Pacnet expands Chinese IP VPN footprint; new licence ‘first of its kind’

Asian carrier Pacnet has expanded its IP VPN service footprint further into mainland China, after its Chinese joint venture, Pacnet Business Solutions (PBS), received an enhanced service licence from the Chinese government. Capacity Magazine reported that the move expands PBS’s IP VPN coverage from 20 cities to 23 provinces, while the licence is the first of its kind to be awarded by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to a Sino-foreign telecoms joint venture. PBS currently operates data centres in five Chinese cities and provides internet access in ten; it plans to connect its IP VPN service to its data centres, providing a platform for managed and cloud-based services. Approximately 50% of PBS’s clients are Chinese companies, with the other half multi-national corporations. According to Frost & Sullivan, the value of the domestic IP VPN market in China is nearing USD1 billion annually, and is forecast to grow to over USD2.5 billion by 2017.