Backbone Directory: PPL Telcom

Building on its experience (and real estate) as an energy provider, PPL Telcom's network covers the east coast from New York to Washington, D.C.

by Jeff Goldman [June 6, 2007]

PPL Telcom , based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, is a subsidiary of the energy provider PPL Corporation, which was founded in 1920 as Pennsylvania Power & Light. PPL Telcom was initially created to take advantage of the company's existing real estate and rights of way to offer telecom services.

The company now offers a range of customized solutions for telecom companies, ISPs, WISPs, enterprises and institutions. "We don't view what we do as a 'one size fits all' answer to everyone," says marketing director Charles Boddy. "It's more than a quality network—it's understanding the needs of the ISP provider looking to serve customers with speed and reliability."

In 2003, PPL Telcom purchased the assets of Virginia-based Cambrian Communications, providing the company with a network reaching from New York to Washington, D.C. PPL Telcom's network now includes over 4,000 route miles of fiber, with 2,500 miles of fiber in key metropolitan networks throughout the Mid-Atlantic states using a DWDM OC-192 system, all linked by over 1,500 route miles of regional fiber in the following locations:

• Allentown / Bethlehem Metro
• Baltimore County Metro
• Baltimore Downtown Metro
• Washington D.C. Downtown Metro
• Washington D.C. / Northern Virginia Metro
• Harrisburg Metro
• Lancaster Metro
• New York City Metro
• Philadelphia Metro
• Philadelphia Downtown Metro
• Pittsburgh Metro
• Reading Metro
• Scranton / Wilkes-Barre Metro
• Williamsport Metro
• York Metro

The company's flagship IP service, Business Internet Access (.pdf), offers Internet connectivity at speeds ranging from 1.5 Mbps to 1 Gbps over its fully redundant network. PPL Telcom also offers Shadow Port backup (.pdf), which restores connectivity within 50 milliseconds of the primary link failing. Other offerings include domain name registration and mail-bagging "store and forward" services, to ensure a true IP solution.

The network is built on a diverse fiber core, adding a robust DWDM system and SONET technology to deliver 99.999 percent reliability. Connectivity includes Private Line (.pdf) from T1 to OC-192, Ethernet (.pdf) from 10 Mbps to 1 Gbps, and wavelengths (.pdf) at 1 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps speeds, as well as colocation facilities (.pdf) and wireless services (.pdf).

PPL Telcom can also design, build and launch municipal or business wireless high speed networks, and is currently involved with a number of local and regional Wi-Fi projects—the company recently launched a wireless network in Southside Bethlehem, PA, and has announced an agreement to provide networking connectivity for EarthLink's Wi-Fi network in the city of Philadelphia.

On May 24, 2007, PPL Corporation announced an agreement to sell PPL Telcom to Communications Infrastructure Investments (CII) of Boulder, Colorado for about $60 million. The sale is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2007, and CII, as a holding company, is expected to maintain PPL Telcom's current offerings. "PPL Telcom has an excellent reputation with its customers," says CII chief executive Dan Caruso. "CII's priority is to provide support to Telcom's employees so that we together can continue this tradition."

Corporate Contact Info:

	Executive:	David H. Kelley, President
	Headquarters:	Two North Ninth Street, Allentown, PA 18101-1179
	Voice:	800-390-6094
	NOC:	800-990-9679
	On-Call Pager:	610-782-5504
	Fax:	610-774-4420
	Sales:	sales@ppltelcom.com
	ISP Services:	http://www.ppltelcom.com/highspeed.html
	POP Locations:	http://ppltelcom.com/pops.html
	Web Contact Form:	http://ppltelcom.com/contact.html
	Financial:	NYCE: PPL
	Press Releases:	http://www.ppltelcom.com/news.html
	Tariff Information:	http://www.ppltelcom.com/documents/ ppltelcom_tariff.pdf
	Acceptable Use Policy:	http://www.ppltelcom.com/documents/ PPLTelcomAcceptableUse.pdf

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