Charter and Time Warner to partner on fiber optics

Madison, Wis. - Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications announced Monday that two of their departments would partner to provide businesses in their service areas with fiber-optic connections. The units - Time Warner Cable Business Class Services and Charter Business - will collaborate to install fiber-optic connections, providing area businesses with high-speed Optical Ethernet service.

The partnership will allow Time Warner and Charter Communications to integrate their Ethernet services and provide customers with an efficient long-distance carrier for their data communications, the companies reported. The companies will provide their customers with connections to their combined fiber-optic network, allowing customers to access other Time Warner-Charter Communications customers across Wisconsin.

"While customers could obtain fiber optic network services from us if they were connecting points located within the southestern Wisconsin area, they were still generally limited to the use of mainstream telco providers if their needs extended beyond our service footprint," said Dan Conrad, VP for Business Services at Time Warner Cable in Milwaukee.

Besides the extended network coverage, the partnership will provide other benefits, they said; Time Warner-Charter Communications fiber optics connections allow for customers to increase their bandwidth at a moment's notice, and for customers to steer clear of outages, since they are generally separate from telephone company lines.