ELI, Touch America swap capacity

Electric Lightwave Inc. and Touch America last week forged a reciprocal agreement granting each other access to portions of their fiber networks. Both service providers operate in the northwestern United States, and both are building out their networks. The parallels are integral to the relationship.

"This agreement allows us to provide [our] services in markets where we are not fully complete in our network at this point," said Mark Maroney, supervisor of private line service for Touch America, the telecommunications unit of Montana Power Co. Maroney hinted that Touch America might also resell the fiber it buys from ELI.

ELI plans to use Touch America's network to gain a greater presence in Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming. Touch America is interested in moving into Albuquerque/Santa Fe, N.M., Tulsa and Oklahoma City, Okla., and Kansas City, Kan., using the ELI network, Maroney said.

The life of the agreement is "initially one year," Maroney said, but it will continue "as long as the service order is in effect."

Touch America maintains a 10,000-mile network that spans several western and northwestern states. A link to Dallas is under construction and planned expansion will add 2000 miles of fiber. ELI has a large presence in the West through an agreement with Qwest Communications. The most recent agreement gives Touch America access to ELI's national footprint.

The reciprocal agreement also provides backup and redundancy in areas where the two carriers overlap. "In this industry, it's not bad to have duplication," said an ELI spokeswoman. And ELI prefers to work with smaller carriers like itself.

"We are helping each other out," she said. "We have similar missions and similar business plans. We'll get a better cost and better service by working with a company that is like-minded."