Businesses in Newport News have access to one of the best telecommunications infrastructures anywhere. The concentration of military commands in the Hampton Roads region and the presence of two national laboratories—all of which have very high data capacity and quality demands—ensures that Newport News will continue to be at the cutting edge of providing telecommunications infrastructure for high-speed data transfer. Fiber optic service is provided by AT&T, Alltel, Cox Business Fibernet, TelCove and Verizon, with the last three owning independent SONET rings. All of the City’s business and industrial parks are wired with fiber, in most cases by more than one server. Of course, a number of fiber optic resellers also serve the market.

Continental Broadband offers fixed wireless service to Newport News business customers. Continental Broadband is a full service Internet Service Provider (ISP) with its own wireless backbone linked to tier one upstream Internet providers. Fixed wireless service is an alternative to fiber and copper for establishing the “last mile” connection to broadband access. Continental Broadband has the capacity to provide DS-3 level service. Fixed wireless access may provide better pricing and faster installation than line-based alternatives. Fixed wireless access can provide “last mile” redundancy for critical broadband data systems. Continental Broadband also offers wireless point to point bandwidth connection for up to a three mile line-of-sight. For more information about Continental Broadband' fixed wireless access contact:

Danny Cullen, Director of Sales
Continental Broadband
(757)873-4500 ext. 237
dcullen@continentalvisinet.com

Newport News customers are served by more than 30 Internet service providers, with 23 webpage design firms supporting e-commerce. Two local Internet service providers are Continental VisiNet Broadband and WHRO. Continental Visinet Broadband is located in the Oyster Point business park and has been providing Internet access to business and residential consumers since 1995. Available broadband access speeds range from 56 kbps to DS-3 (45 mbps) service. WHRO, Hampton Roads’ public broadcaster, offers modem-based Internet access to its members and subscribers. Internet access is also available from a host of national service providers, as well as from Cox Communications.

Newport News businesses have a full range of choices when selecting telecommunications services. Local telephone service is available from Verizon (the primary local service provider), 1-800-Recomex, CAT Communication Internection, Cavalier Telephone, Cox Digital Telephone, Excel Communications, KMC Telcom, MCI, Metro Telconnect, Quantrex Communications, Stick Dog, Talk America, Trinsic and US LEC. Long distance telecommunications services are offered in Newport News by AT&T, Alltel, Cox Business Service, Sprint, US LEC and Verizon. Business telecommunications systems design services and equipment are provided by more than three dozen firms. More than 30 firms supply cellular and mobile phone service to Newport News customers. Teleconferencing services are available from two private sector providers, in addition to WHRO, the region’s public broadcaster. Cox Communications provide the City with CATV cable infrastructure and services.

Verizon’s local network is 100% digitally switched. Each of its switching centers is equipped to offer DSL service. Its fiber optic network serves all of the City’s business and industrial parks. Verizon’s fiber optic network is enhanced with Intellilight, a self-healing fiber product. A host of Intellilight products are also offered for “last mile” protection, the most popular being Intellilight Entrance Facility. Several high-speed data services are available from Verizon to suit a company’s specific needs. These include DS1 (T1), DS-3, OC-3, OC-12, OC-48 and OC-192.

Verizon also offers a wide variety of business service products. These include Centrex, automatic call distribution, uniform call distribution, automatic route selection, CLASS features, virtual private networks, voice mail, private lines, Switched Multi-Megabit Services, ATM services, frame relay, IP routing service and digital data services. High speed data lines and 800 service can be installed and activated within ten business days. For more information and assistance from Verizon, contact:

James (Jim) L.Griffith, Area Manager
James.l.griffith@verizon.com
(757) 875-2570

Cox Business Services provides local and long distance service, as well as high-speed cable and fiber optic network data access to businesses located in Newport News. Cox Business Services serves all major business and industrial parks in Newport News. Cox is a competitive access provider (CAP) and a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) and, therefore, can provide all of the telephone services available through the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC).

Cox Business Services' SONET network is supported by Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) equipment. Its backbone ring is configured with fully redundant SONET multiplexers and dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM). Cox supports network services ranging from DS-0 to optical rings at OC-12 and as many as forty simultaneous OC-48s, with the capacity to go to OC-192 based on customer demand. Clocking is accomplished by redundant synchronized satellite based Saturn 1 clocks. The ATM network currently supports point to point Internet access capacities of up to 130 MB with Gigibit Ethernet under review.

Cox Business Services provides high-speed Internet access through its Cox Business Internet product line. Virtual private networking and web hosting are available. Cox can customize local area networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN) and metropolitan area networks (MAN), as well as provide video conferencing services. Other business services provided by Cox Business Services include Centrex, voice mail, calling cards, toll free service (800 numbers), webconferencing and private lines. For more information about Cox Business Services, contact:

Tim Jenney
(757) 369-4437
tim.jenney@cox.com

TelCove continues to expand its fiber optic service in Newport News. TelCove now serves most major business and industrial parks in Newport News, or can easily extend service from its SONET ring based on consumer demand. TelCove offers a full range of business telecommunications services, including local and long distance calling. Broadband service includes DS-1, DS-3 and OC-N lines. TelCove’s SONET ring provides 99.9% redundancy. TelCove offers a competitive alternative to ILEC and cable providers, on the one hand, and to fiber optic capacity resellers, on the other hand. For more information about TelCove business services and broadband access, contact:

Lucas Salvage
TelCove
lucas.salvage@telcove.com
(757) 466-2757