Polartec Turns Up the Heat with Comcast Business Class Ethernet

PHILADELPHIA & LAWRENCE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Comcast Corporation, one of the nation's leading providers of information and communications products and services, today announced that it is providing Ethernet services to Polartec^®, a manufacturer of high-tech fabrics worn around the world by outdoor enthusiasts, emergency personnel, the military and consumers. More than 1,000 Polartec employees in six offices around the globe are now connected via the company’s existing virtual private network (VPN) over a high-performance Comcast Ethernet connection to help improve communications between employees, manufacturing facilities and local sales teams, while also saving the company more than $1,000 a month.

“When we crunched the numbers and realized that we could be getting much faster speeds for over $1,000 less than what we were paying for our T1 lines, we were sold.”

Polartec LLC is best known for inventing fleece under the Polarfleece brand, one of Time Magazine's most important inventions of the 20th century. Today, with over 400 different styles, Polartec is the premier global supplier of performance fabrics for outdoor enthusiasts, athletes, workwear applications and the military. Polartec products include next-to-skin, insulation, and weather protection fabrics like Polartec^® NeoShell^®, the most breathable waterproof fabric on the market.

With such a large number of employees and office locations around the world, Polartec relies extensively on the use of its virtual private network (VPN). Office workers use the company’s VPN to access company-related systems and data, while global sales teams and manufacturing partners depend on the network for tracking inbound and outbound orders. As the number of users on its VPN increased, Polartec soon realized that its existing T1 lines were becoming too sluggish to keep up with the company’s expanding bandwidth requirements, especially during times of peak office traffic each day.

“There are hundreds of moving parts that need to come together on a daily basis to ensure the continued success of our organization, so as our network traffic increased and our Internet connection was unable to keep up, we knew that we needed to make a change,” said Stephan Pifalo, network and telecommunications analyst at Polartec. “When we crunched the numbers and realized that we could be getting much faster speeds for over $1,000 less than what we were paying for our T1 lines, we were sold.”

Comcast installed an Ethernet Dedicated Internet (EDI) connection that is currently being used by all company employees, partners and sales teams. Rather than traversing several access points before reaching its main server, Polartec’s new EDI connection now allows the company to utilize the Comcast network to ensure faster speeds and greater bandwidth than previously possible with T1 lines. It also provides the company with the capability to easily add bandwidth as needed to help accommodate the additional growth that Polartec expects with its imminent expansion into Shanghai in the coming months.

“There are plenty of things that companies need to worry about on a daily basis – but the speed of their Internet service should not be one of them,” said Peter Marsh, Greater Boston region vice president for Comcast Business Services. “As today’s workforce becomes increasingly mobile, more and more companies are expanding their global operations and are realizing that working with a provider that offers scalable and reliable connectivity is one of the best business decisions they can make.”

About Polartec, LLC

Polartec, LLC is the developer, manufacturer, and marketer of Polartec^® performance fabrics. Polartec^® products range from lightweight wicking base layers, to insulation layers, to extreme weather protection and are utilized by the best clothing brands in the world. For more information, visit Polartec.com.

About Comcast Business Services

Comcast Business Services, a unit of Comcast Cable, provides advanced communication solutions to help organizations of all sizes meet their business objectives. Through a modern, advanced network that is backed by 24/7 technical support, Comcast delivers Business Class Internet, TV and Voice services for cost-effective, simplified communications management.

The Comcast Business Class Ethernet suite offers high-performance point-to-point and multi-point Metro Ethernet services with the capacity to deliver cloud computing, software-as-a-service, business continuity/disaster recovery and other bandwidth-intensive applications. Comcast Metro Ethernet services are significantly faster than standard T1 lines and other legacy technologies, providing scalable bandwidth from 1 Mbps up to 10 Gigabits-per-second (Gbps) in more than 20 major US markets. For more information, call 866-429-3085 or visit http://business.comcast.com/enterprise.

About Comcast Cable

Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) (www.comcast.com) is one of the nation's leading providers of entertainment, information and communications products and services. Comcast is principally involved in the operation of cable systems through Comcast Cable and in the development, production and distribution of entertainment, news, sports and other content for global audiences through NBCUniversal. Comcast Cable is one of the nation's largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential and business customers. Comcast is the majority owner and manager of NBCUniversal, which owns and operates entertainment and news cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, local television station groups, television production operations, a major motion picture company and theme parks.