Partnership Between San Mateo Chamber of Commerce & Comcast Makes Broadband Push Into "Digital Downtown"

SAN MATEO, Calif., Nov. 29, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Located on the peninsula that connects San Francisco to San Jose, San Mateo has become a magnet for dozens of tech startups.  It's also a place faced, until recently, with a dilemma:  Internet service was actually pretty slow in parts of San Mateo's downtown.

In an unprecedented move that has taken months of planning, the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce and Comcast this week announced that work will soon start to radically upgrade the broadband network in San Mateo's downtown underground utility district.

The project that many have called the "Digital Downtown" was the brainchild of The EDGE, an initiative of San Mateo's Chamber, which is committed to identifying and overcoming obstacles to economic growth in San Mateo.  After listening to the concerns of San Mateo's business community, EDGE leaders approached several broadband providers late in 2010 to investigate how higher-speed broadband could be brought to downtown.  Comcast was the only provider to engage the group and offer to make a major capital investment to achieve The EDGE's goal.

Over the following months, The EDGE and Comcast worked with downtown businesses, property owners, and city government to ensure that the project will deliver maximum benefit to downtown while minimizing any impacts to the underground utility district.

As a result, hundreds of businesses, from medical offices to high-tech start-ups, will now have access to Comcast's business-class offerings, which will be delivered over a state-of-the-art optical fiber backbone. The expansion aims to allow for download speeds of up to 100 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 10 megabits per second. Bandwidth up to 10 gigabits per second will be available for businesses with the largest data needs.

Among those glad to hear the news is Paul Barulich, Esq., whose offices are in the heart of the underground utility district.  "The growth of our practice downtown has been limited, in part, by the poor telecommunications infrastructure.   The new network downtown will make it much easier for us to serve our clients and grow our business."

Linda Asbury, the President of the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce, said that she's thrilled to see this significant investment from Comcast to make high-speed Internet happen for the district. "We are seeing remarkable interest from businesses and venture capital to establish and grow companies in our underground utility district, and high-speed broadband is a prerequisite to establishing and growing those businesses. We appreciate Comcast's responding to our request for more and better service in the area."

"Comcast is thrilled to be a part of this exciting and rapidly growing part of the City of San Mateo," said Mark O'Leary, vice president of Comcast's Business Services division in Northern California. "The San Mateo Chamber and The EDGE have been working hard to support the healthy growth of businesses in San Mateo, and they often require the kinds of broadband services that Comcast provides."

About The San Mateo Area Chamber of Commerce
The San Mateo Area Chamber of Commerce is the voice of business on the mid-San Francisco Peninsula.  Representing hundreds of member businesses employing more than 20,000 workers, the Chamber works for a stable economy and a vital community in the San Mateo area by promoting business and the public interest through representation, advocacy and sponsorship. The Chamber organizes and funds programs that support the economic, civic, cultural and educational excellence of the San Mateo area.

About Comcast Business Services
Comcast Business Services, a unit of Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), provides advanced communication solutions to help organizations of all sizes meet their business objectives. Through a modern, company-owned fiber network that is backed by 24/7 technical support, Comcast delivers Business Class Internet, TV and Voice services for cost-effective, simplified communications management.

Launched in 2011, the Comcast Business Class Ethernet suite offers high-performance point-to-point and multi-point Metro Ethernet services with the capacity to deliver cloud computing, software-as-a-service, business continuity/disaster recovery and other bandwidth-intensive applications. Comcast Metro Ethernet services are significantly faster than T1 lines and other legacy technologies, providing scalable bandwidth from 1 Mbps up to 10 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) in more than 20 major US markets.

For more information, call 1-800-391-3000 or visit www.business.comcast.com.

SOURCE San Mateo Chamber of Commerce