The great buildout Frontier selects NEC for OC-48 Sonet equipment >BY BETH SNYDER, Switching & Transmission Editor

Competitive access provider Frontier Corp. and building partner Qwest Communications recently chose NEC as their electronics supplier for Sonet OC-48 multiplexers and wave division multiplexing equipment.

Frontier has already chosen Lucent Technologies to provide the fiber that Qwest is now installing, and it has been using some Northern Telecom multiplexers for the part of its previously built network. So far, about 60% of Frontier's network has been leased, but the company plans to be at 90% of its own fiber lines by mid-1998. Its nationwide network will interconnect about 100 cities with 13,000 route-miles of fiber.

"We will still use Nortel where we already used their equipment," said Randal Simonetti, Frontier vice president of communications. "Our philosophy is to always pick a supplier for its strengths. They are very good at management. NEC really came through with the electronics.

It seems to be good news for NEC, which trails Fujitsu, Lucent and Northern Telecom in Sonet sales, said Mark Lutkowitz, president of Trans-Formation, Birmingham, Ala. "But I suspect NEC is giving them a really good price. I also suspect that Sprint is finishing their buildout of OC-48, and that's NEC's biggy customer. [NEC] needs market share in a hurry.

While not specifying the amount of the Frontier/ Qwest contracted sales, NEC officials said the win validates their Sonet position.

NEC will install four-fiber bidirectional line-switched ring equipment and eight-channel WDM systems for Frontier, said Steve Cortez, product marketing manager. The installation is just beginning, although field trials have been successfully completed on Frontier spans, he said. The CAP has already been using some NEC OC-12 equipment.

NEC hopes that its success with Frontier's long-distance division will translate into sales in the company's local service company, formerly known as Rochester Telephone. "We get a good sense that they would be willing to use us for the local access jump onto the long-distance network," Cortez said.