RCN Will Again Sponsor Manhattan Island Foundation's NY City Swim Series; Fourth...

Thu May 22, 2008 11:25pm EDT

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RCN Will Again Sponsor Manhattan Island Foundation's NY City Swim Series; Fourth Annual Lady Liberty Swim in New York Harbor Kicks Off 2008 Season

More than 200 Swimmers From As Far Away as Australia to Compete in
the 1.5 K Race
HERNDON, VA--(Business Wire)--
RCN Corporation (NASDAQ: RCNI), a leading provider of digital
television, data, and voice services to residential and business
customers, announced today that it has agreed to be a corporate
sponsor of the Manhattan Island Foundation's 2008 New York City Swim
Series. The 10-event 2008 season begins on Saturday, May 24 with the
fourth annual Lady Liberty Swim.

The Memorial Day Weekend event, sponsored by RCN, will begin at
10:00 a.m. at Gangway One at the Southwestern tip of Battery Park,
adjacent to the Staten Island Ferry. The finish will be at the North
Cove Yacht Harbor, adjacent to the World Financial Center's Winter
Garden near Liberty Street. More than 200 swimmers, from as far away
as Australia, will compete in the 1.5 kilometer event in New York
harbor. Finishers will be coming in from approximately 10:20 a.m.
until 11:00 a.m.

The 2008 schedule features the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim
(MIMS) on July 5. MIMS is part of the triple crown of marathon
swimming, together with the English Channel and the Catalina Channel
swims.

"We are pleased to sponsor the Lady Liberty Swim and the other
outstanding New York City Swim Series events because they help raise
public awareness of the waters that surround New York and support
efforts to clean and protect them," said RCN Vice President & General
Manager-New York Anthony Ontiveros. "As the first Triple Play cable,
phone and internet competitor, we are a champion of competition so we
are proud to sponsor these swim events."

RCN's sponsorship supports the Foundation's work with the New York
City Parks Department's Learn to Swim program. The Learn to Swim
program is a free, fun-filled way for NYC children and adults to learn
how to swim and improve their swimming skills.

"We are excited that RCN has once again stepped up to help us and
proud to have them as the sponsor of the Lady Liberty Swim as well as
the Preferred Cable, Phone and Internet Provider of the 2008 New York
City Swim Series," said Morty Berger, the founder of the Manhattan
Island Foundation. "The large turnout of swimmers for the Lady Liberty
Swim shows how the New York City Swim Series and competitive marathon
swimming in general is growing in prominence and popularity around the
world. In fact, marathon swimming will be an Olympic event this year
in Beijing."

RCN is also offering valuable in-kind services, such as promoting
the Lady Liberty and other swim events to their customers, and running
promotional spots on their cable network. As part of the sponsorship,
RCN will have prominent signage displayed at the event, as well as on
swimming caps and T-shirts.

For additional information about the Lady Liberty Swim, as well as
other New York City Swim Series events, visit http://www.nycswim.org
or call 888 NYC-SWIM.

About RCN Corporation

RCN (www.rcn.com) is a broadband, facilities-based competitive
telecommunications provider delivering digital television, high-speed
data, and voice services primarily to residential and small-medium
business customers under the brand names of RCN and RCN Business
Services, respectively. In addition, RCN also delivers on-net
fiber-based high-capacity data transport and voice services to large
commercial customers, primarily enterprises and carriers. This
commercial business unit operates under the name RCN Metro Optical
Networks and targets metropolitan central business districts. RCN
constructs, operates, and manages its own networks primarily in the
Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and the Chicago area. The main metro
and suburban areas where it operates include: Washington, D.C.,
Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley, New York City, Boston, and Chicago.
Our New York Market, RCN NY, serves much of Manhattan, as well as the
Queens communities of Corona, Elmhurst, Long Island City, Flushing,
Astoria, Jackson Heights, Middle Village, Maspeth, Rego Park, Forest
Hills, Woodside, and Fresh Meadows. (RCNI-G)

About the Manhattan Island Foundation

The Manhattan Island Foundation, founded in 1993, organizes
swimming events in the waters around Manhattan. Since its inception,
the Foundation has attracted nearly 10,000 participants in more than
110 swimming races, thus helping to revive a local aquatic tradition
that had been abandoned for nearly a century. The Foundation is
hosting ten events of various distances this summer, including the
Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, two multi-sport races, the Governors
Island Swim and, of course, the Brooklyn Bridge Swim, and the Ederle
Swim.

RCN Corporation
Lisa Barder, 703-434-8430
Sr. Mgr., Communications and Public Relations
or
Communicreate
Michael Houghton, 703-799-7383