched 
performance. "We are talking 27 frames a second," Hirko says, adding that it 
is not uncommon to tap into streaming video feeds as low as two or three 
frames per second.
Enron plans to charge its users less than 5 cents per megabyte delivered.
Akamai (www.akamai.com), which doesn't own its own network and uses the 
Internet as the means of streaming media delivery, also plans to guarantee
near-zero packet loss with its patent-pending, yet-to-be-launched service 
called Steady Stream.
The biggest challenge for Enron is to convince potential customers that the 
carrier is more than simply a bandwidth provider. To date, Enron's only 
public streaming media client is CountryCool.com.
Enron officials see an opportunity to barge into the industry by 
commandeering the unconquered segment of the content distribution market 
streaming media  where Akamai and Sandpiper have yet to make a name.
"We are using Akamai for distribution of objects and static images," says 
Monty Mullig, vice president of CNN Internet Technologies. "It's possible 
Akamai might work for streaming media, but I have not seen that product from 
them yet." CNN Interactive is distributing most of its video through Intervu, 
one of the first providers of streaming media services.
While Mullig is intrigued by the prospects of Enron's bandwidth exchange 
services, he has yet to be convinced the company offers a compeffing service.
"They haven't put a product in front of us that we would be interested in," 
Mullig says. "We want a big audience behind the service that we buy  like 
Akamai's. On its face value, Enron's network is not any more interesting than 
networks of other players their size.

The master plan
National carrier Enron cites four building blocks as the foundation for its 
content distribution service:
NETWORK COVERAGE: 12-POP-strong national network and partner agreements with 
10 ISPs worldwide - a content distribu-tion network reaching 25 million end 
users
INTELLIGENCE SOFTWARE: Enron Intelligent Network, which ties together various 
network properties for a quality-of-service-enabled offering

BANDWIDTH EXCHANGE SERVICE: Soon to be launched, will provide spot capacity 
on other carriers' networks on an on-demand basis

APPLICATION PARTNERS: Vendors and service providers enabling applications 
delivered through Enron's network
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11/10/1999 
PR Newswire 
(Copyright (c) 1999, PR Newswire) 



HOUSTON, Nov. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Enron Communications, a wholly owned 
subsidiary of Enron (NYSE: ENE), and Inktomi Corporation (Nasdaq: INKT) 
announced today a strategic alliance in which the Inktomi Traffic Server 
cache platform will be integrated into the Enron Intelligent Network to offer 
high quality network performance and bandwidth capacity to support broadband 
content distribution and e-business services. The integration of Inktomi's 
caching software into the Enron Intelligent Network enhances Enron 
Communications' ability to seamlessly and selectively push content to the 
desktop while handling massive volumes of high bit rate network traffic in a 
scalable manner. 


"With the acceleration of global e-business demands, there is an increased 
need for an Internet infrastructure that is scalable, reliable and fast," 
said David Peterschmidt, President and Chief Executive Officer of Inktomi 
Corp." The integration of our Traffic Server technology into the Enron 
Intelligent Network will enable a rich suite of broadband applications and 
services targeted at the next generation of content delivery."


The enhanced performance of the Enron Intelligent Network, in combination 
with the Inktomi Traffic Server cache platform, lies in its ability to store 
content "one-hop" away from the user at the closest ISP server. Enron's 
network also provides greater scaling capability to handle peaks in demand 
without system failures. In contrast, the public Internet has a limited 
capability to deliver broadband services like streaming media, which is often 
hampered by packet loss, interference, and other disruptions that slow down 
transmission speed and compromise the end user viewing experience. 


"Enron Communications' unique e-business platform includes industrial 
strength routers and servers, combined with fiber and satellite distribution, 
to deliver more simultaneous streams which overcomes the challenges of the 
current Internet," said Mike Ortega, vice president of sales at InterNAP. 
"Integrating Inktomi's technology with the Enron Intelligent Network really 
takes our services to a new level and provides a huge competitive advantage 
in the delivery of broadband content to our customers." 


