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Pastimes : Home on the range where the buffalo roam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Boplicity who wrote (3061)	7/26/2000 11:17:18 AM
From: Boplicity	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13572

Power utilities enlist in US telecoms revolution By Nigel Hunt LOS ANGELES, July 26 (Reuters) - A revolution is taking place in telecommunications, and U.S. electric utilities, armed with rights of way and years of experience in large infrastructure projects, are clambering to join in. Many are setting their sights on the "metropolitan access" sector of telecommunications, building high-capacity lines which link carriers' switches with Internet Services Providers (ISP) or cable television hubs. The sector links the "last mile" between homes and offices and the network and massive hubs from which calls are launched onto rapidly expanding inter-city lines. "Electric utilities are well suited for developing these kinds of metropolitan access networks because at the end of the day, it is primarily an infrastructure project which requires great attention to detail, quality and reliability," said Corey Ford, general manager for Edison Carrier Solutions. Rosemead, Calif.-based Edison Carrier Solutions, a unit of electric power giant Edison International <EIX.N>, is investing about $200 million in a 3,500-mile fiber optic network in the Los Angeles area which should be largely completed by the end of 2001. "The real congestion now is within city gates," said Mark Slaughter, president and chief operating officer for Reliant Energy Communications, a unit of Houston-based Reliant Energy Inc. <REI.N>. A few utilities such as Dallas-based TXU Corp <TXU.N> have also been venturing into the retail side of the business, mainly targeting small to medium size businesses, a market which they claim has not always been well served by large telephone companies. "It is an underserved market. Companies such as Southwestern Bell and GTE focus more on large businesses," said Herb Zureich, president of TXU unit TXU Communications. GTE is now part of Verizon Communications <VZ.N> while Southwestern Bell is a unit of SBC Communications <SBC.N>. CONVERGING NETWORKS Few expect the networks being developed by utilities to stand alone for long in an industry where even the giants have been seeking greater size through mergers. "What I see happening is that builders and operators of electric utility metropolitan access networks are starting to work together in regions," said Edison Carrier's Ford. "The regional evolution will proceed to super-regional and over time perhaps a national operation will evolve," he added. Chip Smith, president and chief executive officer of DukeNet Communications Inc., a subsidiary of Charlotte, N.C.-based Duke Energy Corp. <DUK.N>, said his company's network could well become part of a larger alliance. "It wouldn't take much imagination to envision that you could connect our 15,000-mile network (which concentrates in the Eastern U.S.) and a Touch America in the Midwestern and Western part (of the U.S.)," Smith said. Touch America is the telecommunications subsidiary of Butte, Mont.-based Montana Power Co. <MTP.N>. Some alliances have already developed. In March a new company, Tulsa, Okla.-based America's Fiber Network, was formed by utilities American Electric Power Co. Inc. <AEP.N>, GPU Inc. <GPU.N>, Allegheny Energy Inc. <AYE.N> and FirstEnergy Corp. <FE.N> and telecommunications firms CFW Communications Co. <CFWC.O> and R&B Communications. And Westborough, Mass.-based NorthEast Optic Network Inc. <NOPT.O> has grown since its inception in 1989 through a series of agreements with electric utilities, creating a footprint covering 540 towns and cities in six Northeastern states. As telecommunications subsidiaries have grown, the steep cost of building a presence in this sector prompted one utility to seek to exit the power business altogether. In March, Montana Power announced it would split its Touch America fiber-optic and wireless telecommunications businesses from its energy units and sell the energy units in order to boost shareholder value and expand its telecom branch. "It just became incompatible to have the businesses coexist in the same house and we decided to separate our businesses," said Chief Financial Officer Jerry Pederson. "We are going to reinvest the proceeds into telecommunications to grow the scale of that business," he said, noting that by the end of next year Touch America should have a 26,000-mile network across the country. On Monday another energy company with growing interest in telecommunications, Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams Cos Inc.<WMB.N> said its board has approved a plan to split into two companies -- one for its energy division and the other its communications businesses.

To: Boplicity who wrote (3061)	7/26/2000 11:18:28 AM
From: slacker711	Respond to of 13572

Blackhawk is right by my house. Well...I hope I didnt hit your house. It doesnt matter if you live across the street, I dont have much problem with distance, it is direction that gives me headaches. I didnt think that I would get into golf as much as I have....but it is a great sport (especially if you dont take it too seriously, the etiquette stuff drives me nuts). I cant think of much better ways to spend a nice friday afternoon.... Slacker