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2015 | Doing Business in Connecticut 41 SPONSORED REPORT school started out with 10 Megabits- per-second (Mbps) of throughput and jumped to 20 within a year before moving up to a 100 Mbps circuit. Similarly, the Farmington Public School District relies on Comcast Busi- ness' multi-Gigabit Ethernet services to connect all seven of its schools and provide fast and reliable access to all of the web-based services that the school's more than 4,000 students — as well as parents and teachers — have come to rely on every day. Comcast initially launched multi- Gigabit Ethernet for large-scale Con- necticut businesses in the Hartford and New Haven areas in May 2011, and since then has continuously ex- panded that offering, now offering all 83 communities the company serves in the state another level of choice when it comes to how they connect to the Internet. Capable of up to 10 Gigabits- per-second (Gbps) of throughput, these services are specifically designed for businesses, hospitals, schools, municipalities and other organizations requiring more capacity, looking to network multiple locations together, or planning to connect their offices to a third-party data center. The City of West Haven is one such example of a customer that chose to take advantage of Comcast Business' multi-Gigabit Ethernet services. The city faced limitations with its exist- ing network infrastructure and aging telephone system. Its libraries were un- able to provide wireless access to their patrons, and the city's existing beach security camera system, which covers nearly four miles of the longest stretch of public access beach in Connecticut, was slow in feeding back critical video footage to the police department. As its population continued to grow, the municipality became in- creasingly frustrated with its existing T1 and DSL lines. Comcast Business provided the city with a complete net- work solution featuring multi-Gigabit Ethernet access and voice services that connect city hall to 17 munici- pal locations, including West Haven's three libraries, six firehouses, the high school, beach patrol offices and the police department. "Whether it's a school provid- ing tablets to its students for online learning, a hospital transferring large imaging files or a police department monitoring surveillance video in real- time, capacity and performance are key to the success of all businesses," emphasized Paul Savas, vice president of Comcast Business in Connecticut. "We have demonstrated our ongoing significant investment in Connecticut by continuously expanding our fiber footprint, to increase the availability of our multi-Gigabit Ethernet services — which can scale from anywhere between 1 Gbps all the way up to 10 Gbps of performance — to help foster economic development and drive competition, innovation and value for our customers across the state." Comcast also offers a suite of ser- vices — including multi-Gigabit Eth- ernet — that are customized for the hospitality industry. These services can help Connecticut's hotels, motels and restaurants improve their overall guest experience, streamline back-office op- erations and reduce operating costs. All of Comcast's multi-Gigabit Ethernet services are delivered over an advanced network that spans 140,000 miles across 39 states and the District of Columbia. Serving 20 of the top 25 U.S. markets, Comcast's network features a 100 Gbps back- bone and expanded local footprint through Ethernet over HFC. Band- width can be scaled in increments and offered in three different classes of service, backed by service level agreements and monitored 24x7x365 from Comcast's dedicated Network Operations Centers. Comcast Business has been recog- nized as a leader by numerous business and industry groups, including the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF), which presented Comcast Business with four awards this year, including Best Ether- net Service in North America. Comcast Business was also the first service pro- vider to earn the MEF Carrier Ethernet 2.0 certification back in 2013, and was named the fastest growing Ethernet provider on Vertical Systems Group's U.S. Carrier Ethernet LEADERBOARD for the last two years running. Comcast Business is leaning in on its multi-Gigabit Ethernet product for good reason. According to Vertical Systems Group, the U.S. Ethernet mar- ket will surpass one million customer ports by 2018. This is a result of more enterprises, mid-market customers and small businesses moving to Ether- net due to expanding service options, competitive pricing and rising band- width demand. Comcast also recently launched a groundbreaking Ethernet @Home ser- vice that brings business multi-Gigabit Ethernet services to homes within the company's footprint, providing employees who work from home with secure connectivity to their corporate network powered by Comcast Busi- ness' Ethernet services. Representing a dramatic expansion of Ethernet Continued on next page > "...we are continuously expanding our fiber footprint, to increase the availability of our multi-Gigabit Ethernet services..." – Paul Savas (Vice President, Comcast Business, Connecticut)