WILMINGTON, Del. -- December 9, 1997 -- Conectiv Communications, Inc., a new regional telecommunications service provider in the eastern United States, today announced that it is using Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switches from Cisco Systems, Inc. as part of its plan to offer advanced networking solutions to customers.
"We made the strategic decision to deploy Cisco's BPX product as the basis for our public data network offerings," said John Scoggin, chief technical advisor for Conectiv Communications. "Cisco's ability to provide best-in-class support of Internet Protocol (IP), ATM and Frame Relay services and carrier-class reliability will enable us to provide the best possible data and multimedia services to our customers."
Conectiv plans to interconnect the switches with multiple OC-3 trunks and install them in Dover, Newark and Wilmington, Del. Each switch is equipped with a Cisco AXIS shelf that will provide Frame Relay and ATM services at T1 rates. The BPX. switches will provide ATM services at DS3 (45 Mbps) rates and beyond. Conectiv's network configuration will provide customers the benefit of a public networking service based upon high-speed Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) ring technology (OC-12 and OC-48) with a fully redundant, locally based infrastructure.
"Businesses desperately need advanced networking services to be competitive in the global marketplace," said Joe Golden, vice president of marketing for Cisco's Wide Area Network (WAN) business unit. "Conectiv has the vision to bring these services to its customers by building an ATM backbone with Cisco BPX switches. This purchase will provide Conectiv the ability to offer advanced networking services now and later scale to larger more advanced networks to meet customer demand."
The Cisco BPX is a standards-based ATM switch that allows broadband connectivity to deploy multimedia and voice/data applications across the network. The AXIS shelf, when attached to the BPX switch, allows narrowband Frame Relay and voice connectivity across the ATM network.
About Conectiv
Conectiv Communications, Inc. provides regional telecommunications service to Southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and the eastern shore of Maryland. Conectiv plans to expand services into New Jersey in 1998. Conectiv Communications, a subsidiary of Delmarva Power and Light Company, operates a network consisting of over 500 miles of fiber-optic cable. at http://www.conectiv.com.
