Shentel Adds 100 Gbps Network to Rural Virginia

EDINBURG, VA – In keeping with its commitment to offering rural customers the same access to broadband services as urban areas, Shentel announced the launch of 100 Gbps wavelength services for customers along the I-81 corridor, from Harrisonburg to Hagerstown, plus the greater Ashburn, VA areas.

Since completing the deployment of the new, optimized 100 Gbps network in July 2013, Shentel can deliver more bandwidth to meet business and residential customers’ current and expected increased demand for voice, data, video and cloud services. The new network also makes it easier for Shentel to enter new markets quickly and without new hardware as the company continues to expand its fiber optic services in rural and mid-size regions in Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.

“We’ve seen a trend with our customers using more products and services that consume a significant amount of bandwidth — from residential customers streaming videos or downloading HD movies to business customers switching to cloud computing services to store, access and share data” said Ed McKay, Vice President of Engineering & Planning, Shentel. “Our new 100G network will make it easier and quicker for us to continue to respond to the anticipated increase in network and broadband traffic.”

This upgrade is just the latest in a series of investments Shentel has made in recent years. Since 2009, Shentel has invested $60 million in upgrades to acquired cable networks to bring the most current technology to its customers, who too often are overlooked by the big telcoms that are focused on large metropolitan areas.

Shentel 100G services are supported by Cisco’s DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) solution. Shentel has deployed this technology throughout its markets in Virginia (Ashburn, Herndon, Leesburg, Harrisonburg, Winchester, Warrenton, Front Royal, Edinburg, Christiansburg, Rustburg, Rocky Mount, Farmville, Wytheville), West Virginia (Charleston, Martinsburg, Weston, Summersville) and Maryland (Hagerstown).