EPIK Communications Incorporated (EPIK), the telecommunications subsidiary of Florida East Coast Industries, Inc. (NYSE:FLA) (NYSE:FLA.b) (FECI), announced that its 1,850-mile long-haul fiber optic network in the Southeast is completely lit. This Southeast network covers approximately 78 percent of Florida's population and 56 percent of Georgia's population, according to figures from the 2000 Census.
EPIK's geo-diverse, DWDM-based fiber optic network provides fully redundant, ring protected SONET services, wavelength services up to 10 Gigabit, and a suite of enlightened IP services on its IP-on-Wave OC-192c backbone. The network connects 11 major cities in the Southeast, including Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, and Jacksonville. The last portion of the long-haul network -- a 350-mile route from Jacksonville to Atlanta -- was just completed, demonstrating EPIK's ability to execute on the network build strategy announced when it was founded in May 1999.
EPIK's Southeast network assets include long-haul and metro routes, collocation facilities offering carrier-grade space, and express rings connecting major international cable landings in South Florida. EPIK is also developing a national dark fiber footprint via strategic fiber swaps.
EPIK also announced it has activated fiber optic points-of-presence (POPs) in the following metro areas: Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Daytona, and Melbourne. EPIK continues to build metro POPs, or nodes, throughout the Southeast to complement its long-haul network.
Most of these metro nodes will allow EPIK to offer SONET private line capacity from DS-3 to OC-48 as well as 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps wavelength services. EPIK has deployed the latest in DWDM, SONET, and IP technologies to deliver these services in the metros.
About EPIK Communications:
EPIK Communications, a carriers' carrier, has lit a regional fiber network in the Southeastern United States and is developing a fiber footprint beyond the Southeast via swaps. EPIK, based in Orlando, Fla., is a carrier's carrier that provides bandwidth capacity, dark fiber leases and collocation services to telecommunications providers. For more information, visit www.epik.net.