Esat Business and BT Ignite announce European VPN service

Esat Business and BT Ignite, BT's international solutions and broadband business, have announced the first stage in the rollout of a fully managed pan-European IPsec [Internet Protocol Security] virtual private network [VPN] service.

This service is designed to meet the needs of companies with international connectivity requirements for IP traffic. Covering Ireland, the UK, Germany, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, the launch is part of BT Ignite's strategy to provide customers with a full product suite of IP-VPN services.

The new service is based on Cisco's VPN routers and uses IPsec encrypted tunnels over the internet to transfer information. Esat Business, a division of the Esat Group, is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Ignite.

It is a major provider of broadband data and corporate internet solutions in Ireland and has 2,900 kms of national broadband fibre cable, with metropolitan networks in over 30 urban areas, including Dublin, Cork and Limerick.

This network links into the BT Ignite backbone network.