Lightpath Loves Metro Ethernet

JERICHO, N.Y. -- Optimum Lightpath®, the business telecommunications services division of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC), today announced an aggressive new marketing campaign that encourages businesses across the New York metropolitan area to switch to Lightpath's more reliable and efficient Metro Ethernet voice and data communications services, by raising awareness of the dramatic cost savings possible through Metro Ethernet and lowering existing barriers to converting to the new technology.

The "Switch Now and Save Thousands" campaign articulates the unsurpassed reliability and performance Optimum Lightpath delivers with its Carrier Grade Ethernet service – while addressing conversion costs through an offer to assume these costs while also paying for the necessary fiber link to the business location, incentives that could be worth more than $30,000 to each business customer.

Featuring video, Internet and direct-mail components, the campaign emphasizes Optimum Lightpath's 17-year history of reliability and its ability to use Metro Ethernet to dramatically improve performance and lower ongoing communications costs charged by legacy telephone service providers.

"An analysis of business telecommunications costs on Long Island alone shows that businesses with more than 20 employees are currently overspending on communications services by more than $200 million per year," said Dave Pistacchio, executive vice president and general manager of Optimum Lightpath. "Ninety-five percent of businesses around the world already use Ethernet to enable their computers to communicate with each other. Metro Ethernet extends the simplicity of this technology from the local to the wide area network, making it easier, more reliable and far more efficient for companies to deploy mission-critical applications that require large amounts of bandwidth."

To eliminate the most significant barrier to Metro Ethernet adoption, Optimum Lightpath is offering businesses across the metropolitan area a credit for up to $7,500 for conversion costs (i.e., installation fees, router costs, professional services, software, hardware, etc.) associated with the switch to Metro Ethernet. Optimum Lightpath will also cover the cost of running fiber optics to pre-qualified buildings – a combined average savings of more than $30,000.

"Metro Ethernet services are vital to network transformation. Like the Internet, Metro Ethernet has the potential to significantly improve an organization's ability to compete," said Bryan Van Dussen, director of service provider research for In-Stat/MDR. "Because Ethernet services provide significant capacity and a compelling TCO, businesses can cost-effectively deploy high-performance, content-rich applications necessary to thrive in what has become an increasingly competitive business environment."

In January 2005, Lightpath introduced its highly-reliable Metro Ethernet product line that is offered at very high speeds (10 Mbps up to 10 Gbps) and delivered via fiber optics that run directly to the business location. These Ethernet circuits can be used for high-capacity data transfer, Internet access or a combined Internet access/voice services bundle at a relatively inexpensive cost per bit.

"The first hundred business customers that have adopted Metro Ethernet through Optimum Lightpath have realized considerable cost savings, while substantially increasing bandwidth. Clearly, Optimum Lightpath's Metro Ethernet services are already delivering on their promise for these organizations," said Phil DeCabia, Optimum Lightpath's Senior Vice President of Sales. "Other businesses that switch to our Metro Ethernet services will also be able to save thousands of dollars annually on their current telecom spending, while dramatically increasing capacity – an unbeatable combination that puts Optimum Lightpath in a superior competitive position."

Optimum Lightpath