For Immediate Release: 8/5/2015 Leggett Celebrates Opening of Super-Fast Fiber Connection in Silver Spring Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett today announced the launch of “ultraGig” – a wireless fiber initiative at the Silver Spring Innovation Center (SSIC). ultraGig is part of ultraMontgomery, one of the six-point economic plan initiatives announced by Leggett in his inaugural address. ultraMontgomery is the County’s plan to promote installation of super-fast, 100-gigabit, fiber infrastructure in business, academic and federal institutions in the County’s major economic corridors and innovation communities. It will also expand free WiFi in public facilities. A key component of ultraMontgomery isfinding ways to lower the cost and enable more broadband and telephone-service providers to deliver services to businesses and residents. “In the modern era, reliable and secure Internet connectivity and network infrastructure are fundamental to a strong economy, especially in Montgomery County, where we are pioneering rapidly evolving technological fronts in cyber security, IT and biotech,” said Leggett. “High-speed Internet is a necessity for economic competitiveness and world-class research. Even more importantly, as businesses move to the Cloud, their Internet has to always be on.” Service providers for broadband (a high-capacity transmission technique using a wide range of frequencies, which enables a large number of messages to be communicated simultaneously) and true back-up Internet service can be limited, because it can be expensive to construct fiber under sidewalks or over several blocks to reach buildings in commercial or rural areas. ultraGig provides secure, reliable wireless broadband, available to multiple service providers, as an alternative broadband solution. It uses exclusive licenses for wireless, so there should always be enough capacity. ultraGig has a reach of three miles, so it can be cost effective to reach rural neighborhoods, or connect buildings. “More competition and choices for high-speed Internet means that businesses can get better service at better rates,” said Leggett. “Many homes, farms and businesses in rural areas of the County do not have access to high-speed broadband. ultraGig could be part the solution to reach these areas.” For a company already using wireline fiber for a broadband network connection, ultraGig offers a wireless path to a building that meets federal Physically Diverse Network (PDN) building standards. If one network connection goes down, the other network isn’t affected and remains functional. PDN increases network reliability, which is important as more people depend exclusively on Internet connections for telephone, video and data. ultraGig resultedfrom a public-private partnership between the County, SSIC tenant FiberTower and Silver Spring business Atlantech Online, Inc. and is an important piece of Leggett’s plan to grow knowledge-based jobs that require high-speed broadband to thrive and innovate. ultraGig is already providing benefits to SSIC tenants. Atlantech Online is using FiberTower wireless licenses to provide a full-duplex 1 gigabit per second (GBps) connection directly to the SSIC. The connections offer high-definition and high-capacity interactive video and voice conferencing, as well as data-intensive uploading and downloading. Using the FiberTower licenses, Atlantech Online was able to provide its customers in SSIC with 30-times-faster broadband speed, at no additional cost to the customer. # # # Release ID: 15-294 Media Contact: Ohene Gyapong 240-777-6507

http://www6.montgomerycountymd.gov/apps/News/press/PR_details.asp?PrID=15142]]>