Western SONET Ring, Now 2/3rds Complete, Will Boost the Company's Network
Capacity Route Miles by Nearly 500 Percent, Create Significant Cost Savings by
Replacing Leased Capacity and Enable Exponential Future Capacity Growth
VANCOUVER, Wash., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ --
Electric Lightwave Inc. (Nasdaq: ELIX) today announced completion of two more
segments of its $131 million long haul route that will ultimately span
3,200 miles, cross five states and create one of the largest ringed OC-192
Synchronous Optical Networks (SONET) in the western United States.
High-speed voice, video, data and Internet traffic are now being
transmitted along the ring's Sacramento to Portland and Salt Lake City to
Las Vegas segments. In September, the company announced the completion of
segments from Boise to Salt Lake City and Boise to Portland. Including the
Sacramento to Portland and Salt Lake City to Las Vegas segments, which span
nearly 1,200 miles, the four completed segments measure about 2,200 miles.
When the remaining three of the seven segments are constructed, the 3,200-mile
route will connect Portland to Boise, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles,
San Francisco, Sacramento and back to Portland.
"Each time we transition customer traffic to our own segments of the SONET
ring, we increase our service quality and improve our time to provision
service to customers," said Randall Lis, senior vice president of operations
and engineering. "An added benefit is that it enables us to replace leased
capacity with our own fiber, which significantly reduces our operating costs."
Electric Lightwave's western ring incorporates self-healing SONET over
Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM), the industry's leading-edge
technology, which will create a network of ultra-high capacity, reliability
and unsurpassed speed. When the ring is completed, it will increase Electric
Lightwave's long haul network capacity route miles by 462 percent.
This investment positions Electric Lightwave for significant growth well
into the 21st century because the DWDM technology enables the network to be
easily upgraded to 16 and then 32 times the initial OC-48 or OC-192 capacity
for every fiber strand. A 24-fiber strand network of that capacity could
accommodate the equivalent of more than 66 million phone calls simultaneously.
Additionally, the western SONET ring will interconnect spur routes to
Phoenix, Spokane and Seattle and each of the company's extensive metropolitan
area networks (MAN) in Boise, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City,
Seattle and Spokane to create a 6,350 route mile network. These MANs include
direct fiber access into 824 office buildings located in these cities'
thriving downtown cores.
About Electric Lightwave
Electric Lightwave Inc. is a leading integrated communications provider of
enhanced data services, frame relay, ATM and Internet access to bandwidth
intensive businesses and the growing e-commerce market. The company provides
long-distance and data services nationwide. In its full-service markets, the
company offers businesses local and long-distance telephone service and
high-speed broadband transport via its fiber optic networks that interconnect
Seattle, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Boise, Spokane and Portland,
Ore.
Headquartered in Vancouver, Wash., the company employs 1,167 and earned
revenues of $101 million in 1998, up 65 percent from 1997. Additional
information about Electric Lightwave Inc. is located on the World Wide Web at
http://www.eli.net.
Forward-looking statements
Forward-looking information is subject to risk and uncertainty: This
release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E
of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements should be
read with the cautionary statements and important factors included in the
Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 at
Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and
Results of Operations."
SOURCE Electric Lightwave Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.eli.net
Company News On-Call:
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/117258.html or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 117258
CONTACT:
Susan Farmer, 360-816-4518, or pager,
888-328-9235, or susan_farmer@eli.net, or Jack Hardy,
360-816-3602, or pager, 800-391-3267, or jack_hardy@eli.net, both
of Electric Lightwave Inc.
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