Charter Communications, Inc. announced the deployment of new carrier interconnect capabilities in five locations across the U.S. by Charter Business which is a division of Charter Communications (News - Alert).

Charter Business provides business organizations with scalable and customized broadband communications solutions, like business-to-business Internet access, data networking, business telephone, video and music entertainment services and wireless backhaul.

It was revealed that the newly launched facilities will be able to provide optimum wholesale access to the company’s extensive fiber network.  

These new locations of Charter will offer Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF (News - Alert)) certified carrier Ethernet services that range from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps. This service is most suitable for meeting specifications of carrier performance, monitoring and service level agreement requirements.

In a release Jim McGann, Senior Vice President of Charter Business said, “Charter Business has made a significant investment to build diverse and redundant capabilities at these initial five interconnect sites.”

“We are strategically focused on the carrier market; enabling high-capacity, fully redundant interconnect capabilities via either a private cross-connect or our Carrier Ethernet Exchange partners,” McGann added.

At present Charter Business has deployed interconnect sites in Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert); Atlanta, GA; St. Louis, MO and Worcester, MA.  More such sites which are well equipped will be launched later this year, said company sources.

These sites are expected to provide access to Charter’s extensive network which comprises of over 55,000 fiber route miles. The Charter network serves thousands of fiber lit locations and thousands more “near-net” locations across 25 states in the United States.

According to Charter officials a strategic agreements have been drawn between Charter and Carrier Ethernet Exchange partners to enable new, flexible options for wholesale Ethernet access. The first two agreements are with CENX which operates a connected Carrier Ethernet Exchange, and Equinix (News - Alert), an interconnection provider with Equinix Carrier Ethernet Exchange.

McGann added, “This is a very exciting development for the market. It allows a simple, cost effective solution for wholesale providers with high bandwidth needs to utilize Charter access services to reach their off-net customers, bringing them great value.”  

In related news Charter Communications announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire three cable television systems serving approximately 17,000 customers in Alabama and Georgia from Windjammer Communications, LLC.