NEESCom Selects Corning and Alcoa Fujikura Aerial Fiber for New England Expansion

Corning Incorporated> (Corning, NY) and Alcoa Fujikura Ltd. (Brentwood, TN) have been selected as the primary optical fiber and cable suppliers for NEESCom's expansion of its New England network. Comprised of All-Dielectric, Self-Supporting (ADSS) fiber optic cable supplied by Alcoa Fujikura Ltd. (AFL), the network will also contain Corning's SMF-28 and LEAF optical fibers. The expansion is made up of 288 fibers in several cities and regions in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.

NEESCom, the telecommunications subsidiary of National Grid USA, deems aerial cable a cost-effective, easily deployable solution given their extensive rights-of-way tower ownership. Aerial cable is not subject to backhoe damage that hampers many buried cable systems.

A hybrid cable containing both standard single-mode fiber and the world's leading non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber provides two advantages: carriers can take advantage of long-haul transmission over LEAF fiber while local businesses along the route can tap into high performance SMF-28 fiber to improve the efficiency of their automated operations.

NEESCom recently completed a 325-mile fiber optic network expansion in eastern Massachusetts that begins in the Malden/Medford/Everett area and ends in Quincy. Major cities and regions connected along this route are Lawrence, Lowell, Metro West Region, Attleboro, Brockton, Pawtucket, Providence, and Quincy. This expansion complements NEESCom's existing facilities that connect Springfield to the Metro West Region through their Worcester underground fiber optic ring network.

Additional projects scheduled for the Quincy, Providence and Malden areas will build out the NEESCom network to more than 700 miles by the end of this year. NEESCom has also completed the first of two underground metro rings in the City of Providence.

NEESCom continues its aggressive Metro West expansion in 2000 with the completion of four fiber optic metro rings totaling more than 70 miles. Construction of a 25-mile fiber optic ring to Salem, NH, is scheduled for completion by June 1.