some information for the IIP from message board Re: Comparing IIP, SVVS, EQIX, LVLT by: doug1s (30/M/California) Long-Term Sentiment: Buy 03/22/06 05:49 pm Msg: 218253 of 218662 There are significant differences between all 4 companies. EQIX is a "carrier-neutral" collocation company. That basically means that they don't sell their own internet bandwidth. Companies such as IIP or Level 3 that want to sell bandwidth to EQIX customers either have to put some type of fiber connection into the EQIX facility or the customer has to bring in a high-speed connection such as a T3 that connects to the carriers network. EQIX's business model is selling colocation space and basic managed services such as tape back-up, system re-boots, hot hands, etc. Level 3 is a wholesale carrier that has built a fiber optic network thoughout the US and some international locations. Their focus is on selling network capacity to the IIP's, MCI's, AT&T's, and enterprise customers of the world. They have a Tier One Internet backbone and they don't sell to small businesses that need T1 service. They are known as a carrier's carrier. IIP purchases large Internet connections from all of the major Internet Backbone providers and uses proprietary technology to route Internet traffic over the various backbones, thus improving network performance for their customers. They also sell hardware that allows customers to get their own Internet connections and optimize their data traffic over those connections. The Internet is a combination of thousands of different networks that hand traffic off to one another as needed so that customer's can send and receive data upon request. Because the flow of traffic from network to network is loosely controlled at best, latency sensitive traffic such as VOIP phone calls, streaming media, etc don't normally fair very well went sent over the Internet. IIP's patented technology is constantly pinging the countless routes on the Internet, they are able to control the flow of data to help it reach its destination much more efficiently. That is why their customer base is large enterprise clients and huge web-based customers such as Google, Amazon, etc. If you went to Amazon, and the pages downloaded a little bit slowly, you may not go back to the site. IIP's technology helps ensure that end users have a favorable surfing experience when they hit the site. SVVS is a little bit of the other three companies. They have an international backbone, although not nearly as robust a Level 3, and they also have the former Exodus hosting facilities which they purchased from Cable and Wireless. Their business model is to sell next-generation managed VPN's and hosting solutions but I have always felt that their ideas were better than their execution (I used to work there so I know first hand). They have one large customer (Reuters) that probably accounts for 30%+ of their revenue. I believe that Reuters owns a piece of SVVS so that revenue is pretty secure. The issue I have with them is that they have never been able to come close to generating a profit in 10 years of business. They are huge proponent of the EBITDA smoke and mirrors approach and I don't know if they will ever achieve profitability (especially with executives dropping $250k at Scores in a single night). I hope that helps. By the way, IIP is the best in the business at what they do, bar none.