Washington Trust Bank, of Spokane, has selected the Spokane office of Littleton, Colo.-based tw telecom inc. to provide a secure data network to connect the bank's technology support centers to its 41 bank branches in four states.

Tw telecom, formerly known as Time Warner Telecom, will provide Washington Trust with data trunks and associated technology known as a virtual private network, or VPN. Such technology essentially allows remote facilities to be connected to one another using the Internet, but in a secure manner much like being within the same building. The telecommunications company, which offers customers access to an extensive fiber-optic data network nationally, will connect the bank's support centers to branches in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and Utah, says Tom Newbury, vice president and general manager of tw telecom's Spokane operation.

Newbury says the connectivity, which tw telecom will provide under a multiyear contract, will enable WTB to transmit transactional and other data efficiently and securely among its branches, support centers, and headquarters. Newbury declines to disclose the value of the contract, but says it represents "a significant" piece of business for tw telecom's Spokane office.

Chris Green, vice president and director of WTB's information technology systems, says, "We considered a number of service providers to support our wide-area networking requirements and we were extremely impressed with how tw telecom approached our situation."

Tw telecom provides managed network services, specializing in data networking, Internet access, local and long-distance voice, voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP), VPN, and security. Washington Trust is a privately owned commercial bank with assets of more than $4.1 billion and nearly 750 employees.