PF.Net to Build Cross-Country Fiber Optic Network

Privately-held PF.Net (Vancouver, WA) plans to construct a 15,000-mile fiber optic network, initially connecting Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, and Jacksonville, FL. Construction on the first phase of the network has begun, with expected completion in the first quarter of the year 2000. Newcourt Capital and SG Warburg Dillon Read have been engaged as financial advisors to arrange debt and equity financing for the project.

PF.Net, a joint venture between PF Telecom and Koch Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries, said it intends to use its high-capacity fiber network to provide dark fiber and wholesale services to long distance carriers, competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and utility companies that deliver voice, data, and video services based on Internet Protocol (IP).

In addition, the company has signed a three-year, $200 million agreement with Lucent Technologies (Murray Hill, NJ) to provide its TrueWave RS (Reduced Slope) fiber as the backbone for the network. PF.Net said it plans to take advantage of its unique Right of Way (ROW) agreement with its partner Koch Ventures. This agreement will enable PF.Net to use up to 57,000 miles of Rights of Way, which are wholly owned by Koch, Koch affiliates, or Koch partnerships, to provide fiber optic routes as the backbone of its service platform in major markets throughout the US over the next several years.

Lucent also has signed agreements totaling more than US$100 million with Metromedia Fiber Network Inc. (White Plains, NY) for deployment of TrueWave RS Fiber throughout the US and Europe. The contract provides Metromedia with a fiber cable solution called the AccuRibbon DuctSaver+ Cable that doubles the capacity of the TrueWave fiber packaged in Lucent's ribbon cable, while still maintaining the compact design required by Metromedia.