COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Dec. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- tw telecom (NASDAQ: TWTC), a leading provider of managed communications services, including Business Ethernet, converged and IPVPN services to enterprises throughout the U.S. and globally, today said it is prepared with communications support to assist the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) with the agency's NORAD Tracks Santa program.  This is the fourth year tw telecom has provided support for this program and to NORAD and Peterson Air Force Base (AFB) in Colorado Springs, Colo.

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"With so many children and parents relying on NORAD for accurate Santa location coordinates, it is critical our communications collaborators are able to meet critical demands," said Marisa Novobilski, NORAD Tracks Santa project lead.  "We're very pleased tw telecom will again provide us with the communications resources necessary to manage the call volume we expect this year." 

For more than 50 years, highly-skilled trackers, mostly military volunteers and their families have monitored Santa's movements at the 'NORAD Tracks Santa' Operations Center located in Colorado Springs, Colo., and relay location information to tens of thousands of children following his progress.  Last year, 1,200 NORAD Tracks Santa volunteers received 102,000 phone calls, 7,000 e-mails and 18.9 million website visitors during Santa's flight. 

"NORAD and Peterson Air Force Base employ tw telecom's local communications services for their daily mission-critical communications needs, but also use them for extremely high priority projects such as NORAD Tracks Santa communications," said Rick Corbett, vice president and general manager for tw telecom in Colorado.  "Our technical teams will be on 24-hour alert to ensure the NORAD Track Santa Task Force has these mission-critical communications services at-the-ready.  Our goal is to provide seamless communications service so that every child who is seeking Santa's location will receive it."

One of tw telecom's key differentiators is its unique Intelligent Network capabilities, which gives customers real-time visibility, flexibility and control of network performance metrics.  One of these capabilities, Dynamic Capacity, allows customers to double or triple network capacity in seconds to meet the extra applications demand for planned, like Santa's flight, or unplanned events.  

The NORAD Tracks Santa website, www.noradsanta.org, includes a Countdown to Track Santa clock as well as a Kid's Countdown Village, holiday games and information about Operation Goodwill, which provides links to organizations that support service members and their families. Starting at 12:00 a.m. MST on Dec. 24, website visitors can watch Santa as he makes all the preparations for his flight.  Then, at 4:00 a.m. MST (6:00 a.m. EST), trackers worldwide can talk to a live phone operator to inquire about Santa's whereabouts by dialing the toll-free number 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723) or by sending an e-mail to noradtrackssanta@outlook.com.  NORAD's "Santa cams" will also stream videos as Santa makes his way over various locations worldwide.

Parents and children can also count down the days until Santa's worldwide flight on their smart phones using free apps available in the Apple iTunes Store, Google Play, and Windows Marketplace. Tracking opportunities are also offered on Facebook, Google+, YouTube, and Twitter.  Santa followers just need to type "@noradsanta" into each search engine to get started. 

About tw telecom
tw telecom, headquartered in Littleton, Colo., is a leading national provider of managed services, including Business Ethernet, converged and IP VPN solutions for enterprises throughout the U.S. and globally. tw telecom also delivers secure, scalable private connections for transport data networking, Internet access, voice, VPN, VoIP and security to large organizations and communications services companies. Employing a resilient fiber network infrastructure, robust product portfolio and its own Intelligent Network capabilities, tw telecom delivers customers overall economic value, an industry-leading quality service experience, and improved business productivity. Please visit www.twtelecom.com for more information.

About NORAD
NORAD is a bi-national United States and Canada organization charged with the missions of aerospace warning, aerospace control, and maritime warning in the defense of North America. 

SOURCE tw telecom