Time Warner Telecom launches new metro Ethernet services

March 20, 2003
March 20, 2003--Time Warner Telecom has unveiled its "Metro Ethernet Services--Tomorrow's Network Today" strategy with new metro Ethernet products for large, medium, and small business customers.

March 20, 2003--Littleton, CO-based Time Warner Telecom today unveiled its "Metro Ethernet Services--Tomorrow's Network Today" strategy with new metro Ethernet products for large, medium, and small business customers.

The very high-speed, flexible metro Ethernet solutions that Time Warner Telecom calls Native LAN services, are designed to deliver customers up to 100 times faster connection speeds at lower prices than traditional networks can offer. The carrier claims its Native LAN products represent one of the most comprehensive suites of Ethernet services available in the industry; Native LAN services are available from 10 Mbits/sec to 1 Gbit/sec, with plans to expand up to 10 Gbits/sec.

"Our Native LAN products are available to all businesses in a wide variety of industry applications, including Internet access and storage transport," explains Mike Rouleau, senior vice president of marketing and business development for Time Warner Telecom. "Our metro Ethernet services are already serving more than a hundred customers throughout the country and are now available to over 3,500 buildings in 44 U.S. metropolitan areas in 22 states over our own local fiber-optic networks. In addition, we can deliver service to customers in thousands of buildings near our local networks."

Metro Ethernet services provide unique benefits to businesses in search of greater value, affordable Internet and data connections, easy upgrades for scalability and simple customer management of proven Ethernet technology, say Time Warner Telecom representatives. Many older technologies like ISDN, Frame Relay, and DSL only talked about these benefits that Time Warner Telecom's Native LAN metro Ethernet delivers, they claim.

"Time Warner Telecom offers one of the most comprehensive metro Ethernet portfolios on the market today, encompassing point-to-point, switched multipoint and premium SONET-based Ethernet flavors, as well as Internet access over Ethernet," contends Ron Kaplan, research manager at market research firm IDC. "But offering services is not enough. Success in metro Ethernet hinges on fiber availability, and Time Warner Telecom has its own extensive metro fiber networks already in place. Combined, these two elements make Time Warner Telecom well-positioned in the metro Ethernet services market."

Customers already experiencing the value of Time Warner Telecom Native LAN services include: First Tennessee National (Memphis, TN); Bank of the West (San Francisco); Epic Imaging (Portland, OR); Carondelet Health Network (Tucson, AZ); New York Unified Court System (Albany, NY); University of Rochester (Rochester, NY); Chase Manhattan Mortgage (Columbus, OH); Misys Healthcare Systems (Tucson, AZ); San Diego City Office of Education (San Diego, CA); The Freeman Companies (Dallas), Digital River (Minneapolis, MN); Fortix (Portland, OR); Ingersoll Rand (Indianapolis, IN); University of Dallas (Dallas); and Charlson Broadcasting Technologies (Columbus, OH).

Bank of the West, for example, uses a SONET protected, five-node Ethernet MAN from Time Warner Telecom to connect its data centers in Los Angeles, the East Bay, and Hawaii. "Time Warner Telecom delivered the most cost-effective and scalable solution to meet our needs," reports Lenard East, vice president of network engineering. "We have been able to enhance our level of service to our customers and staff, improve our response times, and process more information in significantly less time. We are now positioned to more easily add locations and applications as we continue to grow our business."

"Go To Market" strategy

Time Warner Telecom has a joint marketing arrangement with Cisco to deliver Native LAN services.

"Intelligent Ethernet is an ideal technology to enable advanced, cost-effective metro service delivery like the Time Warner Telecom Native LAN service," explains Lele Nardin, vice president of Mid-Range Routing Business Unit at Cisco Systems. "Using our carrier-class Cisco 7600 platform to aggregate service delivery, coupled with the Catalyst 3550, Cisco delivers a comprehensive solution for delivering scaleable and intelligent services and performance Time Warner Telecom demands to successfully deliver their offering."

Time Warner Telecom Native LAN services are available in three packages, depending upon a customer's size and its needs. Typical pricing ranges from $750 to $6,600 per port, with no mileage charges, and based upon contract terms:

• CD-NLAN--Customer managed service for point-to-point and point to multi-point applications at speeds from 10 Mbits/sec to 1 Gbit/sec.

• Switched NLAN--A Time Warner Telecom managed service with switching capabilities from 10 Mbits/sec to 1 Gbit/sec. This service is a Frame Relay backbone replacement for any-to-any VLAN applications.

• SONET NLAN--A premium service from 10 Mbits/sec to 1 Gbit/sec. This service delivers the robustness of SONET for mission critical business applications.

"Fiber into buildings is gold," adds Rouleau. "And Time Warner Telecom owns, operates and maintains more than 17,000 local and regional fiber route miles in the U.S. to deliver these capabilities to businesses today. What is critically important is that our Native LAN is a platform to deliver future Voice over IP solutions like IP Centrex, and voice VPN."