New Fiber-Optic Cable Provides Hundreds of Businesses in Chicago Central Business District with Access to Value-Priced High-Speed Internet, Voice and Data Services
CHICAGO – April 11, 2016 – Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, stretches 110 floors high and is the tallest skyscraper in America. Now, along with tenants in four other buildings on or near Wacker Drive in the downtown Chicago central business district, Willis Tower occupants have access to a new fiber-optic cable that offers dedicated Internet access speeds of up to 10 Gbps.
Following the purchase last year of a fiber conduit beneath Wacker Drive, WOW! Business, a communications service provider serving businesses in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast, has completed the initial phase of installing and lighting a high-fiber-count cable connecting five of 38 planned downtown buildings.
The new fiber-optic cable provides hundreds of business tenants in five downtown buildings with a new, value-priced alternative for high-speed dedicated Internet access, voice and data services. In addition to Willis Tower, the other four buildings connected to WOW! Business fiber are Hartford Plaza North, Hartford Plaza South, 303 West Madison and 1 East Wacker Drive. Construction to bring the WOW! Business fiber into the remaining planned downtown buildings, including the Chicago Board of Trade, is ongoing and currently scheduled to be completed by mid-2017.
“Chicago is a critical market for WOW! Business and, by installing and lighting fiber in the conduit we own, presents us with significant growth opportunities in the downtown central business district as we continue to execute an aggressive expansion strategy,” said Mike Harry, Senior Vice President of Business Services for WOW! Business. “Our pricing strategy for tenants in these buildings is meant to be disruptive and highly competitive to incent businesses of all sizes with a new choice for reliable, flexible and scalable network and IT services they need.”
Serving the Chicago area since 1999, WOW! Business provides IP‐based network, data, voice and cloud services for small and medium‐sized business (SMB), enterprise, government and wholesale customers. The company owns and operates more than 40,000 miles of local fiber‐optic and coaxial networks in the Midwest, Mid‐Atlantic and Southeast which, along with its data centers, provide customers with scalable, low‐latency access to national carrier backbones.
“In many cases, we’re able to offer tenants in these buildings with faster dedicated Internet access speeds and other services for the same price they’re paying now with other providers,” added WOW! Business Director Tom Abraham. “As we continue to deploy our high-fiber-count cable in additional buildings, more than 1,000 downtown business tenants will have the option of choosing WOW! Business over legacy providers for more reliable, higher quality Internet, voice and data services backed by local technical support and highly responsive customer service.”
For more information about WOW! Business SMB, enterprise and wholesale services visit WOW! Business.
About WOW! Business
WOW! Business provides data, Internet, voice and cloud services to business and wholesale customers in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Maryland and the Southeast. The company is dedicated to delighting customers with friendly, quality service at affordable prices. WOW! is privately held and controlled by Avista Capital Partners and Crestview Partners. For more information, please visit WOW! Business.
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