The integration of Inktomi technology with the Enron Intelligent Network will 
represent an industry-best end-to-end solution to deliver mission critical 
applications to vertical industries like financial services and media and 
entertainment. For example, the Enron Intelligent Network can host high- 
quality streaming video road shows for the financial services industry -- 
distributed live, interactive and on-demand. The Enron Intelligent Network 
offers investment banks, content aggregators and other financial entities a 
richer, faster and more reliable audio/video experience for their audiences 
than today's popular solutions, which are mostly public Internet based. 


"Enterprise businesses are looking for the right combination of technology 
that will enable their swift transformation to e-businesses, which is what 
the Enron Intelligent Network offers. We offer the end-to-end Internet 
solution for content distribution, not just a small enhancement to the public 
Internet," said Joe Hirko, president and CEO of Enron Communications. "The 
enterprise seeks online services like TV-quality streaming rich media, video 
conferencing over the Internet, and large video file transfers over IP, which 
are transmitted with even higher quality and reliability over the Enron 
Intelligent Network with the support of Inktomi caching." 


One of Enron Communications' streaming customers -- Countrycool.com, the 
official web cast site of the 1999 Country Music Association (CMA) Awards -- 
transmitted a live stream of the 33rd Annual CMA Awards over the Enron 
Intelligent Network. The viewing audience connected to the stream at 
broadband speeds of 150 Kbps and 300 Kbps. High-bit rate, data-intensive 
streaming media events, like the CMA Awards web cast, highlight the efficient 
delivery and robust performance of the Enron Intelligent Network. 


"We realized that Enron Intelligent Network was the perfect platform for the 
most efficient and reliable delivery of our premier streaming event, and in 
fact, they exceeded our expectations. The quality of this stream got such 
excellent reviews that our web site audience has increased by nearly 900 
percent over last year's numbers," said Carol Walcoff, Countrycool.com 
President and CEO. "Now add Inktomi's caching technology to Enron 
Communications' platform and we truly are able to scale our services and meet 
our increased user requests for on-demand content." 


About Inktomi 


Inktomi (pronounced INK-tuh-me), develops and markets scalable software 
designed for the world's largest Internet infrastructure and media companies. 
Inktomi's two areas of business are portal services, comprised of the search, 
directory and shopping engines; and network products comprised of the Traffic 
Server network cache and associated value-added services. Inktomi works with 
leading companies including America Online, British Telecommunications, CNN, 
Excite@Home, GoTo.com, Intel, NBC's Snap!, RealNetworks, Sun Microsystems, 
and Yahoo!. The company has offices in North America, Europe and Asia. For 
more information visit www.inktomi.com. 


About Enron Communications 


Enron Communications delivers the Enron Intelligent Network(TM), a Pure 
IP(TM) broadband overlay to the Internet. Enron Communications also provides 
rich, multimedia ePowered(TM) application services that enhance online 
commerce and communications. In early 2000, the Enron Intelligent Network 
will extend its reach to Europe, Japan, Asia and South America with 
metropolitan POPs and local ePowered distribution partners. Enron 
Communications offers ISPs and networks providers a range of bandwidth 
transport solutions that enable businesses to handle high traffic and high 
bit rate needs. A wholly owned subsidiary of Enron, Enron Communications can 
be found on the web at www.enron.net. 


Enron is one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas and 
communications companies. The company, which owns approximately $34 billion 
in energy and communications assets, produces electricity and natural gas, 
develops, constructs and operates energy facilities worldwide, delivers 
physical commodities and financial and risk management services to customers 
around the world, and is developing an intelligent network platform to 
facilitate online business. The stock is traded under the ticker symbol, 
"ENE." 


Contact: Claudia Johnson of Enron Communications, 503-833-4435, or email, 
claudia_johnson@enron.net; or Julie Keslik of Inktomi Corporation, 
650-653-3071, or email, jkeslik@inktomi.com.


/CONTACT: Claudia Johnson of Enron Communications, 503-833-4435, or email, 
claudia_johnson@enron.net; or Julie Keslik of Inktomi Corporation, 
650-653-3071, or email, jkeslik@inktomi.com/ 11:02 EST 
Contact: /CONTACT: Claudia Johnson of Enron Communications, 503-833-4435, or 
email, claudia_johnson@enron.net; or Julie Keslik of Inktomi Corporation, 
650-653-3071, or email, jkeslik@inktomi.com/ 11:02 EST