Romantics Flock to Web for Valentine's Day

Increased traffic marks new milestone for KUA.net.

   KISSIMMEE, Fla., February 19, 5:00 am - KUA.net, the internet subsidiary of Kissimmee Utility Authority (KUA), reached a new milestone on Friday -- handling nearly 300,000 e-mail messages on Valentine's Day. Despite record traffic, KUA.net's infrastructure provided reliable service to its 6,100 Central Florida subscribers.
   "Our servers processed 299,178 e-mail messages on Valentine's Day alone," said Jef Gray, KUA's Vice President of Information Technology. "That's a 600% increase over a typical day and a clear indication of the growing trend towards electronic greeting cards and online gift purchasing."
   On Friday, KUA.net's virus scanning stopped 122 e-mail messages infected with a virus, and its filtering service blocked an additional 105,000 unsolicited e-mail messages called spam. Spam is flooding the internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, often for dubious products, get-rich-quick schemes, or quasi-legal services. 76 billion unsolicited e-mail messages are expected to be delivered worldwide in 2003, according to eMarketer, an internet research firm.    
   KUA.net's next anticipated major peak, however, won't resemble love letters. During the first two weeks in April, people will be preparing their 2002 tax returns.
   KUA.net, a provider of residential and commercial internet services in Central Florida, was ranked in November 2002 as the region's #2 internet service provider, based on the total number of customers served. KUA is Florida's 6th largest community-owned utility serving 58,000 electric, water and internet customers.

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