It’s only the beginning of February, and tw telecom (News - Alert), a provider of business Ethernet services, has already expanded its footprint on both coasts of the U.S.

Shortly after tw telecom was granted a contract from the U.S. General Services Administration to provide its services to the state of California, the company was awarded a multi-year contract to deliver its enhanced data transmission and collocation services to agencies and educational institutions across the state of South Carolina.

“We welcome the opportunity to work with the state of South Carolina and its agencies and are excited to prove how our solutions can help government agencies become more effective,” said Christopher Oberg, vice president and general manager of tw telecom in South Carolina, in a prepared statement. “We are looking forward to delivering these innovative solutions and our world-class customer care to the State of South Carolina.”

Under the agreement, the South Carolina Budget and Control Board has now sanctioned state departments, agencies and colleges and universities to access MPLS, Ethernet and DS1 services from tw telecom in a move to enhance data transmission, connectivity and network performance, all while lowering costs.

As one of the three top business Ethernet providers in the U.S., tw telecom has successfully connected more commercial buildings to its fiber network than any other communications provider in the market. Thanks to its robust metro fiber networks and ownership of one of the 10 most interconnected IP backbones globally, tw telecom is capable of supporting mission-critical enterprise applications and delivering high-quality customer experiences and improved business productivity.

This news coincides well with tw telecom’s attendance at last week’s ITEXPO (News - Alert) East 2012, where Mike Rouleau, the company’s senior vice president of Business Development and Strategy, took the stage during the conference’s keynotes to spread a very clear message: Ethernet is the new T1.

While some telecom outfits are buying data center companies in an effort to create “walled garden” cloud solutions, Rouleau told a packed room at ITEXPO, tw telecom is embracing a model of applications access and enablement. That involves providing customers with connectivity to great applications via a network that is secure, robust and predictable.

Tammy Wolf is a TMCnet web editor. She covers a wide range of topics, including IP communications and information technology. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.