PECO Chooses Motorola for New Radio System - 1.6 Million Customers Will Benefit With Improved Field Operations

PHILADELPHIA, May 16 /PRNewswire/ -- PECO said its local electric and natural gas customers will benefit from installation of a new digital wireless radio system for hundreds of its field personnel. The Motorola ASTRO(R) 25 Trunked integrated voice and data system is designed to provide PECO field personnel with improved radio coverage and reliability, which will help improve responsiveness to customer outages and other issues.

The new system will be implemented in two phases during two years at a cost of approximately $17 million. The first phase, which is targeted for completion this summer, will be operational in Philadelphia and Bucks counties. The second phase, covering Montgomery, Delaware, Chester and portions of York and Lancaster counties, is expected to be completed in 2007.

"Better radio coverage for our service territory and more reliable communication in the field will help to reduce outage response time, resulting in improved reliability and hopefully customer satisfaction," said Craig Sidebottom, operations coordinator of the PECO operations control center, which oversees the electric distribution network and dispatches work to field personnel.

All new equipment will be installed at 14 tower sites along with a new master radio site in Philadelphia. Field personnel and dispatchers will receive new mobile radios, portable radios and dispatch consoles. Motorola has designed the system to operate along with PECO's existing radio system during the project implementation.

Jerrold Martin, vice president, information technology services, added, "By moving to a new 800 MHz private digital radio platform, we will immediately improve coverage in our PECO territory, helping to ensure reliable communications while enhancing overall network capabilities today and in the future."

Chris Banakis, Motorola vice president and director of enterprise utility solutions, said, "We are committed to helping Exelon achieve their business objectives and are confident PECO's field users will immediately benefit from the system's improved audio quality and coverage, as well as its reliability and life cycle support."

Based in Philadelphia, PECO is an electric and natural gas utility subsidiary of Exelon Corporation . PECO serves 1.6 million electric and 470,000 natural gas customers in southeastern Pennsylvania. In 2005, the company delivered 38.7 million megawatt-hours (Mwh) of electricity and 85.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas to residential, business and institutional customers. PECO's energy delivery services generated $4.91 billion in revenue for Exelon. Founded in 1881, PECO is one of the Greater Philadelphia Region's most active corporate citizens, providing leadership, volunteer and financial support to numerous arts and culture, education, environmental, economic development and community programs and organizations.

Contact: Cathy Engel PECO, An Exelon Company 2301 Market Street, S14-1 Philadelphia, PA 19103 215-841-4492 or 215-841-5555