Idaho school district taps Time Warner Telecom for Ethernet services

May 24, 2006 Boise, ID -- Time Warner Telecom has won a competitive bid to provide Meridian School District with a full suite of communications solutions, including metro Ethernet, Ethernet Internet Services (EIS), and voice services. Time Warner Telecom will deliver communications services over the next five years to Idaho's largest school district. Installation will be complete prior to the start of the 2006/2007 school year.

Working closely with Compunet, Meridian School District's data integration vendor, Time Warner Telecom will provide voice and data services to 45 locations in the Meridian School District, including all elementary, middle and high schools, and main administration office.

"Time Warner Telecom won the request for proposal based on two things; its deep understanding of the technology required to meet our needs and its cost-effective approach," reports Jerry Reininger, Ed. D, administrator of Information Systems for Meridian School District. "For example, Time Warner Telecom advocated building fiber only to the sites that required that level of support. What's more, Time Warner Telecom is providing us with a 'School's Out' program that significantly reduces our costs during the summer months, when school's not in session and when we require less bandwidth."

Time Warner Telecom's metro Ethernet services provide high-speed Internet access to the Meridian School District and will support the district's VoIP voice deployment. Additionally, the capabilities of the metro Ethernet solution support the district's new electronic student records and network-based financial management information systems. As a result of its selection, Meridian School District believes it is poised for future growth, because the network can easily expanded as new schools are built and additional bandwidth is required.

Time Warner Telecom is extending its fiber network 15 miles, which will include the City of Eagle, Idaho, to connect to the Meridian School District locations. As a result, businesses in Eagle will now have access to Time Warner Telecom's more than 120-mile local fiber ring as well as the company's more than 20,000 miles of fiber serving schools, government,s and businesses across the country.

"Our goal with all our customers is to meet their needs in the simplest, most cost-effective ways possible," adds Tab Roper, vice president and general manager for Time Warner Telecom in Boise. "We accomplish this by being flexible and by tailoring our solutions to meet their needs."