News for and about the Internet2 community

["Lauren B. Kallens" <>]

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Allocated FiberCo Dark Fiber
Fiber To Connect Geographically-Isolated Lab To High Speed UltraScience
Network

ANN ARBOR, MI - October 15, 2004 - FiberCo(TM), a fiber holding company
supporting U.S. research and higher education, today announced that the
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), one of nine U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) multi-program national laboratories, has purchased the rights
to 561 route-miles of Level 3 Communications inter-city dark fiber optic
cable between Seattle, Washington, and Boise, Idaho, with an additional
lateral connection to Richland, Washington. The new fiber will enable PNNL
to establish next-generation optical network connections to the new DOE
UltraScience Network, the Pacific Northwest Gigapop in Seattle,
Internet2(R)’s Abilene Network, and other national and international
high-performance networks that allow scientists to collaborate and share
vast amounts of data globally.  

Established in 2003 by Internet2(R), a consortium led by 207 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. 

“High speed network connections with other national and international
research institutions are essential for PNNL to effectively compete for new
research programs and user facilities,” said Dr. George Michaels, director
of PNNL’s Computational and Information Sciences Directorate. “The dark
fiber acquired through FiberCo will bring next generation networking
directly to our front door creating a high-speed onramp to the major fiber
optic networks that connect the nation and the world.”

Access to this dark fiber allows scientists to collaborate and conduct
research with colleagues around the country in ways not possible using
existing networks, and will provide the infrastructure to conduct
experiments on networking itself.

 “As a part of its mission, FiberCo seeks to extend the requisite dark fiber
capabilities to historically remote research universities and laboratories
to enable these institutions to take full advantage of cutting edge optical
networking developments,” said Steve Corbató, director of network
initiatives for Internet2. “With this fiber assignment completed, PNNL soon
can deploy direct optical connectivity from its location in south-central
Washington state to a wide range of advanced research networks. This step
will enable a host of possibilities for enhanced collaboration with PNNL
scientists and access to PNNL’s impressive set of computational resources.”

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. Additionally, by working through FiberCo, organizations
are able to leverage the national-scale pricing structure and a streamlined
fiber acquisition process it has developed.  

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 PNNL
PNNL (www.pnl.gov) is a DOE Office of Science laboratory that solves complex
problems in energy, national security, the environment and life sciences by
advancing the understanding of physics, chemistry, biology and computation.
PNNL employs 3,800, has a $600 million annual budget, and has been managed
by Ohio-based Battelle since the lab's inception in 1965.

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 23,000-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.

Contact:
Lauren Kallens
Internet2
(202) 331-5345