Global Crossing upgrades Asian hubs

Global Crossing Thursday announced that it is expanding its IP voice and data capabilities in Asia and the Pacific Rim, deploying new IP equipment and co-location facilities in its hubs in Tokyo and Hong Kong with similar upgrades in Sydney and Singapore planned for later this year.

In addition to its usual compliment of ATM and frame relay services, Global Crossing will be able to quickly provision IP VPN and other IP applications such as video and voice to its carrier and enterprise customers.

Global Crossing officials said it is critical for the company to establish a strong presence in Asia not only to meet the needs of its multi-national customers, but also to service growing intra-regional IP demands. Global Crossing expects the proportion of IP traffic to overall network traffic to increase from 38% in 2003 to 42% in 2005, centering on the high-growth countries China, Japan, Australia and India.