Major League Baseball Coming To Smartphones, PCs

Baseball fans won't have to ask 'who's on first?' anymore, because they will soon be able to find out by themselves, thanks to a high-speed network being established by Global Crossing for MLB.com, the official site of Major League Baseball.

Global Crossing's Internet protocol virtual private network (IP VPN) will provide high-speed, high-capacity connectivity to all 30 major league ballparks and MLB.com servers in New York City, according to an announcement Thursday by Global Crossing.

The network configuration will enable the league to distribute live streaming video and other baseball-oriented data to online subscribers.

The IP VPN will enable subscribers to watch a full season of 2,430 live baseball games in high-definition video, while at the same time accessing baseball news, stats, game highlights, and other data on their computers and mobile handsets.

"Adopting managed services allows us to focus our internal resources on core competencies while servicing day-to-day requirements through technology delivered as a service," said Joe Choti, chief technology officer of MLB.com, adding that Global Crossing has been able to deliver the robust bandwidth and scalability needed by MLB.com.

Global Crossing delivers the MLB services over the firm's IP-based multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network. Fiber optic access loops with speeds up to 155 Mbps have been installed at all ballparks and a 2.5-Gbps access loop in New York connects to Global Crossing's network.