Comcast Will Bring High-Speed Internet to Pioneer Square

KOMO TV's Elisa Jaffe, foreground, listens as former Seattle Mayor Charles Royer speaks at the City Hall news conference about revitalization of Pioneer Square, including the arrival this fall of Comcast High-Speed Internet. From left to right: Leslie Smith, executive director at Alliance for Pioneer Square; Todd Elliott, of Comcast Metro Ethernet; Charles Mount, CEO of Onehub; Royer; Mayor Mike McGinn

Who says government doesn’t move fast? It seems like only yesterday – and it was June 6 – that we posted the article below. Comcast asked the city to let the company bring business-class High-Speed Internet to one of Seattle’s most amazing neighborhoods, Pioneer Square.

So here we are, and the city of Seattle has selected Comcast. Everyone here is thrilled to be involved in the neighborhood revitalization.

What I picked up at the mayor’s news conference is that the departure of The Elliott Bay Book Company was a big deal. It definitely hurt the neighborhood because a lot of people came to Elliott Bay Books. By moving the Capitol Hill for sound reasons, Elliott Bay created a lot of buzz about the Pike/Pine area.

But that was 15 months ago, and now the former Elliott Bay Book Company space has been remodeled to include new businesses, such as Onehub.  Now the people of Pioneer Square are ready for us all to stop asking, “Has the departure of Elliott Bay hurt you?” They’d rather we be asking, “So what new opportunities are opening up in Pioneer Square?” And the people of Comcast in Washington State are thrilled to be providing a big part that opportunity.

I mention Onehub for a reason, as their CEO, Charles Mount, was at the news conference. He said the company was moving to Pioneer Square specifically because the area’s going to get High-Speed Internet. That’s opportunity, and opportunity met.

There was quite a lot of news coverage and reporting, and the following links have a lot more information and differing perspectives on Pioneer Square. The first, from KOMO, shows some great views of the neighborhood on a lovely day.

KOMO reporting about Pioneer Square

Geekwire (has the remarks of our own Todd Elliott, regional manager for Comcast Metro Ethernet, who spoke at the news conference)

Seattle Times

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A link mentioned above, the mayor’s blog post about where this all fits in to revitalization of Pioneer Square.

Comcast Submits Proposal to Provide Broadband Services to Pioneer Square

Company’s Metro Ethernet Services Provide Scalable Capacity to Meet Bandwidth-Intensive Needs of Neighborhood’s Internet Start-Ups

SEATTLE – June 6, 2011 – Comcast, one of the nation’s leading providers of entertainment, information and communications products and services, today announced that it has submitted an application with the City of Seattle to provide broadband services to businesses located in the historic Pioneer Square neighborhood, utilizing the company’s next generation fiber optic network.

 “Our fiber-rich network provides reliable, scalable capacity that will meet the bandwidth needs of the growing number of Internet startups in the neighborhood for many years to come,” said Len Rozek, Senior Vice President of Comcast’s Washington Region. “We are excited about the opportunity to not only help these businesses grow, but to help the city’s economy grow as well by offering Pioneer Square businesses access to Comcast’s industry leading IP network.”

 The City of Seattle announced last month it was seeking proposals from qualified Internet service providers to lease excess capacity in city-owned conduit space in order to provide broadband services to businesses and property owners in Pioneer Square. The city must approve Comcast’s proposal before the company can begin connecting businesses to its fiber optic network utilizing the city-owned conduit space.

 Comcast has long provided services to small and medium-sized businesses, but last year began offering Metro Ethernet services in Washington as part of an ongoing strategy to expand its portfolio of business services to meet the requirements of larger customers.

 Targeted at mid-sized businesses with 20 – 500 employees, Comcast Metro Ethernet services are delivered using the company’s industry-leading fiber-based IP network. Comcast’s national network includes more than 147,000 miles of fiber optic cable and serves 20 of the nation’s 25 largest markets, including Seattle.

 Unlike competitive carriers that simply resell the phone company’s network, Comcast is giving customers a true alternative network to maximize the performance and reliability of their business communications and applications.  Comcast delivers bandwidth from 1 Mbps up to 10 Gbps that can be remotely scaled in increments of 1 Mbps, 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps or 1 Gbps, and offered with three different classes of service.

In addition to the larger Internet start-ups in the neighborhood, Rozek said the numerous small businesses and medium-sized businesses in the Pioneer Square area can benefit from Comcast’s broadband investment in the neighborhood.

“Small businesses have traditionally been an underserved community by larger phone companies,” Rozek said. “Our Comcast Business Class services are tailored to the small to mid-size business market with relevant products and services designed specifically to meet their needs.”

Comcast Business Class customers have access to a comprehensive business solution that includes Microsoft Communication Services, a world-class productivity suite that combines Windows® SharePoint and Microsoft Outlook email powered by Microsoft Exchange Server. In addition, the service includes Norton Business Suite™ software that protects up to 25 PCs from viruses and spyware plus firewall protection and 24/7 customer support.

For more information about the service, customers can call 1-800-391-3000 or visit http://business.comcast.com.

About Comcast Corporation

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) (www.comcast.com) is one of the nation’s leading providers of entertainment, information and communications products and services. Comcast is principally involved in the operation of cable systems through Comcast Cable and in the development, production and distribution of entertainment, news, sports and other content for global audiences through NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation’s largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential and business customers. Comcast is the majority owner and manager of NBCUniversal, which owns and operates entertainment and news cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, local television station groups, television production operations, a major motion picture company and theme parks.

For more information about Comcast in Washington State, visit www.comcastinwashingtonstate.com