LITTLETON, Colo., March 19, 2003 - Time Warner Telecom (Nasdaq:TWTC), a leading provider of metro and regional optical broadband networks and services to business customers, today unveiled its "Metro Ethernet Services - Tomorrow's Network Today" strategy with new metro Ethernet products for large, medium and small business customers.
These 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. Extremely reliable and secure, Time Warner Telecom's Native LAN products represent one of the most comprehensive suites of Ethernet services available in the industry. Time Warner Telecom's Native LAN services are available from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps, with plans to expand up to 10 Gpbs.
"Time Warner Telecom continues to meet our demands for bandwidth, quality, and price performance," said Mike Serozi, Director - Network Services and IT Security, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. "Their new Native LAN service has allowed us to successfully consolidate our data, Voice over IP, and video networking needs into one metropolitan network serving all of our key facilities."
"Our Native LAN products are available to all businesses in a wide variety of industry applications, including Internet access and storage transport," said Mike Rouleau, Senior Vice President - 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. Many older technologies like ISDN, Frame Relay and DSL only talked about these benefits that Time Warner Telecom's Native LAN metro Ethernet delivers.
Customers already experiencing the value of Time Warner Telecom Native LAN services include: First Tennessee National (Memphis, Tenn.), Bank of the West (San Francisco), Epic Imaging (Portland, Ore.), Carondelet Health Network (Tucson, Ariz.), New York Unified Court System (Albany, N.Y.), University of Rochester (Rochester, N.Y.), Chase Manhattan Mortgage (Columbus, Ohio), Misys Healthcare Systems (Tucson, Ariz.), San Diego City Office of Education (San Diego, Calif.), The Freeman Companies (Dallas), Digital River (Minneapolis, Minn.), Fortix (Portland, Ore.) Ingersoll Rand (Indianapolis, Ind.), University of Dallas (Dallas), and Charlson Broadcasting Technologies (Cincinnati, Ohio).
What Industry Analysts Are Saying
"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, said Ron Kaplan, Research Manager, 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."
"A lot of carriers are delaying capital expenditures in the hopes of boosting short term financial positions, and that's a huge mistake, because it gives competitors with foresight the opportunity to take your customers away with broader and more cost-effective services," says Daniel D. Briere, CEO of TeleChoice, a telecommunications industry analyst. "Time Warner Telecom is not only willing to make that CAPEX spend, but they've already done it, and have launched and populated several leading edge metro Ethernet services. This raises the ante in the metro loop in all the markets where they offer service."
"Time Warner Telecom is capitalizing on the growing demand for Ethernet by offering a full spectrum of ultra-high-speed Ethernet services to enterprise customers in first and second-tier markets." said Stephanie Boyles, Managing Director, RHK, a premier research and advisory services firm assisting the world's leading telecommunications companies. "As a facilities-based competitor using their own network even for last mile connectivity, Time Warner Telecom has greater control over service costs and quality than their non facilities-based CLEC brethren,"
How Customers Are Using Native LAN
Bank of the West, San Francisco, 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," said Lenard East, Vice President - 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."
Epic Imaging in Portland Ore., uses a 622 Mbps Ethernet connection to send medical images between two locations 20 miles away in seconds compared to 30 minutes to resolve an image previously. "When we saw what Time Warner Telecom could help us deliver, there was no doubt that they were the company to replace our current set of providers and make us more efficient," said Bill Dunlap, Center Manager.
University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, uses Time Warner Telecom 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps Metro Ethernet connections between off-campus locations. "At the University of Rochester, we have world class programs ranging from music and medicine to political science, business and optics," said David E. Lewis, Director of Information Technology Services. "We rely heavily on our partnership with Time Warner Telecom to provide us with a wide range of telecommunications services to support critical operations of a major research university. Time Warner Telecom's Native LAN service has enabled us to provide off-campus locations with reliable, higher-speed connectivity back to the University."
"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," explained 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 Service Suite
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 Mgbs to 1 Gbps. This aggressively priced service meets the needs of a variety of business customers. One such customer is Ingersoll Rand, a leading provider for climate control, industrial solutions, infrastructure and security and safety in Indianapolis. Ingersoll Rand's Bob Mowery, said, "We use Time Warner Telecom's Native LAN service for connectivity between four different Indianapolis sites and our Cincinnati location. We are able to reduce the number of e-mail, data and application servers and controllers we need in our network and we are able to put everything in one site for easier maintenance. With Native LAN, we have no Frame Relay issues."
Switched NLAN - a Time Warner Telecom managed service with switching capabilities from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps. This service is a Frame Relay backbone replacement for any-to-any VLAN applications. First Tennessee National in Memphis, Tenn., uses this 100 Mbps service to connect its data center with eight branch locations. This nine-node network increases communications speeds by 2-1/2 times at the data center and by 100 times between the branch locations. "Time Warner Telecom delivered this state-of-the-art solution at a lower cost than our previous vendor and with greater capability," said Joe Sanders, First Tennessee's CIO.
SONET NLAN - a premium service from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps. This service delivers the robustness of SONET for mission critical business applications. Carondelet Health Network in Tucson, Ariz., uses this service to transport data between its 3,000 desktop units at St. Joseph's and St. Mary's hospitals and Carondelet's Business Center. This Native LAN application allows Carondelet to transmit medical images through a Picture Archiving and Communications System for more immediate doctor consultations. "Connecting all our outlying locations through Time Warner Telecom's fiber-based Native LAN, allows us to be more efficient in our jobs, saving us time that we can now spend serving our patients," said Stan Roberts, Information Technology, Carondelet Health Network. "By spending more time with patients we are able to change lives. This has been a win-win situation for Carondolet. It has reduced our expenses and we are pleased with the service."
"Fiber into buildings is gold," Rouleau said. "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.
"Our Native LAN services deliver Ethernet, Everywhere, Easily. That's tomorrow's network, available today!" Rouleau added.
Time Warner Telecom, (Nasdaq: TWTC) headquartered in Littleton, Colorado, is one of the industry's premier fiber facilities-based competitive telecom carriers. Time Warner Telecom delivers fast, powerful and flexible services and solutions for "last mile" voice, broadband data, and dedicated Internet access to meet the needs of large and medium businesses and organizations in 22 states and 44 major U.S. metropolitan areas. Please visit www.twtelecom.com for more information.
Time Warner Telecom will conduct a media briefing and webcast conference call about today's press release, this morning, March 19, at 9:00 a.m. MST/ 11:00 a.m. EST. To access the webcast, visit the news section of www.twtelecom.com. Replay number is (800) 642-1687 or (706) 645-9291 (international) available from Mar. 19 through Mar. 26.
Statements made in this press release, particularly those regarding future product plans, may include certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks include the risks summarized in the Company's filings with the SEC, especially the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its Annual Report on form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002.
