Nortel delivers German ASP
Feb 4th 2000: Nortel Networks is to design, build and operate the complete infrastructure of ambitious German startup ASP, Einsteinet. Launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Monday (Jan 31st), Einsteinet is to invest $128m in building infrastructure across Germany's top 50 medium-sized cities over the next three years. With initial services due to go live in May, it aims to deliver office productivity, messaging, business management and e-business applications to companies with from 10 to 500 employees, delivered using high-speed DSL connections and a fibre-optic backbone. Network equipment manufacturer Nortel Networks and its European joint venture with DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, Nortel DASA Network Systems, will develop and implement the ASP's business plan, build its data centres, select its portfolio of appications, provide systems integration, and manage its operations until it has built up its own in-house resources. Einsteinet is the brainchild of Argentinian-born serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky, whose two previous startups, Viatel and Jazztel, are both now Nasdaq-listed stocks, and were also built with Nortel's support. The manufacturer has similar projects in the works with other European ventures, director of ASP solutions marketing Jim Dondero told ASP News Review yesterday. "We're seeing the same sense of urgency [to come to market] among the European service provider community that we're seeing in North America," he said.
Nortel also on Monday announced a $10m investment in Waltham MA-based ASP infrastructure softare vendor Epicon. Nortel will use Epicon's technology to strengthen application management on remote devices.
� See related ASP News Review story, Nortel bundles ASP solutions (Dec 15th)
� There's analysis of Epicon's technology and an interview with Epicon CEO Jack Sweeney in February's ASP News Review newsletter ... click here>>
� Nortel Networks
� Einsteinet
� Epicon