The Metro Orlando region has the most advanced telecommunications assets in the Southeast. Orlando is the only MSA in nine southern states served by four incumbent local exchange carriers – AT&T, CenturyLink (formerly Embarq), Smart City Telecom, and tw telecom, Inc (formerly Time Warner Telecom). Their competition has fostered the highest possible degree of customer service, capital investment, innovative system applications, and extremely aggressive pricing.

All of Metro Orlando’s telecommunication central offices are fiber optic with digital switching, and 100 percent of the fiber optic systems are fully redundant and self-healing. The regional fiber optic network is so extensive it is referred to by industry experts as a fiber optic “cloud.” Fiber-based service throughout the region meets and regularly exceeds the services provided in very location-specific “info parks” or “smart parks.” If a company’s top Metro Orlando real estate selection initially lacks fiber-based infrastructure, extensions have been completed in as little as 30 days.

The cornerstone technologies that constitute today’s most advanced telecommunications services are available, including: Ethernet, Frame Relay Networking, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), Synchronous Optical Networks (SONET) Rings, Internet, Intranet (LAN) and Extranet Services (WAN).

AT&T, CenturyLink, and tw telecom, Inc will undertake any specialized deployment of technologically intense applications, including Fiber to the Premise (FTTP), on a case-by-case basis. As three of the largest providers of professionally engineered voice, data and videoconferencing systems, they have established reputations for delivering intense “built-to-suit” telecommunications suites. The assets found in Metro Orlando include: data cabling systems, automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, pbx and key systems, network consulting and design, structured wiring, distance learning solutions, hubs/servers, routers/switches, multiplexers, digital T1, T3, OC3, OC48, OC192, and Gigabit Ethernet; maintenance service plans, switched multimegabit data service, virtual private networks, symmetrical and asymmetrical/high-bit-rate/very high-bit-rate digital subscriber lines, multiple POP’s, local and wide-area networks, and integrated campus communications.

The telecommunications capacity in Metro Orlando is demonstrated by the concentrated telecommunications requirements of Metro Orlando’s technical education institutions and existing industries, which range from unique entertainment giants like Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Orlando, to corporate headquarters such as Tupperware Corporation, Darden Restaurants, Inc., and the American Automobile Association. Consider also the needs of numerous office operations such as Charles Schwab & Co., First USA, Cincinnati Bell Information Systems, Hewitt & Associates, CNA Insurance and high tech manufacturers like Lockheed-Martin. These organizations’ capacity and performance in Metro Orlando attest to the level of telecommunications service available in the region.