Metromedia Fiber Network Announces Next Eleven European Markets, Bringing Total to Sixteen
Company Plans High-Capacity Networks in France, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Additional German Cities
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 22, 1999-- Metromedia Fiber Network, Inc. (NASDAQ:MFNX - news) today announced the next eleven markets in its current European expansion, bringing its planned high-density fiber optic networks to five new countries and a total of 16 major markets. The eleven markets include Paris, Brussels, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Munich, Berlin, Hanover, Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, and Milan. Metromedia Fiber Network's planned infrastructure will extend its reach to major European metropolitan areas, enabling telecommunications carriers and enterprise organizations to gain high-bandwidth ''last mile'' communications connectivity throughout major European commercial centers.
According to various estimates, Europe's telecommunications market is currently a $300 billion industry and is expected to double by the year 2002. As the projected need for fiber optic capacity within European cities increases significantly during this period, Metromedia Fiber Network will supply these cities the ''last mile'' infrastructure needed to take advantage of advanced, high-bandwidth services.
''The enormous growth of data transmissions, mobile phones and other forms of telecom traffic in Europe is creating a substantial bottleneck in the local metropolitan markets,'' said Vincent Galluccio, managing director of Metromedia Fiber Network International. ''Our intra-city networks are designed to eliminate those bottlenecks and unlock the latent demand for ever advancing communications applications.''
Targeting the major corporate, financial and government centers of western Europe, Metromedia Fiber Network's total planned European infrastructure will exceed 625,000 fiber kilometers and 2,160 route kilometers. The current announcement significantly expands the company's presence in Germany, while breaking new ground in France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria.
''The addition of these eleven markets will essentially triple our planned markets in Europe and will set the stage for continuing our aggressive infrastructure expansion throughout the continent,'' said Howard Finkelstein, president of Metromedia Fiber Network. ''Replicating our successful U.S. model, we are quickly establishing Metromedia Fiber Network as an alternate infrastructure leader in Europe -- the world's second largest economy -- providing end-to-end pure photonic networks that further penetrate multiple European regions.''
Utilizing ''meshed'' network architecture to penetrate major metropolitan areas, Metromedia Fiber Network places massive amounts of fiber throughout business and financial centers and directly into buildings. These ''meshed'' networks are made up of multiple overlapping and interconnected rings, providing full redundancy and establishing the ideal network infrastructure for the optical switching platforms of the next century. Additionally, this infrastructure enables Metromedia Fiber Network's carrier and commercial customers to take advantage of and deploy the most advanced communications technologies, including Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), gigabit Ethernet, ESCON and Internet Protocol (VoIP).
''Our infrastructure will provide all communications carriers and enterprise customers with immediate access to major markets throughout Europe,'' said Vincent Galluccio, managing director of Metromedia Fiber Network International. ''Carriers will be able to achieve widespread market penetration quickly and cost-effectively, while enterprise clients will be able to deploy mission-critical data and Internet applications. Our fiber optic networks will not only provide rings throughout major European cities, but also provide diversely routed, high-bandwidth connectivity directly into buildings, enabling our customers to bypass the legacy networks and take full advantage of today's most sophisticated technologies.''
About Metromedia Fiber Network
Metromedia Fiber Network is building metropolitan fiber optic infrastructure in the local loop in strategic top tier markets, enabling technologically sophisticated organizations to implement the latest data, video, Internet and multimedia applications. By offering virtually unlimited, unmetered bandwidth at a fixed cost, Metromedia Fiber Network is eliminating the bandwidth barrier and redefining the way broadband capacity is sold. In addition to its current nationwide expansion in 50 major US and Canadian cities, Metromedia Fiber Network is entering the international market with fiber optic network builds throughout Europe.
Metromedia Fiber Network recently acquired AboveNet Communications, the architect of the global one-hop network and the leading provider of Internet connectivity and co-location solutions for high-bandwidth and business critical applications. The combined company will facilitate the explosive growth of e-commerce and advanced Internet applications by delivering secure, reliable and scalable optical networks to Internet content and service providers, carriers and enterprise users, worldwide. For more information about Metromedia Fiber Network, please visit the company's Web site at mmfn.com.
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic and business conditions, competition, changes in technology and methods of marketing, and various other factors beyond the Company's control. This also includes such factors as described from time to time in the SEC reports filed by Metromedia Fiber Network, including the most recently filed prospectuses and Forms S-3, 10-K, and 10-Q.
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