Fiber lines Minnesota highways

By GRACE F. MURPHY

Two companies have agreed to build and maintain a fiber-optic backbone for the State of Minnesota in exchange for 30 years of network control. Although it is not the first network of its kind in the state, it is the only one allowed along a portion of the state`s highways.

Universal Communications Network llc (ucn) of Denver, CO, and Stone & Webster Engineering Corp. of Boston won a contract to install a 1700- to 1800-mi network along the federal highway system and the state`s trunk highways. In exchange for the companies` connecting the underground network with approximately 30 state departments, the state is granting use of about 1000 mi of exclusive rights-of-way along its highways (see figure).

ucn responded to the state`s request for proposals. Stone & Webster is performing the engineering and construction management work, and a consortium named International Communication Services Inc./ Universal Communications Network llc (ics/ucn) will own and operate the network.

Al Strock, president of ucn and ics/ucn, says 10 strands of the network will be dedicated for the state`s use. Traffic will run at rates to OC-48 (2.5 Gbits/sec) on a Synchronous Optical Network using Asynchronous Transfer Mode protocol.

One ring will serve the northern rural area of Minnesota, connecting it to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. A southern route will connect the southern rural area of the state with the twin cities, and the remaining three interconnecting rings will be within the metropolitan area of the two cities.

Bruce Bulger, vice president of communications for Stone & Webster Communications Services Group, says that most of the network will consist of singlemode fiber, with some multimode fiber in the metropolitan areas. No decision has been made whether to use non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber. If the consortium decides to use the specialized fiber, costs could run approximately 75% higher now but the use of this fiber will save money in the long run, Bulger says.

"We`d like to use [non-zero dispersion-shifted fiber], which allows you to upgrade future network components much more easily. If you use the singlemode, basic, standard fiber, there`s the possibility that if you want to upgrade your network, you [may] have to change out your electronics. But it`s a business decision," Bulger says.

Strock expects the customer base to consist primarily of telecommunications service providers, including telephone companies, utility companies, and cable-TV providers. "Companies that provide--or want to provide--voice, video, or high-speed data services are customers. We`re going to serve the wholesale providers. We are not a service provider ourselves. We are not a telephone company, and we are not an Internet provider. We are none of those," he says.

During the 30 years that ics/ucn has network control, it can lease or sell fiber to telecommunications providers. It can also lay fiber of other telecommunications providers at a reduced cost while constructing the network, Strock says.

The state offered the 30-year time frame, and Strock says the company was glad to accept the gamble that telecommunications technology will not outgrow the Minnesota network before the company recovers what will be an investment of about $100 million. "I think we should`ve had 50 years. Who knows? Obviously technology is changing, but I think that to own a network, we should have that network for as long as possible," he says.

Strock says the project is combining the expertise of government and company interests. "It`s bringing together the public and private sectors which, quite frankly, was a difficult process. However, everybody kept working on it until we ended up with something that would work," he says.

Some say that the state`s plan to give one group the opportunity to install a network along state highways is unfair. The Minnesota Telephone Association, which is made up of approximately 90 telephone companies, is one of the dissenters. According to local news reports, the state argues that the developer is a carrier`s carrier performing a function for which the Federal Communications Commission has deemed regulation unnecessary.

Strock says the state and companies were cognizant of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 when they were negotiating and are not denying access to anyone. "It`s going to bring more competition because we`re going to be able to bring bandwidth to companies who cannot afford to lay a fiber-optic network. We can provide a route from which they can provide capacity to their end-users. They can do it through purchase of capacity, they can do it through the lease of fiber, or they can also lay their own fiber at reduced cost," he says.

Tough sledding

Meanwhile, Stone & Webster is preparing bids for a general contractor, cable vendor, and installer. The state provides some unique challenges, according to Bulger. For example, the cable will be buried 42 inches below the ground in most places. Bulger says that the state`s cold winter weather means there is a finite time when the ground is soft enough for work.

"The ground is obviously very hard up there, conditions are horrible as far as getting people out in the winds and the cold, so there`s not much of chance before April or after the first of November that we`re going to get much construction done," he says.

Geological factors also pose challenges. Although most of the network will run underneath farmland, the ground under Duluth will pose a challenge, Bulger says. "There`s an incredible amount of rock up there. It`s the iron country. You have to have installers with specific equipment that can handle that type of material. When we do hit rock, we`re required to put the fiber in conduit, and I think our requirement is a foot deep. It doesn`t have to be the 36 inches," he says.

Fiber installation in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul area will require directional boring to lay hundreds of miles of fiber underneath the concrete roadways, and special equipment is needed to bury fiber in a few marshy areas, Bulger says.

The partnership expects to start construction this summer, with completion of the network slated for 2001. q