Charter Communications to Build 500-Plus New Headends, Hub Centers; New Equipment Facilities Are Part of $3.5 Billion Upgrade.Business Editors/Technology Writers NOTE TO MEDIA: Graphic is available in a Smart News Release(TM) on Business Wire's Home Page at www.businesswire.com ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2000 Charter Communications Charter Communications NASDAQ: CHTR is an American company providing cable television, high-speed Internet, and telephone services to more than 5.7 million customers in 29 states. It is the third-largest publicly traded cable operator in the U.S. Inc. (Nasdaq: CHTR CHTR Charter CHTR Canadian High Temperature Research ) announced today it will build more than 500 new Master Headend, Primary Hub and Secondary Hub structures throughout its nationwide service areas as a part of its $3.5 billion NOW (Networking Our World) upgrade program. The new buildings will serve as electronic nerve centers for Charter's network and will house the advanced technology needed to provide customers with Charter Digital Cable(TM), Charter Pipeline(TM) high-speed Internet See broadband. service, video on demand and other broadband services. The new buildings are a key part of Charter's national plan to implement a master headend-to-hub distribution plan and to reduce the number of its headends or cable distribution sites from about 1,250 to under 500. Through this network streamlining, Charter will benefit from numerous operating efficiencies and increased network reliability, while customers will benefit from receiving the most advanced broadband services available. Charter made the announcement of its new equipment buildings at a groundbreaking ceremony in St. Louis County St. Louis County is the name of multiple counties in the United States:
"This program represents a sizable commitment by Charter to build an advanced network that will deliver both today's broadband services as well as those planned for the future," said John Pietri, Charter's senior vice president of Engineering. "These new structures boost the reliability of our systems through the use of enhanced security, fire protection and emergency power supplies. Plus, they're built with tomorrow in mind --there's ample room for new equipment to deliver the broadband services of the future." "This building is about the future -- about how Charter believes in the future of its systems and in the future of the services we can provide to better serve our customers," said Gene Knoblauch, senior vice president of Operations for Charter's Central Region, at today's groundbreaking ceremony. "Charter's vision of a Wired World means using our network for cable TV and high-speed Internet service but also for future multimedia services that bring together video, audio and interactivity." The construction of these new facilities complements the ongoing upgrade of about 75 percent, or 135,000 miles, of Charter's 180,000-mile network of aerial and buried cable. That upgrade plan implements a hybrid fiber-coaxial architecture that will increase a system's capacity to 750 or 870 megahertz One million cycles per second. See MHz. MegaHertz - (MHz) Millions of cycles per second. The unit of frequency used to measure the clock rate of modern digital logic, including microprocessors. (MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. ) and offer two-way interactivity. A hybrid fiber-coaxial system uses fiber-optic lines, rather than coaxial co·ax·i·al adj. Having or mounted on a common axis. coaxial Adjective 1. Electronics (of a cable) transmitting by means of two concentric conductors separated by an insulator cable, to transport or "trunk" signals around the cable network. The fiber carries signals from the headends or hub sites to nodes that serve no more than 500 homes. From the nodes, coaxial cable will carry the signals the rest of the way. Each new Charter building will take up to six months to complete, depending on its size. The construction is being managed by The Bick Group of St. Louis and Alcoa Fujikura of Spartanburg, S.C. Over the next four years, Charter will build more than 200 Master Headend and Primary Hub buildings, ranging in size from 2,400 to 5,800 square feet. In communities surrounding these sites, Charter will also build about 325 new Secondary Hub structures. Master Headends and Hubs are control centers where Charter processes signals from satellites, local TV stations and other sources so they can be transmitted over the cable system to customers' homes. They also serve as processing centers for two-way Internet traffic Internet traffic is the flow of data around the Internet. It includes web traffic, which is the amount of that data that is related to the World Wide Web, along with the traffic from other major uses of the Internet, such as electronic mail and peer-to-peer networks. for customers who use Charter Pipeline high-speed Internet service. About Charter Communications Inc. Charter Communications, a Wired World(TM) 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; advanced digital video programming services under the Charter Digital Cable(TM) brand and high-speed Internet access via Charter Pipeline (TM). Charter is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the ticker symbol Ticker Symbol An arrangement of characters (usually letters) representing a particular security listed on an exchange or otherwise traded publicly. When a company issues securities to the public marketplace, it selects an available ticker symbol for its securities which investors "CHTR." More information about Charter can be accessed on the Internet at www.chartercom.com. "Safe Harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. " Statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) implemented several significant substantive changes affecting certain cases brought under the federal securities laws, including changes related to pleading, discovery, liability, class representation and awards fees and of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Charter Communications' business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. " that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Prospectus. Note: Graphic is available at URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.042500/bb7 |
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