By Robin Gareiss, principal research officer

Under AT&T’s (NYSE: T) and Internap’s (AMEX: IIP) recent partnership announcement, AT&T will offer its hosting customers Internap’s Internet access service. We believe the significance of this event goes beyond benefits to AT&T and Internap’s customers in two ways: 1.) It underscores the growing emphasis on optimizing IP network performance; and 2.) It validates the value of aggregating multiple Internet backbones using route-optimization technology.

Overall, AT&T’s selection of Internap validates Internap’s technology and the business value of the optimized solution. (Internap’s stock jumped just under 3% on the day of the announcement.) The move also illustrates that AT&T is willing to use other backbones to give customers what they want—better performance.

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