Ethernet Service Offering Part of Year-long, $52 Million Network Investment Plan to Leverage Company’s Dense Long Haul and Metro Fiber Networks for High-Capacity Bandwidth Services.
Portland, Ore. – March 21, 2011– Integra Telecom Inc., a fiber-based,telecommunications services provider for business, now offers two new Ethernet Services: E-line Ethernet Private Line (EPL) and Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL).
The new services are the next step in Integra’s broader $52 million year-long plan to leverage its fiber network to provide enterprise and carrier-class high bandwidth products and services. Integra already operates the most extensive fiber network of any competitive services provider in the West. This fiber network consists of 5,000 long haul route miles, including 3,000 metropolitan route miles serving 11 cities, and 1,500 fiberserved commercial buildings.
“Our world-class fiber network is uniquely designed to serve businesses that demand reliable and affordable high-capacity bandwidth products and sophisticated solutions,”said Tom Casey, Integra Telecom’s chief executive officer. “These new Ethernet offerings and our continuing capital investment are complemented with additional investments in sales, marketing and customer care and will accelerate Integra’s growth in the enterprise and wholesale carrier market segments. Integra has been serving more larger-sized businesses in recent years and we want businesses of all sizes in our service territory to know that we have a network and a product set that can meet their most demanding telecom needs.”
“Integra Telecom is pleased to begin providing EPL and EVPL services to the wholesale market,” said Brian Lippold, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Integra Telecom’s wholesale and national accounts division. “These services allow our customers to leverage Integra’s fiber network to extend their network to additional customers without the extensive capital requirements of bringing new fiber into buildings. Carriers served by Integra can bundle our Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)-certified Ethernet services with their products in order to meet the needs of regional, national and multi-national enterprise customers.”
Integra’s New Ethernet Services Have Been MEF 9 and 14 Certified:
Integra Telecom was recently awarded MEF 9 and 14 certification for its EPL and EVPL Ethernet Services. Integra demonstrates compliance with Ethernet standards set by the industry which ensure interoperability between Integra and its customers’ networks.
“Integra joins an extensive number of Carrier Ethernet service providers to be awarded MEF 9 and MEF 14 certification,” said Nan Chen, MEF President. “Service providers are looking for ways to meet customer bandwidth and performance demands while reducing CAPEX and OPEX costs and Carrier Ethernet is a proven solution.”
MEF is a global industry alliance dedicated to accelerating the worldwide adoption of carrier-class Ethernet networks and services. The MEF develops carrier Ethernet technical specifications and implementation agreements to promote interoperability and deployment of carrier Ethernet worldwide.
“In response to increased demand for Ethernet services that support cloud and managed services, we are continuing to enhance our product set to provide services increasingly demanded by our wholesale and retail customers,” said Steve Zimba, chief marketing officer for Integra Telecom. “The reach of Integra’s fiber network provides enterprise customers the opportunity to outsource their Ethernet connectivity needs to Integra. This service enables them to extend their LAN to a WAN, connecting their locations together and enabling cloud-based services.”
In the coming months, Integra plans to expand its Ethernet service area in order to connect its customers to more locations while also adding E-LAN services.
About MEF 9 and MEF 14 certification
MEF 9 certification represents a third party’s finding that an Ethernet service and equipment conforms to the industry’s most exacting standards when measured at the user-network interface. MEF 14 certification represents the MEF’s finding that traffic management across Ethernet conforms to the same level of standards designed to ensure quality of service per-service-class across an Ethernet business service offering.
This certification is a requirement of service level agreements supporting simultaneous real-time and data-intensive business applications. MEF 14 and MEF 9 are complementary, covering two sets of MEF service attributes: service performance and bandwidth profiles.
About Integra Telecom
Integra Telecom, Inc. provides voice, data and Internet services to thousands of businesses within the metropolitan areas of 11 Western United States including: Arizona,California, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah and Washington. It owns and operates a best-in-class fiber-optic network comprised of more than 3,000 route miles in 11 metropolitan access networks including approximately1,500 on-net buildings, a world class Internet and data network, and approximately 5,000-mile high-speed long-haul fiber network. The company has earned some of the highest customer loyalty and customer satisfaction ratings in the telecommunications industry.Equity investors in the company include Goldman, Sachs & Co., Tennenbaum Capital Partners, funds managed by Farallon Capital Partners and Warburg Pincus. Integra Telecom and Electric Lightwave are registered trademarks of Integra Telecom, Inc. For more information, visit: www.integratelecom.com.
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