Viatel Inc. (New York City ) has signed a long-term contract with nmbs Telecom, a division of the

Viatel Inc. (New York City ) has signed a long-term contract with nmbs Telecom, a division of the Belgian National Railway, to secure fiber infrastructure for portions of its planned pan-European Circe Network. The singlemode fiber covered under the agreement, installed by nmbs along the Belgian national railway system, will also be used to expand Viatel`s national long-distance network in Belgium. Approximately 630 route-km of fiber, including 159 border-to-border route-km between the Netherlands and France, is covered in the agreement. Viatel`s Circe Network, being built as a self-healing, bidirectional sdh ring, is expected to total 3671 route-km, including approximately 471 route-km of the Belgium national network, and 320 route-km of undersea cable. Construction of the Circe Network began this spring and initial turn-up is planned for the first quarter of 1999.