Two companies announced the lighting of coast-to-coast fiber-optic networks within minutes of each

Two companies announced the lighting of coast-to-coast fiber-optic networks within minutes of each other. Qwest Communications International Inc. (Denver, CO) announced activation of the entire transcontinental portion of the Qwest Macro Capacity Fiber Network from Los Angeles to San Francisco to New York. With the lighting of another 650 mi, Qwest now has more than 5400 route-mi and 259,000 fiber-mi of its native Internet Protocol (IP) fiber network in service. IP offerings, such as phone-to-phone voice over IP service, are currently being offered in western U.S. cities and will soon be deployed to additional cities nationwide. Not to be outdone, ixc Communications Inc., (Austin, TX) announced completion and lighting of its fiber-optic network from New York to Los Angeles. The digital route is part of the company`s total planned network of 20,000 digital mi and more than 410,000 fiber-mi. Engineered to exceed 99.98% availability, the network is continuously monitored by the ixc Network Control Center in Austin and the network management center in Dallas.