Time Warner Telecom extends fiber network to Saratoga Springs, NY

March 11, 2004 Albany NY -- Time Warner Telecom, provider of managed voice and data networking solutions for businesses in New York and 21 other states, has extended its fiber-optic network to Saratoga Springs, NY, from its Albany office 30 miles away. The service extension brings business communications services to the outlying city of 26,000 for the first time.

"We believe Time Warner Telecom's decision to extend its service to Saratoga Springs will help us attract businesses to our city," asserts Linda Toohey, executive vice president of Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce. "Our quality of life and sense of community have been effective in attracting high-tech and financial services companies here. But as they grow, their need for communications bandwidth to serve that growth increases too. Now businesses have a highly cost-effective alternative to choose from when building out their communications infrastructure."

Time Warner Telecom will establish a hub Point of Presence (PoP) at Skidmore College of Saratoga Springs from which it will deliver service to area businesses. These services include voice, data, dedicated Internet, metro Ethernet, and other integrated services designed to connect businesses across town or across the country more efficiently.

Skidmore College has also signed a three-year contract to receive ISDN PRI local and long distance service with 3,500 direct inward dial numbers, plus fractional DS3 Internet service. Service turnup is planned for the second quarter of this year.

"The Time Warner Telecom proposal was compelling," reports Bret Ingerman, chief technology officer for Skidmore College. "We'll get the reliability we require from dual-entry pathways and SONET fiber connections, increase data bandwidth by two and a half times to meet student's insatiable bandwidth appetites, and provide local and long distance voice services campus-wide--all for extremely competitive pricing."

Scalability and service provisioning speed were two additional factors in Skidmore's selection. "Students are accessing more and more data online so we'll definitely need to add bandwidth down the road," says Ingerman. "With Time Warner Telecom's fiber service, adding bandwidth is pretty straight forward. With alternative copper offerings, we would have had to endure a drawn out administrative nightmare to bring up T1s."

Saratoga Springs business Spa.Net has also contracted with Time Warner Telecom for 10-Mbit/sec Native LAN (metro Ethernet) data and ISDN PRI services. "Since we committed to expanding our business in Saratoga Springs, our only options have been to purchase data services from Albany at a much higher expense," explains Rich Richbart, president and CEO of Spa.Net. "Also, because our ISP business is growing and our customers rely on highly available service, we simply can't use antiquated copper lines. Time Warner Telecom's fiber extension to our city is a key to helping us expand our business here."

"Cities like Saratoga Springs have a pent-up demand for fiber-based telecommunications services at a reasonable price," adds Jeff Fiori, vice president and general manager for Time Warner Telecom in Albany. "Extending our service there was a logical business move, which has been validated by the strong interest from area businesses we've seen so far in addition to contracts we've signed with Skidmore College, Spa.Net, and others."