[Metromedia Fiber Network Announces Major Infrastructure Build in First Tier One European City, Frankfurt, Germany]
Company to Extend Reach of its German National Network to Local Markets
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 15, 1999--Metromedia Fiber Network, Inc. today announced that its German subsidiary, Metromedia Fiber Network GmbH, has filed for licensing with the German regulatory authorities to construct a high-speed, high-bandwidth intracity fiber network in Frankfurt am Main, the banking and brokerage center of Germany.
Metromedia Fiber Network plans an initial build of approximately 32,400 fiber kilometers, covering in excess of 75 kilometers and extending the reach of the Company's previously announced German national ring into the local German telecommunications loop. The Frankfurt network will be the Company's first intracity network in a European Tier One market and will enable the Company to provide various types of high-bandwidth communications connectivity.
When complete Metromedia Fiber Network's Frankfurt infrastructure will mirror that which the company is constructing in the United States. The Frankfurt network will serve as the Company's anchor in Germany as it develops plans to move forward on similar builds in additional cities. The strategy is similar to that implemented in the United States where New York City provided the base for the Company's expansion along the East Coast and other parts of the United States.
Metromedia Fiber Network is constructing a German national telecommunications network spanning key centers of business, finance, government and trade. This German network will connect the vital economic centers of Dortmund, Bremen, Essen, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt, Mannheim and Stuttgart as well as the cities of Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, Nuremberg and Munich.
"Europe is the world's second largest economy, estimated to account for more than $300 billion in telecom services and equipment. Germany, which is central to this community, remains a driving force
in Europe's economy and has a government that is actively promoting alternative network infrastructure development," said Howard Finkelstein, president of Metromedia Fiber Network. "By expanding to Frankfurt, Metromedia Fiber Network is establishing the necessary foothold for continuing our expansion to new markets and enhancing our position as the company that is eliminating the bandwidth barrier for the largest users of communications services within the local metropolitan area network."
The network will contain supertrunks of up to 432 individual strands of fiber, significantly more capacity than Europe's older copper- based networks and even some of its newer fiber networks where most providers have installed from 12 to 24 fiber pairs per cable. The network will be capable of supporting the most advanced technologies such as Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), gigabit Ethernet, Escon and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), enabling customers to deploy information intensive data, video, multimedia and Internet applications.
"Service providers, corporations and governments that plan on deploying advanced data, video and multimedia applications over the existing copper infrastructure will be in for a few surprises as a result of the technical limitations presented by these legacy networks. Metromedia Fiber Network is constructing an alternative, one hundred percent fiber-based infrastructure that delivers the bandwidth, speed and capacity needed to ensure the successful transmission of these new and advanced services," added Finkelstein. |
