Lights are on at CEC for SMEs

Con Edison Communications, a regional service provider in New York, is launching two services this week that offer small and midsized business users an alternative to incumbent service providers.

CEC, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of utility company Con Edison, is rolling out its PowerNet Internet and PowerCall Voice services for business with between 25 and 500 employees.

The PowerNet Internet Service is a dedicated offering that includes e-mail and DNS registration at 1.544M bit/sec up to 1G bit/sec.

CEC’s PowerCall Voice Service offers users a dedicated T-1 or ISDN PRI connection. The service includes support for local, toll-free, domestic and international long-distance calling.

CEC is also planning to offer its business users an integrated voice and data service by the end of June. The service provider says it will roll out a service that includes an integrated device that will allow users to support both voice and data over a single dedicated connection.

This integrated service will allow even smaller companies to sign-up for dedicated, high-speed Internet access, while getting more out of their bandwidth by adding voice to the mix.

The service provider is building a fiber optic network around the New York metropolitan area that supports speeds up to OC-192. The company started construction back in 2001.

In addition to buying the assets of a couple of other providers in the past two years, CEC is able to use the right-of-ways of its parent company to pull fiber throughout the New York metro area. Right-of-ways are invaluable in a city like New York where it’s not easy to dig up streets to install a network.

The company already offers business users PowerConnect Collocation Service, PowerOptic SONET Service, PowerOptic DS-1 Service, PowerWave Wavelength Service and PowerLan Ethernet Service.