Touch America Colorado deploys advanced broadband fiber optic ring

March 28, 2001
Mar. 28, 2001--Touch America Colorado, LLC, an Xcel Energy partnership with Touch America, the broadband information subsidiary of The Montana Power Company, announced it will begin turning up next month its 250-mile fiber-optic ring that connects the Metro Denver area to Touch America's national high-speed, broadband network.

Touch America Colorado, LLC, an Xcel Energy partnership with Touch America, the broadband information subsidiary of The Montana Power Company (NYSE:MTP), announced it will begin turning up next month its 250-mile fiber-optic ring that connects the Metro Denver area to Touch America's national high-speed, broadband network.

The Metro Denver fiber ring encompasses an area from downtown Denver, east to the Denver International Airport, south to the Denver Tech Center, and west to Golden. The metro network will provide supercharged wavelength services and information transport flexibility to customers by combining fiber-optic network technology with Cisco Systems' recently announced suite of optical equipment, including the first metropolitan dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) solution capable of delivering "wavelengths to the building."

Touch America Colorado was formed last year through the partnership of Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL) and Touch America with the mission of providing Denver businesses with advanced high-speed information transport services connecting to Touch America's national, high-speed fiber-optic backbone. Xcel now incorporates the former Public Service Company of Colorado.

Denver-area businesses will have the ability to take advantage of the TOUCHAMERICA and Cisco next-generation deployment of the metro solutions with the service and product launch in the second quarter of 2001.

Metro System Features:

* 250 miles of fiber-optic network is strategically located throughout Metro Denver encompassing east to Denver International Airport, south to the Denver Tech Center, and west to Golden.

* Full SONET suite of TDM services plus Ethernet/IP 10/100 and Gigabit services for secure, reliable and flexible digital transmission of information at the highest transport speeds.

* Fully redundant DWDM network architecture for ensuring light waves for transporting data are available.

* Access and interconnection facilities available to most carriers.

* Highest optical transmission speeds commercially available.

Dedicated Facilities:

* 100 percent owned and operated fully digital fiber-optic network.

* Touch America staff monitors the network 24 hours a day, offering around-the-clock management of all voice and data transmissions.

* Transmission quality monitoring of every circuit.

* Continuous system analysis to identify potential service problems.

About Touch America:

Touch America is a national broadband fiber-optic and regional wireless telecommunications company, providing customized voice, data, and video transport, as well as Internet services, to businesses and consumers. For more information, visit www.tamerica.com.

About Xcel Energy:

Xcel Energy Inc. (NYSE:XEL) is a U.S. electric and natural gas utility.

Sponsored Recommendations

On Topic: Metro Network Evolution

Dec. 6, 2024
The metro network continues to evolve. As service providers have built out fiber in metro areas, they have offered Ethernet-based data services to businesses and other providers...

Innovating the network edge with 100ZR QSFP28: The next frontier in coherent optics

Jan. 15, 2025
In this webinar, Juniper Networks, EXFO and Precision Optical Technologies are teaming up to showcase the new 100ZR QSFP28 pluggable coherent technology, exploring its foundational...

State of the Market: AI is Driving New Thinking in the Optical Industry

Dec. 5, 2024
The year 2024 marked an inflection point for AI. In August, OpenAI’s ChatGPT reached 200 million weekly active users. Meanwhile, McKinsey reported that 72% of ...

ON TOPIC: Filling Coverage Gaps, Enhancing Public Safety

Jan. 30, 2025
With the ongoing drive to support AI and the need for high-speed data center interconnection, the call for higher-speed 800G optical technology is emerging. Initially focused ...