Monday February 14, 7:29 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Metromedia Fiber Network to Implement
$1.4 Billion Expansion of AboveNet
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 14, 2000--
Over 29,000 Route Miles of Long-Haul Fiber with up to Multi-Terabit
per Second Capacity Will Connect MFN's Metropolitan-Area Fiber
Networks and Create First Customer Premises-to-Customer Premises,
Optical Internet Infrastructure
Metromedia Fiber Network, Inc. (MFN)(Nasdaq: MFNX - news) and its subsidiary AboveNet
Communications, Inc. have begun implementing a $1.4 billion broadband infrastructure
expansion designed to create the largest customer premises-to-customer premises, purely
optical, IP network in North America and Europe.
The expansion will light nearly 29,000 route miles of long-haul fiber in North America and
Europe, with up to multi-terabit per second capacity. This new, purely optical Internet
infrastructure will be free from the competing demands of voice traffic common in today's
telecommunications networks. The infrastructure's tremendous capacity and reach will enable
new bandwidth-intensive applications and connectivity improvements for AboveNet and MFN
customers. The ability to add capacity whenever needed will result in virtually unlimited
bandwidth that is hundreds of times greater than the bandwidth available on the Internet today.
More than 67 cities and 14 new AboveNet Internet Service Exchange (ISX) facilities will be
reached by the expansion. Combining advanced optics and infrastructure for a better Internet, the
network will enable millions of users to simultaneously receive video, audio, and other
data-rich broadband applications that are not possible with today's existing congested Internet
networks.
The expansion will allow MFN and AboveNet to meet the rapidly growing demands of
enterprise customers, ISPs, and Internet content providers seeking new levels of bandwidth and
network performance. It will create an IP architecture over a dedicated optical network to reach
all the way through the local loop to business centers throughout North America and Europe.
``This commitment underscores the value of the marriage of MFN and AboveNet in providing a
purely optical Internet with the lowest cost of bandwidth in the world,' said Nick Tanzi,
president and chief operating officer of Metromedia Fiber Network. ``No other provider can
deliver such a comprehensive network of optical Internet architecture, connectivity and an
end-to-end presence directly into customer premises.'
The network will seamlessly connect all AboveNet facilities, including its three joint venture
operations in Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom, with AboveNet's East Coast and West
Coast hubs in Vienna, Va., and San Jose, Calif., and will provide AboveNet customers with
exceptionally fast and reliable connectivity to the Internet. AboveNet's facility expansion, the
largest in its history, includes 14 new Internet Service Exchange (ISX) facilities within North
America and Europe. It will add in excess of 1 million square feet of co-location space to
AboveNet's hubs of operation internationally.
``AboveNet is deploying an all-optical, terabit IP architecture to expand and extend the
company's value proposition of better connectivity and reliability to millions more Internet end
users,' said David Rand, chief technical officer of Metromedia Fiber Network and AboveNet.
``With our own end-to-end fiber network connecting AboveNet facilities to more than 67 cities
internationally, we can avoid traditional telco delays and respond to customers' expansion needs
immediately.'
Each segment of the expansion, which is already under way, is being implemented at 40Gbps
capacity. The expansion will be completed in the next 12 to 18 months. The first nine AboveNet
facilities are scheduled to open in the year 2000, with the remaining five scheduled to open in
early 2001. These new facilities will add to, and benefit from, the operational efficiencies of
AboveNet's own one-hop global optical network. |
