News Release
Charter Communications And Hsa Extend Distribution Agreement By Five Million Homes
St. Louis, Mo. and Denver, Colo. – April 13, 2000 - Charter Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: CHTR), and High Speed Access Corp. (Nasdaq: HSAC) announced today that they have agreed in principle to a new five-year agreement to offer Charter Pipeline™ broadband Internet service on cable systems operated by Charter to an additional five million homes, with incentives to increase the total to ten million or more homes and to extend the agreement beyond 2005. Charter Communications currently holds warrants in High Speed Access Corp. entitling it to purchase equity. This transaction will provide Charter an opportunity to earn additional warrants in HSA.
The new agreement incorporates a customizable model whereby Charter will leverage HSA’s capabilities as a broadband ISP for platform and connectivity services, especially Tier 2 customer care and network surveillance. Depending on the capabilities of each local Charter system, HSA may also provide other services, including network engineering, headend installation and testing, marketing, customer installation, billing, network and Internet backbone management, and Tier 1 customer care. The new agreement supplements the 1999 full turnkey agreement between Charter and HSA wherein Charter committed a minimum of 750,000 homes to HSA for deployment of Charter Pipeline®. Overall, this new arrangement will expand HSA’s current business model while increasing cost efficiencies as HSA expands into new markets with all of its cable partners.
“Having HSA as a partner allows Charter to focus on aggressively acquiring and serving data customers,” said Jerald L. Kent, President and CEO of Charter Communications. “We place high confidence in HSA’s ability to deliver quality high-speed Internet access services to Charter Communications’ customers.”
Dan O’Brien, President and CEO of HSA added “We are very pleased to announce this extension of our partnership with Charter to deliver quality broadband services to their customers. We believe the Network Services model designed for Charter will prove to be attractive to other MSOs, since it offers cost-effective, flexible and customizable business solutions for the delivery of IP data services.”
About Charter Communications
Charter Communications, a Wired World™ company, is among the country’s leading broadband communications companies. Charter serves approximately 6.2 million customers. Charter offers an array of services including cable television under the Charter brand; high-speed Internet access via Charter Pipeline ™; and advanced digital video programming services under the Charter Digital Cable™ brand. More information about Charter can be accessed on the Internet at www.chartercom.com.
About HSA
High Speed Access Corp. (Nasdaq: HSAC) is a leading provider of high-speed Internet access via cable modem to residential and commercial end users in exurban areas. The Company believes that it provides the most comprehensive turnkey solution available to the cable operator. Its service enables subscribers to receive Internet access at speeds substantially faster than traditional Internet access at minimal cost to the cable operator. HSA is also engaged in the deployment of IP telephony, video conferencing, high-quality audio and distance learning, e-commerce applications, set-top boxes and other interactive services.
This press release contains statements about future events and expectations, which are "forward-looking statements." Any statement in this press release that is not a statement of historical fact may be deemed to be a forward-looking statement. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Specific factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to: the company’s unproven business model; the company’s history of losses and anticipation of future losses; the potential fluctuations in the company’s operating results; the company’s competition; the company’s potential inability to attract and retain end users; the company’s potential inability to establish or maintain relationships with cable operators, including Charter; the possibility that our contract with Road Runner may not benefit us; and those risks and uncertainties discussed in filings made by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those risks and uncertainties contained under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Registration Statement on Form S-1 as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
MEDIA CONTACT: Katina Vlahadamis, Director of Media Relations High Speed Access Corp.(303) 256-2018kvlahadamis@hsacorp.netAnita Lamont, Director of Corporate CommunicationsCharter Communications, Inc.(314) 543-2215alamont@chartercom.com