Cable & Wireless Plc and US Sprint Communications Inc are set to launch a virtual private network that will be available to businesses throughout the UK, US and Hong Kong, with plans for the service to be extended firstly to Japanese companies, and then on to continental Europe – until now, virtual private networks have only been available in certain areas of the UK and US. The Global Virtual Private Network – GVPN – is the flagship of the still to be formulated Global Fon set of business telecommunications products and services, and will become commercially available in the UK, US and Hong Kong from September of this year; it will be backed up by a fully regional network support service, offered by Cable & Wireless division Mercury Communications Ltd in the UK, US Sprint in the US, and Hong Kong Telecom International, another Cable & Wireless subsidiary, in the Crown Colony. As a virtual private network, GVPN is intended for use by multi-nationals either as an extension to an existing private network or by itself, and will offer line capacity comparable with that of private networks, and features such as short-code dialling, caller authorisation and caller identification over the public switched telephone network, effectively saving organisations the initial outlay associated with company-wide private networks. Despite the fact that details of GVPN were released on the opening day of the Birmingham NEC Communications 90 exhibition, it will be demonstrated for the first time at the International Communications Association annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, starting May 22.
