Time Warner Cable has announced that it has spent $120 million to bolster its fiber optic telecommunications infrastructure in Southern California, enabling itself to offer the service to an additional 125,000 businesses in the region.

As part of this project, the company’s b2b arm Time Warner (News - Alert) Cable Business Class installed more than 360,000 miles of fiber optic cable, long enough to wrap around the Earth’s equator 14.5 times.

Time Warner Cable Business Class is currently serving more than 290,000 business customers, offering a full complement of business communications tools to small- and medium-sized businesses and enterprise-sized companies.

 “From Hollywood to Santa Monica and from Anaheim to Downtown Los Angeles, we have really been able to vastly grow the reach of our business offerings. Our goal was to reach as many business customers as possible,” said Time Warner Cable Business Class Regional Vice President Dave Montierth.

The fiber optic cable was installed in 16 new coverage ‘rings’ – expansive fiber optic telecommunications networks that start and end at the same origin point while looping through concentrated business districts. The ‘rings’ create a reliable infrastructure for business customers by delivering service continuously.

The rings are designed to redirect data in less than 50 milliseconds in the event of a service interruption, allowing customers to focus on their core operations, the company said in a statement.

The 16 new ‘rings’ target major business arteries throughout Southern California, including parts of the San Fernando Valley (Chatsworth, Van Nuys), San Gabriel Valley (Hacienda Heights, La Mirada), Orange (News - Alert) County (Costa Mesa, Cypress, Tustin), Inland Empire (Ontario, Pomona, Fontana, Corona), West Los Angeles (Santa Monica), Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, and the South Bay (Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach).

Time Warner has stated that its service offers an estimated 10 to 15 percent cost savings when compared to fees charged by other providers.

The project, which has just been completed, created 250 new jobs, including positions in customer care, field operations and technical support. Moreover, all customers are assigned a locally based account manager, and dedicated billing and technology support teams.