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WOW! to Provide Fiber Backhaul for Hundreds of Wireless Cell Towers in Chicago(Marketwire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) ENGLEWOOD, CO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/31/14 -- WOW! Business, a communications and cloud service provider, today announced it has been selected by multiple wireless operators to provide fiber backhaul for more than 500 cell towers in the Chicago metropolitan area. Under terms of the agreements, WOW! Wholesale, a unit of WOW! Business, will build 50-plus contiguous fiber rings connecting the cell tower base stations to mobile switching centers (MSC) that link to the global Internet backbone and public switched telephone network (PSTN). The first sites are expected to be operational in the fourth quarter of this year, with project completion slated for 2017. "Consumer hunger for new media-rich mobile communications, coupled with the dynamic explosion of voice, data and video traffic, is driving wireless carriers to increase bandwidth at their cell sites," said Brad Cheedle, senior vice president of WOW! Business. With hundreds of millions of people using smartphones, tablets and other devices to access bandwidth-intensive mobile applications, existing wireless backhaul capacity is quickly reaching its limits. WOW!, serving Chicago since 1999, is a facilities-based regional cable operator that offers a host of fiber backhaul and other wholesale services that deliver the reliability, security and cost and operational efficiencies wireless carriers expect. "Fiber provides wireless carriers with a simple, high-capacity backhaul infrastructure and an extremely reliable and cost-effective way to move traffic from their cell sites to the broader voice, data and video networks," explained Jim Greene, senior director of WOW! Wholesale. WOW! owns and operates over 42,000 miles of local fiber-optic and coaxial networks in 19 U.S. markets, along with data centers that provide customers with scalable, low-latency access to national carrier backbones. Today's announcement follows WOW! Business' April roll-out of Ethernet and Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking services in Chicago that give thousands of businesses in the Windy City another option to reduce IT costs and improve productivity. To learn more, please call 303-600-1871 or visit WOW! Wholesale. About WOW! WOW! Internet, Cable and Phone is one of the nation's leading providers of Internet access, phone and cable TV serving the residential, business and wholesale carrier communities in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, South Dakota and the Southeast. WOW! Business provides services exclusively to the commercial sector with voice, VoIP, Internet and cloud services over its own network. The company is dedicated to delighting customers with friendly, quality service at affordable prices. WOW! is privately held and controlled by Avista Capital Partners. For more information, please visit WOW! Wholesale or WOW! Business. Media Contacts: Erica Stull WOW! Business (720) 479-3515 Email Contact Wendie Larkin Calysto Communications (978) 969-2886 Email Contact Source: WOW! Business |