COMPTEL: Deltacom makes $20M network expansion

Competitive service provider Deltacom today announced a $20 million network upgrade to its eight-state Southeastern U.S. network, revealing plans to deploy Infinera DWDM gear and Alcatel-Lucent Sonet equipment to reach six new markets and build its network capacity.

The cities Deltacom is adding include Gulfport and Jackson, Miss.; Huntsville and Dothan, Ala.; and Columbus and Savanna, Ga. The long-haul network capacity upgrades will add 17 sites in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina to a High-Speed DWDM network launched a year ago in key sites in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.

The network expansion is the latest in a series of steps Deltacom has taken to both shore up its financial condition and position the company to continue on its growth path, said CEO Randall Curran. “We went through a series of four refinancing efforts culminating last July [2007], the net effect of which was to de-leverage the company by reducing the level of debt and our interest cost,” Curran said. “Today, our balance sheet is a competitive advantage.”

Deltacom is seeing 12% growth overall, Curran said, based on a strategy of being “the solely accountable party around all the equipment and network services,” including wireless service, which Deltacom resells as an MVNO.

“The value proposition for CLECs used to be, you weren’t the LEC and you were cheaper – that worked well in the late ‘90s but it has been in decline ever since,” Curran said. “We have a different value proposition now.”