HICKSVILLE, N.Y. and TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The Counties of Suffolk and Nassau ('the counties') located on Long Island, today announced that they have selected e-Path Communications, Inc., and its team of KeySpan Communications and Cisco, to build, own and operate a wireless broadband communications network to provide residents, businesses, municipal governments and visitors ubiquitous service throughout Long Island.

The team of e-Path Communications, Inc., KeySpan Communications, and Cisco brings to Long Islanders a 'landline free' way to access the Internet throughout its anticipated 750 square mile network. Learning from the experiences and challenges faced by other cities, the e-Path team proposed a business model and a technology solution that redefines the paradigm ensuring immediate, on-going, and sustainable benefits to itself and its shareholders and the residents, visitors, businesses, and municipal workers of Long Island. Taking a true partnership approach with the Counties, this initiative will provide a truly unique and competitive alternative to other high-speed Internet offerings to those who live, work, and visit the Counties. The e-Path team will deliver its signature wireless broadband Internet access services to both the public and private sector, as well as a host of voice and data bundled and/or managed services including Internet phone and IP cellular. The e-Path team will work with the Counties to identify and deploy municipal applications (e.g. healthcare, automated meter reading, environmental quality monitoring, permitting and code enforcement.) to drive measurable returns on investment, which will make it easier to attract support for public access and digital inclusion initiatives.

"Broadband wireless connectivity will provide a plethora of economic, social and community benefits to Long Island," stated Joe Tortoretti, President & CEO of e-Path Communications, Inc. "Increased public safety and community communications, digital inclusion programs for underserved and disadvantaged citizens and businesses, educational programs and improved government services and reduced communications expenses all are very tangible benefits of having ubiquitous broadband connectivity."

"In 2006, we founded e-Path to be a very different wireless broadband company, with a mission to give mobility to our customers with anytime, anywhere access to a fully managed integrated, bundled, application rich, broadband Internet access product that includes, IP Mobile, and Voice over IP telecom communications packages at prices they could afford and that we could deliver profitably," Tortoretti went on to say. "With the counties and our teammate, KeySpan, evaluating wireless applications for their business needs, we believe our visionary business model puts us in a leading position in the repositioning of wireless broadband networks."

"Having a technologically advanced community will make Long Island more appealing to business and tourism, fostering aggressive and sustainable economic development in the geographic territory of our primary operations," stated Bob Catell, Chairman and CEO of KeySpan Corporation. "KeySpan is excited to participate and we are looking forward to supporting the wireless network deployment with backhaul capacity on KeySpan's high speed fiber optic networks, providing engineering, operational and network management support, and exploring opportunities to implement wireless links for utility applications."

Steve Levy, Suffolk County Executive, and Tom Suozzi, Nassau County Executive led by the 15 member Long Island Wireless Committee, co-chaired by Sharon Cates-Williams, CIO and Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology, and Suffolk Legislator Wayne Horsley, chair of the Legislature's Economic Development Committee, unanimously supported awarding the project to e-Path and its partners. "The wireless broadband network will provide an important economic development tool to attract and retain businesses in the Counties of Suffolk and Nassau Long Island, as well as improve services to residents and enhance public communication while reducing the cost of government," stated Steve Levy, County Executive Suffolk County. "A seamless wireless infrastructure would attract and retain young professionals to live and work in the Counties, and provide an aid to tourism and hospitality."

The counties have identified the Wireless initiative as an opportunity to create a digital infrastructure to help citizens; businesses, students, and community organization make effective use of this technology to achieve their goals while providing a greater experience for visitors. More specifically, this initiative will promote the following:

-- Ensure universal affordable outdoor wireless broadband access for all residents. -- Improve the services provided by the County and local governments. -- Stimulate economic development and promote job creation. -- Enhance education and improve interaction between teachers, students and parents. -- Encourage competition by introducing an alternate method for broadband service.

The Counties anticipate that this initiative will provide the following potential benefits:

-- Enhance healthcare through telemedicine and remote patient care. -- Improve the experience for individuals vacationing on Long Island and those visiting Long Island for Business reasons. -- Promote more innovative broadband solutions for consumers. -- Promote telecommuting and reduce the strain on Long Island's roads and infrastructure.

"Municipalities across the country are increasingly recognizing that Wi-Fi networks can provide a robust and secure foundation to deploy innovative applications for communities that foster collaboration and communication regardless of location," said Ben Gibson, director, mobility solutions marketing for Cisco. "We look forward to working with our partners for this Long Island deployment to incorporate Cisco's Outdoor Wireless solutions and wireless mesh architecture that will enable advanced services that incorporate mobility and extend the power of core networks."

e-Path Communications Inc. is a mobile Wireless Internet Service Provider ("WISP"), providing regional Wireless Broadband ("WBB"), high speed public Internet access, Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP"), Local and Long Distance Telephone Service, Broadband Home Security, IP Mobile, Cellular and Enhanced Data Centric value-added fully managed services to residents, visitors, occasional users, municipal government and business customers in densely populated metropolitan markets. e-Path is a facilities based "carrier class" communication company that owns, develops and builds in partnership with municipalities, Next Generation Municipal Wireless City-Wide Networks, with networks "Built for Mobility" -- providing Anytime-Anywhere high speed fully mobile Broadband Internet Access to customers. For significantly less than the capital expenditures of circuit-switched carriers, that provide only a narrowband connection, e-Path leverages advances in soft- switch and IP technology to deliver a richer, bundled integrated package of voice, wireless broadband Internet access, voice, IP-Mobile and IP-based applications.

A member of the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, KeySpan Corporation is the largest distributor of natural gas in the Northeast, operating regulated gas utilities in New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire that serve 2.6 million customers. These customer-focused businesses are complemented by a portfolio of service companies that offer energy-related products, services, and solutions to homes and businesses. KeySpan is also the largest electric generator in New York State, with approximately 6,650 megawatts of generating capacity that provides power to 1.1 million customers of the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) on Long Island and supplies approximately 25 percent of New York City's capacity needs. KeySpan also operates LIPA's transmission and distribution system under contract to LIPA. In addition to these assets, KeySpan has strategic investments in pipeline transportation, distribution, storage, and production. KeySpan has headquarters in Brooklyn, New England, and Long Island. KeySpan Communications, an unregulated subsidiary of KeySpan Energy, owns and operates over 80,000 fiber miles of networks throughout New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut. KeySpan Communications provides dark fiber, managed transport (via SONET or Ethernet), custom designed networks, and Trans- Atlantic solutions. For more information, visit KeySpan's web site at http://www.keyspanenergy.com/ or KeySpan Communications web site at http://www.keyspancommunications.com/.

Cisco is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com/. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com/.

The Counties of Nassau and Suffolk (commonly referred to as Long Island), each a municipal corporation of the State of New York, enjoy a population of over 2.7 million people which is greater than the population of 19 states. If Long Island were a city it would rank as 4th largest in the nation. It is the nation's 5th wealthiest area, especially known for its gorgeous beaches, suburban neighborhoods and vast acres of parkland. The Region contains some of the nations' finest vineyards, and Suffolk County is one of the leading agricultural counties in New York State. The economy is made up of over 96,000 businesses and continues to grow steadily.

CONTACT: Mike Martin, Chief Operating Officer, +1-413-822-9390, or David
Hurwitz, President, Business Development, +1-267-688-2128, both of e-Path
Communications, Inc.; or Jason Cohen, Vice President of KeySpan
Communications, +1-631-300-3710

Web site: http://www.epathcommunications.com/
http://www.keyspanenergy.com/
http://www.keyspancommunications.com/
http://www.cisco.com/
http://newsroom.cisco.com/