America Online Inc has become a customer of Sandpiper Networks Inc’s Footprint content delivery service. As part of the new agreement, Sandpiper will pay AOL for continued presence of Sandpiper servers within the AOL network. The two companies first forged their strategic alliance earlier in 1999; this announcement is designed to cement and extend the relationship, even as Sandpiper is in the process of being acquired by Digital Island Inc. In unrelated news, Digital Island/Sandpiper has made a strategic alliance with Rhythms NetConnections Inc to gain DSL delivery into major US cities via Rhythms’ broadband network. Customers of Digital Island/Sandpiper will get DSL-based on- and off-ramps into these cities, while the company will co-locate its content distribution servers at Rhythms’ facilities.
