Comcast Business (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is taking new aim at businesses that reside in three business parks in the Northern California towns of Pleasanton, Hayward and Fremont through a $2 million expansion project of its fiber and Ethernet networks.
New customers will be able to immediately take advantage of a host of new Ethernet services, including Ethernet Dedicated Internet, Ethernet Private Line, Ethernet Virtual Private Line and Ethernet Network Services, all of which scale up to 10 Gbps. Likewise, an existing Comcast Business customer could also initially use the MSO's services as a redundant backup link to the incumbent supplier before their contract runs out or for additional office locations in the East Bay.
As a result of this build, Comcast Business said it will make services available to over 1,500 area businesses that belong to a number of key vertical industries, including manufacturing, biotech, education and consumer products and services.
Interestingly, Southern Alameda County, which houses the cities of Hayward and Fremont, is considered an international hub for manufacturing and an R&D growth area for software, hardware, telecommunications, semiconductors and biotechnology. Being an insurgent provider that does not carry the legacy baggage of an ILEC, Comcast Business can target businesses right away with higher speed fiber-based services out of the gate.
Comcast Business said what motivated it to bring service to these East Bay communities was that more businesses are opting to locate in these cities because the price of commercial real estate in larger cities like San Francisco and Silicon Valley's San Jose continues to accelerate.
According to a recent real estate study by Cassidy Turley, a commercial real-estate services provider, commercial real estate asking prices in the San Francisco market rose 80 percent over the last four years and continue to grow. Another report by the East Bay Economic Development Alliance and Beacon Economics revealed that businesses could save over 40 percent by relocating from San Francisco to the East Bay and 18 percent by relocating from the South Bay.
Network expansion continues to be a major priority for Comcast Business across all of its regions.
Similar to other market expansions it has embarked on lately in Connecticut and northern New England, Comcast Business sees the expansion as a way to lure new and even existing customers away from the traditional ILEC like AT&T (NYSE: T) that may only offer copper-based T-1 or DSL service.
For more:
- see the release
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