AppliedTheory Communications Inc, the New York veteran internet service provider says it will have built five new points of presence (PoPs) between New York and Washington DC, by the year end, expanding its reach down the east coast of the US. At present it is entirely focused on New York state, where it has 15 PoPs. The company, which is based in Great Neck on Long Island, is a 1996 spin-out from NyserNet, which was established in 1985 to link New York’s universities over the internet. Two years later NyserNet was the first company to connect commercial customers to the internet, including IBM Corp and General Electric Co. In late May the company got major investments from IXC Communications Inc, which purchased a 34% stake, while IXC investor Grumman Hill Investments III bought an further 17% of the company. Some of that money is being used to build the PoPs. The contractual negotiations are still being worked through, so the company will not say yet where they will be. The IXC deal will eventually give AppliedTheory access to IXC’s network, helping it on its path to building what it claims is the world’s first terabit per second network.
