It is intended that services will be generally available within the second quarter of 2001. The alliance will give content providers a single point of customer contact, high availability, and simultaneous connectivity to the backbones of both companies.

With the ability to simultaneously connect to both the AT&T and Excite@Home backbones, customers now have the added confidence that their online events will run without a hitch, Mike Jenner, vice president, general manager of AT&T Internet Connectivity Services reported in a statement to the press. Working together we’ve got it all – the industry’s top performing IP backbone, the fastest connectivity services commercially available, more than a million square feet of web hosting space and millions of broadband end-users.

Mark O’Leary, executive vice president of broadband services Excite@Home, added, With our multi-backbone strategy, we plan to offer the industry’s highest quality delivery system for rich media, which experts say is already reaching one-third of all US web audiences. We expect that our initiative can result in significant improvements in the streaming media experience for broadband users.