ConEd Secures Security Exchange

NEW YORK -- Con Edison Communications (CEC), a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc. (NYSE: ED), today announced that the International Securities Exchange (ISE), the first and only fully electronic US options exchange, is connecting to the next-generation communications infrastructure developed by CEC for the Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC).

CEC will provide ISE with primary and business continuity protection services using its diversely routed 1-Gigabit PowerWave Wavelength and PowerLan Ethernet Services. ISE will use these services to connect to four SIAC locations. The project will be completed next month. The Securities Industry Automation Corporation last fall contracted CEC to build the Secure Financial Transaction Infrastructure (SFTI). SFTI was envisioned in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 as providing day-in, day-out service reliability for NY-based financial firms as well as customer protection of operations in the event of a disaster. SFTI (pronounced "safety") is designed to address this need by adding true network diversity and enhanced assurance of continued service to the securities industry. With SFTI, firms can connect to common access nodes that provide highly reliable diverse paths to the SIAC data centers. This frees member companies from the burden of building their own diverse network backbones, while giving them the ability to work with their choice of telecommunication carriers to connect to SFTI access nodes. In the event that telecommunication services are disrupted in Manhattan's core business district, transmission of financial data traffic will proceed, uninterrupted. "We're pleased that ISE has signed on with CEC and the SFTI initiative," said Peter Rust, president and CEO of Con Edison Communications. "We look forward to building out the SFTI network further and providing SFTI services to additional securities firms in the months ahead." Con Edison Communications Inc.