Northeastern Pennsylvania to provide back-up location for Wall Street firms

Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, along with Wall Street West, a federal and state-funded program created to develop a total back-up solution for New York City financial institutions in the event of disaster, have announced an agreement for Level 3 Communications to build a fiber optic network connecting lower Manhattan with northeastern Pennsylvania. The Level 3 Communications-built optical network will enable redundant, instantaneous data transmission between the two areas, further establishing the northeastern Pennsylvania region as a premier back-up operations location for Wall Street firms.

To provide synchronous data transmission, fiber optic lines cannot exceed 125 fiber miles in each direction. Once the fiber network is in place, portions of northeastern Pennsylvania will be the only locations within the 125 fiber-mile limit surrounding Manhattan to also meet Federal Reserve and Securities and Exchange Commission recommendations that backup sites not rely upon the same infrastructure components used by financial firms' primary sites.

Wall Street West is a $40 million initiative involving a variety of federal, state and private-funding sources. Nearly $15 million in state funds are leveraging up to $25 million in federal and private investments.

While providing better connectivity between New York and northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wall Street West fiber network will also interconnect with an already robust fiber-optic infrastructure that covers all nine counties covered by the Wall Street West initiative, including Carbon, Berks, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike and Wayne. These locations offer many infrastructure benefits of northeastern Pennsylvania for firms that do not require instantaneous backup.

"Northeastern Pennsylvania is already home to a number of financial firms, and this initiative is essential to continuing the area's advancement and economic growth," said Gov. Rendell. "It will also strengthen New York City's status as the financial capitol of the world by providing firms there with mission-critical data back-up."

Level 3 Communications, Inc. will build a Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical network. The network will provide integrated data communications and support a variety of applications, including: synchronous data replication, streaming video, video instruction and workstation video conferencing, converged networking, storage-area networks, Intranet support and support for Internet access for the end-user employees.

In addition to the fiber network, northeastern Pennsylvania offers business significant advantages, including:

- Power, water and transportation systems separate from New York City
- Central location with easy access to New York City, Philadelphia, Washington
- Low operating, energy and real estate costs
- Substantial business tax incentives
- An educated, dedicated and productive workforce.

"Northeastern Pennsylvania is ideally situated to provide back-up operations for Wall Street firms - close, but not too close," said Catherine Bolton, Project Director at Wall Street West. "With the implementation of this fiber network, we are able to meet the diverse needs of the financial services industry, while providing a low cost of doing business and exceptional quality of life."

"With world-class infrastructure and the availability of talent as recognized pillars for economic success, the Administration's Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development initiative last year supplied the seed capital for educating and preparing the workforce necessary for the success of Wall Street West," said Emily Stover DeRocco, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training. "Today's announcement on the delivery of a fiber optic network to this region unites the infrastructure to the talent development strategies already being implemented in northeast Pennsylvania."

About Wall Street West
Wall Street West is a not-for-profit partnership of more than two dozen local, regional and statewide economic development agencies, technology investment groups, workforce development organizations, educational and research institutions and experts from the private sector. The group secured a $15 million Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant from the US Department of Labor to help fund its effort to attract New York City-based financial institutions to establish their back-up and back-room operations in the region.

The Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania is the fiscal agent of Wall Street West.

The following institutions are Wall Street West partners: PA Dept. of Community & Economic Development, NEPA Alliance, Monroe County CareerLink, Northampton Community College, Penn's Northeast, Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board, Lehigh University, Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation, Northeast Pennsylvania Technology Institute, Berks County Workforce Investment Board, Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business & Industry, PA Department of Labor and Industry, US Department of Labor, Lehigh Carbon Community College, Lakeland High School, Mid-Atlantic Venture Funds, Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, PPL Corporation, Coronel Management Group, Inc., Junior Achievement, Berks; Pike County Workforce Development Agency, Reading Area Community College, Air Products & Chemicals, Department of Community & Economic Development Lehigh County, BobHay.com Realtors, Greater Reading Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Team Pennsylvania Foundation, PA Office of Financial Education, Berks Economic Partnership, Pocono Mountain Economic Development Corp., Riverside School District, DSS Corporation, Junior Achievement of Northeastern PA, Inc., Diversified lnformation Technologies Inc., Fulton Bank, Great Valley Division; CANDO. Inc., Luzerne County Workforce Investment Office, Pocono Mountains Chamber of Commerce, Berks; Blue Cross of NBPA, NE PA Educational Intermediate Unit, Pocono Counties Workforce Investment Board, Pocono Counties WlA, , Wayne County Economic Development Corp., Greater Berks Development Fund, Lackawanna County WIA, and NEPACU - Baptist Bible College, Bloomsburg University, College Misericordia, East Stroudsburg University, Johnson College, Keystone College, Kings College, Lackawanna College, Luzerne County Community College, Marywood University, Penn State University - Hazleton, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, University of Scranton, and Wilkes University.

•Date: 8th June 2007 • Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: Recovery facilities
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