Comcast Business ramps up $26M Philadelphia, New Jersey network expansions

Comcast Business is in the midst of investing about $26 million to expand its network facilities throughout Greater Philadelphia and New Jersey, reaching nearly 4,000 businesses directly and making its network more accessible to thousands more.

The two-year build-out includes $10.3 million already spent last year, as well as an additional $15.7 million in projects underway or planned for the remainder of this year. The company has put almost $100 million into network expansions in those areas since 2015, affecting almost 24,000 businesses.

The network expansion will improve Comcast’s ability to serve all sizes of businesses, with capabilities to deliver up to 1 Gbps to small and medium-sized businesses, or up to 100 Gbps for larger enterprises, the latter coming into focus as a growing opportunity for Comcast Business with the recent announcement of the company’s planned Masergy acquisition.

The expansion also will help businesses to better meet the day-to-day bandwidth needs, demands, desires to link multiple sites or branch locations, or needs to connect their offices to third-party data centers. Services supported include fast business Wi-Fi for employees and guests, cybersecurity solutions, 4G LTE backup, business TV and more.

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The 2020 expansion by Comcast Business spread new fiber across areas such as Center City Philadelphia; Avenue of the States in the City of Chester, Pennsylvania; business districts in New Brunswick and Lakewood, New Jersey; and 270 New Jersey Transit sites and neighboring businesses; among others. 

More recently, Comcast Business has initiated significant work over the past several months, with more projects to come. Planned investments include service expansions to the University of Pennsylvania and the Food District in Philadelphia; the redevelopment of the old Bristol Myers Squibb campus in Pennington, New Jersey; a network build in Springfield, New Jersey; and a major densification of fiber services in Cherry Hill, Mount Laurel and Marlton, New Jersey.

"Access to technology is critical to the success of our local businesses, whether it's a regional business closing more deals digitally, a hospital transferring large imaging files or a retailer looking to connect multiple locations," said Dean Miller, President & CEO of the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies, in a statement. "Comcast's investment in the region will strengthen our business community and create new opportunities by supporting workforce development and benefiting overall economic expansion."

Michael Louden, regional vice president for Comcast Business, added, "Capacity and performance are increasingly becoming the two main engines driving all businesses, and that became even more important over the past year. Our fiber expansions in Greater Philadelphia and New Jersey are the latest example of the significant investments we've made to increase the availability of our multi-Gigabit Ethernet services to help foster economic development and meet the next-generation capacity needs of customers across the region.”