News for and about the Internet2 community

[Greg Wood <>]

Contact:
Greg Wood
Internet2
(202) 331-5360


MCNC Assigned Fiber from Raleigh to Charlotte through FiberCo

ANN ARBOR, MI – June 16, 2004 – FiberCo(TM), a fiber holding company 
supporting U.S. research and higher education, today announced that MCNC 
Grid Computing & Networking Services was assigned a pair of dark fiber 
between Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina.   MCNC will use this 
asset in support of providing North Carolina universities access to the 
National LambdaRail (NLR) optical infrastructure and the Abilene 
Network.  The fiber also gives the MCNC the opportunity to enhance their 
production network to 10 Gigabits per second as well as conduct optical 
network research on a broader scale than currently possible.

MCNC Grid Computing & Networking Services is an independent, non-profit, 
advanced information technology research and service center that 
develops, tests and deploys grid computing and advanced networking 
solutions.

"This is an exciting opportunity for North Carolina," said Mark Johnson, 
director of the Advanced Technology Group at the MCNC.  "We chose to 
work through FiberCo because of the national-scale pricing structure and 
streamlined fiber acquisition process that it has developed."

Established by Internet2(R), a consortium of 206 universities working 
with government and industry to develop and deploy advanced networking 
technologies, FiberCo provides a means for acquiring, holding, and 
assigning dark fiber assets on both the national and the regional scales 
and on behalf of the higher education community. Under an agreement with 
Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT), FiberCo has the ability to 
provision both from an initial allocation of more than 2,600 route miles 
and from future acquisitions of dark fiber on Level 3’s national footprint.

"MCNC, in close partnership with the research universities in North 
Carolina, has been a leader in optical networking research and advanced 
implementation efforts for some time now," said Steve Corbató, director 
of network infrastructure for Internet2.  "We anticipate that this fiber 
assignment will represent a key step towards extending the deployment of 
leading-edge optical networking capabilities throughout North Carolina."

# # #

About MCNC
MCNC is a private, independent, non-profit corporation established in 
1980 to advance technology-led economic development and job creation 
throughout North Carolina. MCNC Grid Computing & Networking Services is 
building one of the country’s first statewide grid computing networks 
for research and education, and it delivers advanced communications 
resources throughout North Carolina to more than 180 public and private 
institutions, including universities, community colleges, K-12 schools, 
libraries, state government, private research institutions and 
commercial businesses. MCNC Research & Development Institute develops 
new technologies through its own initiatives and as a research partner 
for businesses and the U.S. government, conducting advanced and applied 
research across a broad technology spectrum, including microsystems, 
flexible electronics, sensor development, signal electronics, wireless 
systems, microfabrication, high-speed secure networks and grid 
computing. MCNC Ventures provides early-stage funding and assistance to 
entrepreneurial start-up companies. The MCNC family of companies is 
located in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. For more 
information, please visit www.mcnc.org.

About FiberCo(TM)
FiberCo provides a means for acquiring, holding, and assigning fiber 
optic network assets in support of the Internet2 community’s goals of 
developing and deploying advanced network applications and technologies. 
 FiberCo facilitates the ongoing development of regional optical 
networking initiatives around the country to complement existing 
Internet2 network infrastructure while providing a strategic fiber 
acquisition capability on the national scale.  For more information, 
visit: www.fiberco.org.

About Level 3 Communications
Level 3 (Nasdaq:LVLT) is an international communications and information 
services company.  The company operates one of the largest Internet 
backbones in the world, is one of the largest providers of wholesale 
dial-up service to ISPs in North America and is the primary provider of 
Internet connectivity for millions of broadband subscribers, through its 
cable and DSL partners.  The company offers a wide range of 
communications services over its 22,500-mile broadband fiber optic 
network including Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport 
and infrastructure services, collocation services, and patented 
Softswitch managed modem and voice services.  Its Web address is 
www.Level3.com