Mike, some more coverage on MFNX from Phone Plus Magazine, at:
phoneplusmag.com [copied below]
Enjoy, Frank Coluccio
------------------------from Phone+:
Metromedia Fiber Network
Strikes Deals with Bell
Atlantic, Focal
By Ken Branson
Posted on: 06/16/1999
In the space of three days, Metromedia Fiber
Network Inc. (www.mmfn.com), New York has
secured the right to collocate in a regional Bell
operating company's (RBOC's) central offices
(COs) without being confined to cages, closed a $57
million deal for dark fiber with Focal
Communications Inc. (www.focal.com), Chicago,
and announced the building of fiber networks in
London and Amsterdam.
The agreement with New York-based Bell Atlantic
Corp. (www.bellatlantic.com) comes to this:
Metromedia will be allowed to run its "dark fiber"
through Bell Atlantic's central offices, where
competitive carriers will have the opportunity to
connect directly to it. Until now, Metromedia
officials say, they have been forced to negotiate each
request from a competitive local exchange carrier
(CLEC) with Bell Atlantic as it was made.
"It's the first time that a fiber provider--other than the
incumbent--has been able to bring dark fiber right in
to the central office and make it available, not only as
interoffice transport to LECs, but as well to provide
ready access within the central office to connect
collocated CLECs in their cages and racks," says
Howard Finkelstein, president of Metromedia. "This
is extremely beneficial in terms of time to market for
CLECs, and effectively puts every Bell Atlantic
central office on-network, giving access to UNEs
(unbundled network elements)."
In any case, it is undeniably beneficial to
Metromedia, which has been dueling with Bell
Atlantic for years for some alternative to the current
process. The negotiations between the two
companies, encouraged by the New York State
Public Services Commission (PSC), took about a
year, according to Bob Reardon, vice
president-regulatory affairs for Metromedia.
Reardon is diplomatic in describing the different
views of Bell Atlantic and Metromedia as those
negotiations began.
"Let's just say we had a view of efficient distribution,
and Bell Atlantic did not share that view," he says.
Asked if Metromedia were negotiating similar
agreements with other incumbent carriers, he
chuckles, and says, "We're always negotiating."
The easier availability of UNEs may work to Bell
Atlantic's advantage, not only in regulatory
proceedings, but in dissuading potential competitors
from building networks. Bell Atlantic offers a tariffed
UNE service for competitive carriers in New York
alone. Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp.
(www.bellsouth.com) offers a UNE-platform
(UNE-P) throughout its territory, with the avowed
aim of keeping competitors and their customer on
their network, and discouraging them from building
competing networks.
In this case, Reardon believes, if CLECs can
connect directly to Metromedia without having to go
through Bell Atlantic, they will have less incentive to
build their own networks.
Reardon says the agreement is region-wide, although
he has not discussed it with regulators in any of the
other states served by Bell Atlantic. Metromedia had
to start somewhere, he says, and New York seemed
the logical place to start.
Physically, Metromedia now will be able to pull a
single, high-capacity cable to an agreed distribution
point in Bell Atlantic COs. The two companies will
trial the arrangement in five COs in New York, then
expand it to Boston, the rest of New York,
Philadelphia, Washington, and key COs and tandem
switching centers in the New York-Washington
corridor. Finkelstein points out that his company
makes a living by providing dark fiber, not just to
central business districts, but to entire metropolitan
areas.
Bell Atlantic spokespeople did not return phone calls
today.
In a development Finkelstein says is unrelated to the
Bell Atlantic agreement, Metromedia has agreed to
supply dark fiber to Focal Communications for $57
million. The deal is a straight lease, and runs for 20
years.
"It may not be the biggest deal we've concluded with
a CLEC, but it is big, a very, very significant deal for
us," Finkelstein says.
Focal has announced plans to provide service in 20
markets by the end of next year, and Metromedia's
tier 1 markets will be a big step in that direction, says
Robert Taylor, Focal's president and CEO, in a
prepared statement.
"Securing dark fiber transport capacity from
Metromedia Fiber Network is an important
component of our business strategy expansion,"
Taylor says. "MFN's fiber connects directly into key
customer buildings and central offices allowing us to
capitalize on our relationships with existing and
potential customers by providing them with the latest
in data, voice and collocation services." |
