Atlantic.Net expands service into non-urban markets

Atlantic.Net announced today it has signed an agreement with Progress Telecom that would allow Atlantic.Net to expand its Internet access and dial-up telephony service – including T-1 and T-3, frame relay, ISDN and DSL services – to Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets in Florida and other southeastern states.

Atlantic.Net, headquartered in Gainesville, Fla., will receive dedicated bandwidth via Progress Telecom’s fiber optic network, which consists of 137,000 fiber miles and 8400 route miles, largely in rights of way owned by parent Progress Energy.

Marty Puranik, president and CEO of Atlantic.Net said that while the deal allows the ISP to significantly expand its network and reach remote sections with broadband services – in many cases, for the first time – there are other benefits.

“We’ve boosted [our network] capacity and made it more redundant, which further strengthens its overall speed and reliability,” he said.

Atlantic.Net soon will introduce converged voice, data and video services over its IP network.

“Those services will be going to our Tier 1 cities, not just the Tier 2s and 3s, so we were looking for a scalable solution that would allow us to add bandwidth very quickly,” Puranik said.

– Glenn Bischoff, senior writer