ST. LOUIS, March 21, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --

Charter Communications, Inc. today announced that Charter Business has launched new carrier interconnect capabilities in five strategic locations throughout the U.S. to provide highly efficient wholesale access to its extensive fiber network.

Charter will offer Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) certified carrier Ethernet services from its new locations ranging from 10 megabits per second (Mbps) to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps). The service is designed to meet carrier performance, monitoring and service level agreement requirements.

"Charter Business has made a significant investment to build diverse and redundant capabilities at these initial five interconnect sites," said Jim McGann, Senior Vice President of Charter Business. "We are strategically focused on the carrier market; enabling high-capacity, fully redundant interconnect capabilities via either a private cross-connect or our Carrier Ethernet Exchange partners."

Charter Business now has two interconnect sites located in Los Angeles, CA, with sites also in Atlanta, GA; St. Louis, MO and Worcester, MA. Additional sites with identical capabilities are being readied to launch later this year, providing access to most of Charter's extensive network of over 55,000 fiber route miles, serving thousands of fiber lit locations and thousands more "near-net" locations throughout its 25-state footprint.

As part of this strategy, Charter has entered into agreements with Carrier Ethernet Exchange partners to enable new, flexible options for wholesale Ethernet access. The first two agreements are CENX, operator of the world's first and most connected Carrier Ethernet Exchange, and Equinix, a global provider of interconnection, including their Equinix Carrier Ethernet Exchange.

"This is a very exciting development for the market," said Mr. McGann. "It allows a simple, cost effective solution for wholesale providers with high bandwidth needs to utilize Charter access services to reach their off-net customers, bringing them great value."

About Charter Business

Charter Business, a division of Charter Communications, Inc, provides business organizations with scalable, tailored, and cost-effective broadband communications solutions, including business-to-business Internet access, data networking, business telephone, video and music entertainment services and wireless backhaul.Catering to the unique broadband needs of business customers, Charter Business offers competitively priced bundled products over its state-of-the-art, fiber-based network, helping businesses in a variety of industries maximize efficiency while continuing to grow. Charter Business is Metro Ethernet Forum Certified. More information about Charter Business can be found at charter-business.com.

About Charter

Charter (Nasdaq: CHTR) is a leading broadband communications company and the fourth-largest cable operator in the United States. Charter provides a full range of advanced broadband services, including advanced Charter TV(TM) video entertainment programming, Charter Internet(TM) access, and Charter Phone(TM). Charter Business(R) similarly provides scalable, tailored, and cost-effective broadband communications solutions to business organizations, such as business-to-business Internet access, data networking, business telephone, video and music entertainment services, and wireless backhaul. Charter's advertising sales and production services are sold under the Charter Media(R) brand. More information about Charter can be found at charter.com.

SOURCE Charter Communications, Inc.