MIAMI, May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- MasTec, Inc. (NYSE: MTZ) today announced that it has been awarded a master contract by Comcast Cable Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: CMCSA) to assist in the build-out of the advanced fiber optic network infrastructure in Comcast's territories. MasTec is one of Comcast's primary infrastructure service providers. The first phase of its five-year contract is valued in excess of $100 million.

MasTec, with more than 10,000 employees throughout the U.S. is one of the fastest growing communication and energy infrastructure providers in the country, and is among the nation's leading minority-owned companies. It has performed infrastructure construction projects for Comcast since 1986.

Comcast, the third largest cable broadband provider in the nation, has undertaken a nationwide program to implement the latest digital cable technology, bringing a suite of advanced entertainment, Internet and telecommunication services to its customers. With these upgrades Comcast can provide subscribers with high quality digital video, CD-quality sound, over 170 channels of video, 40 channels of digital music, always-on high speed Internet access and, ultimately, voice telephony and interactive services.

"MasTec has proven to be one of the few infrastructure providers capable of meeting our aggressive development plans," said John E. Donahue, Vice President Engineering Operations. "At this time, when Comcast is making record investments in technological improvements to our systems, MasTec can provide the kind of support we need to meet the competitive demands of the marketplace. Clearly, it is MasTec's ability to satisfy customer needs that has made it a success as the largest Hispanic-owned business in the U.S.," he said.

Upon the completion of recently announced trades and acquisitions, Comcast will serve more than 8.2 million cable customers nationwide. The company has made its digital cable service available to more than 6.1 million homes thus far. Also, more than 4.2 million homes are able to access the Comcast@Home service, which provides an Internet connection that downloads data up to 100 times faster than a dial-up modem.

"MasTec is excited to be supporting Comcast in the build-out of this state-of-the-art technology," said Joel-Tomas Citron, President and CEO of MasTec. "By satisfying the explosive consumer demand for more bandwidth, Comcast is playing a leading role in this unprecedented change in the way we all communicate and conduct business," he added.

MasTec is the largest end-to-end communications and energy infrastructure service provider in North America. MasTec www.mastec.com designs, builds, installs and maintains internal and external networks supporting the Internet, Internet-related applications, e-commerce and other communications and energy facilities for leading telecommunications, cable television, energy and Fortune 500 companies.

Headquartered in Philadelphia, Comcast Cable is a division of Comcast Corporation www.comcast.com, a developer, manager and operator of broadband cable networks and provider of programming content. Comcast Cable is the third largest cable company in the United States. Providing basic cable, digital cable and high speed Internet services, Comcast Cable is the company to look to first for the communications products and services that connect people to what's important in their lives. At the close of 2000, the company's more than 10,000 cable division employees will serve more than 8.2 million customers in six geographic regions.
SOURCE MasTec, Inc.
Web site: http: //www.mastec.com
CONTACT: Carmen M. Sabater, Senior Vice President & CFO of MasTec, 305-406-1866 or csabater@mastec.com