A few more straws in the fourth buildout: State maps fiber highway
denverpost.com
By Roger Fillion
Denver Post Business Writer
Dec. 9 - The Colorado Department of Transportation has selected an Omaha telecommunications company to build and operate a 1,000-mile fiber-optic network along major highways, a project designed to deliver advanced communications services across Colorado.
Colorado officials hope the network's construction will lure telecommunications carriers to remote parts of the state to provide the kind of sophisticated voice, data and video services more widely available in cities such as Denver. The carriers essentially could do so by paying to plug into the network.
"We're hoping that if it gets built, the services will come,'' said John Muscatell, manager of CDOT's traffic engineering branch.
CDOT plans to get free use of the network, which typically will be channeled through a 30- to 60foot-wide strip of land next to a freeway, for its own communications system, he added.
CDOT has chosen MFS Network Technologies to build the fiber network on strips of land, or rights of way, adjacent to I-25, I70, C-470 and other highways. The company was one of four to submit a plan after CDOT issued a request for proposals. The two sides are hammering out final details of the agreement, and construction is expected to begin in April. MFSNT would foot the $120 million installation bill and then sell space on the system to telephone companies and other telecommunications carriers.
The network will be designed to deliver high-speed digital communications and reach Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Grand Junction, Durango, Craig and Alamosa. The fiber linking the latter three towns could be strung along power-transmission towers. A final plan for those communities hasn't been established.
More than two dozen other states - including California, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and New York - have implemented similar programs along their interstate highways and roads.
MFSNT, a subsidiary of Able Telcom Holding Corp. of West Palm Beach, Fla., will lay fiberoptic conduit and sell rights to run fiber through the network.
Phone companies and others could use it to supply local or long-distance dialing, as well as cable TV, high-speed Internet-access and video-conferencing services. One primary network target would be communities that don't have easy access to such services.
In return, the carriers must provide services free of charge to CDOT that will allow the department to monitor traffic flows via remote cameras, as well as operate message boards that flash information to motorists.
The CDOT barter deal would cost less than any plan crafted by the state to build its own communications network, according to Colorado officials. The network will link 15 CDOT offices in Colorado, giving the department an internal communications system to share information about the state's freeway system, they added.
"It's a means through which we can provide fiber-optic technology and communications throughout the state,'' said Pete Mirelez, a member of the Colorado Transportation Commission, a state board that oversees transportation issues. "Our interest is to get fiber optics to all parts of the state.''
MFSNT - once a division of MFS Communications Co. before it was bought by WorldCom in 1996 - is scheduled to complete work on the network by November 2000. The company will be the sole contractor responsible for building and maintaining the network that occupies CDOT rights of way.
MFSNT, which has executed similar projects in other states, will install fiber-optic cable in the conduit when it finds companies that want to buy network-use rights. Tom Davidson, MFSNT's regional manager, said the company has received "a lot of interest.''
"That would run the gamut from local-exchange carriers to long-distance carriers,'' he added. "We are talking to everyone, U S West included.''
MFSNT is projected to earn about $1 billion over the next 30 years from the arrangement, assuming it can line up carriers that want to use the network. CDOT expects to receive $24 million worth of free service during that time.
"This partnership will meet the Colorado Department of Transportation's communications needs, as well as help provide telecommunications infrastructure for the entire state,'' said CDOT's Muscatell.
But the project has created controversy.
U S West, Colorado's dominant local phone company, predicted the network will do little to deliver advanced services to remote areas. The Baby Bell also said its competitors will simply try to scoop up customers conveniently located near the fiber system.
"This will probably have the effect of having a handful of companies focusing on a handful of communities that are easy to serve, while ignoring the rest,'' said U S West spokesman David Beigie.
Noting that "enormous amounts of money'' are involved in the project, he added: "Our view is that it would help rural customers a lot more to figure out a way to work with all the existing telecom companies that are actually out their serving these communities.''
Beigie noted that U S West is by and large the sole provider of service to such areas.
In any event, communications companies are implementing similar programs in several nearby states as part of a private effort to build a nationwide fiber-optic network.
CDOT has talked to officials in Nebraska, Kansas, Washington state, Wyoming, Utah, and Arizona about legal issues raised by such projects, according to the department's Muscatell.
Phone companies have raised questions, for example, about the barter arrangements involving CDOT. In particular, they have asked how to place a price tag on the communications services the department would receive free of charge from a carrier.
Questions also have been raised about how CDOT will give companies equal access to the rights of way it controls.
Under the plan, a telecommunications company other than MFSNT can lay its own fiber network as long as CDOT can continue to manage the rights of way involved.
CDOT also wants to make sure that public safety is protected along the highways. For example, it wants to limit the number of contractors working along roadways and disrupting traffic.
State officials began work on the plan after getting unsolicited inquiries from companies interested in leasing the rights of way along major highways.
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