GTE Internetworking, the IP services business unit of US telecoms giant GTE Corp, claims that it is ahead of competitors AT&T and MCI Worldcom, with the US government approving its export of virtual private network (VPN) encryption software. GTE will distribute its Triple DES 56-bit encryption to 230 counties and guarantees network connectivity and availability in 42.
The government approval comes just in time for GTE’s latest VPN software, VPN Advantage 1.1 will be released next week, and the company claims it can carry data in less than half the time of the first version, with 3.5Mb capacity increased to more than 8Mb.
The company plans to extend its presence in Europe, currently limited to partnerships with internet service providers, by opening offices, possibly in the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Its traffic runs on networks run by Qwest, and GTE will expand that North American service to South America and Europe, running all the operations from the US.
